Dosing for Coral Color or Salt Mix?

[jharding08]

I have a 120g mixed reef tank. Most of my SPS are frags. I run an AquaMaxx AM250 in-sump skimmer, BRS GFO/Carbon Reactor (1/2 Cup GFO, 1 Cup Carbon), refugium with chaeto, live rock and 4" DSB, Live rock in another sump chamber and plenty in the Display. Display has 1-2" shallow sand bed.

I run LEDs (CREE Warm White and Blue)

I do bi-weekly 20% water changes with Brightwell Neo-Marine Salt at 1.026 sg. During the water changes I turkey baste the live rock and sump and then heavily siphon the sand bed. I change out the carbon and GFO every month (every other water change)

I have 13 fish, Sailfin Tang (1), Clown Tang (1), Foxface Rabbitfish (1), Misbar Clown(1), Flameback Angel(1), Diamond Watchman Goby(1), Sunset Anthia(2), Blue'Green Chromis (5).

My tank is a peninsula tank and I have corals on all three sides as well as a frag rack. I'd say I have about 20 SPS coral frags, 2-3 medium SPS, 3 medium LPS and 2 soft and one small clam.

I dose Ca during the day and Alk at night. I am consisently getting 460 Calcium and 8 Alk. My magnesium is around 1300-1400 after the water change and around 1200 the next week. i have recently been running into high phosphate levels of .25. I am thinking of removing the DSB in the refugium and adding a filter sock. I also might get a larger pump to run the dual reactor. After a week or two, the GFO will stop tumbling with the ball valve wide open. I am also thinking about running the dual reactor off of my return when I implement my Mag12.

My question is about color colors. I recently got a green bali slimer and it quickly went from green to brown, but still with polyp extension. I have read that Iron or lack of Iron is what causes green corals to fade to brown. I have a blue voodoo that is also fading in color. My Tri-color valida is bland also. My pinks and reds look fine. I got the Red Sea Test Kits and measured my Iron a couple days after a water change and it read 0. My iodine looked good at .06.

I was looking at the Red Sea Coral Color Additives A,B,C,D and was wondering if I should start dosing the Iron and the Trace Elements to get my Greens, Blues and Purples back to color. Or is the Neo-Marine salt mix just not good enough to provide my corals the trace elements they need? Should I switch? I was thinking the Red Sea Coral Pro salt or Reef Crystals or Tropic Marin.

Thank you for your help

 

[tmz]

I don't use trace supplements. Iron tends to enocurage algae grow th. When I dosed it after reading lo iron on the red sea test corals didn't exhibit nicer colors. They toned down a bit if anything. Red truf and some other nusiance algaes liked it though as did the chaeto.

Don't think a chioce of salt mix beyond the calcium, magnesium and alkaliity levels you prefer makes a difference.

The high PO4 will brown em . High nitrate will too. Personally, I'd remove the sand under the algae in the fuge. It, generally, gets messy as refractory algae exudate settles on it and clogs it up anyway.

 

[jharding08]

I'm planning on removing the sand from the refuge, since i cant vaccuum it anyway. I'll just add alot more live rock with the chaeto and turkey baste that. Once I move the sand out of the refuge, could I vaccuum it and then put it in the display tank? Whats the best way to clean it for display tank use?

Any other ideas for getting rid of PO4 and NO3? I am getting the filter sock in place and increasing flow to the dual reactors. Does some salt mix allow for higher phosphate and nitrate?

 

[bertoni]

I agree that the high nutrient load likely is the cause of the coloration changes. Phosphate below about 0.03 ppm would be better.

 

[jharding08]

Which brings me to lowering phosphates. Sticking to bi-weekly water changes, blasting the rock and siphoning the sand heavily. I also intend to remove the sand from my refugium and just make it rock and chaeto.

I feed the 13 fish 1/2 cube of each mysis shrimp and spirulina brine shrimp twice a day and provide 2 clips of nori each day. Is that too much?

My skimmate is a dark green, needs to be emptied 1 or 2 times a week.

Will definitely get a stronger pump for the GFO, should I change it out more than once a month? I dont see a film on the display tank glass until about 6-7 days after I clean.

 

[MrClam]

I think the general consensus is that you change the GFO when PO4 starts to rise. So yes Id change it out more often and see if you can drop PO4 that way, as you dont seem to be feeding all that much. JMO

 

[TylerHaworth]

Two cubes of food per day plus Nori is quite a bit of nutrient load for a 120 gallon system. I'd look into heavier skimming, more GFO, and an organic carbon source along with removing the DSB.

 

[AmherstReef]

Two cubes of food per day plus Nori is quite a bit of nutrient load for a 120 gallon system. I'd look into heavier skimming, more GFO, and an organic carbon source along with removing the DSB.

Really , I feed 4 cubes of mysis once a day for my 90 gallon

 

[TimeConsumer]

Really , I feed 4 cubes of mysis once a day for my 90 gallon

Agreed, I feed 2 cubes and nori plus some worms and pellets in my 75g.

.02ppm phosphate.

 

[tmz]

The sand from the fuge is probably not worth an effort to clean it via acid bath which will likely turn it to mush. Personally I'd toss it.

GFO can exhaust very quickly if there is a lot of PO4 in the water. It may also clog with bacteria or calcium carbonate precipitation. Checking the gfo reactor effluent PO4 level and comparing it to the tank level gives you a good clue as to when it's exhausted .

 

[tmz]

I feed over 2 ozs of frozen food plus some flake and nori to over 40 fish . I use vodka and vinegar dosing as the primary control for PO4 and NO3 which remain low; PO4<.03ppm an NO3<0.2ppm .

 

[wayne in norway]

I think that before you start fretting about trace elements you make sure you are covering the bases. Besides , with 2 20% changes a week some dosing of traces will be relatively unimportant. I'd concentrate on the basics - is your lighting intense enough (PAR meter is useful here) and have you got clean enough water? Apart from nitrates, phosphates, is the water obviously clear, no yellowing or so on. Any algae issues?
That is a complicated sump set up. Is the chaeto growing, is much coming from the skimmer. You have a lot of fish, but so do a lot of other people not doing those WC's, and your feeding is not excessive