First colors fade, now bleaching from the base

I have noticed a conection in my tank(s), although it could just be me but here it goes. As I have been slowly stripping the nutrients out of my tank, my corals in the well lit DT have lightened and some have actually quit growing, but the corals in the lesser lit frag tank are still colorful(same system). I wonder if there is some connection between nutrients and the amount of light a coral can handle. Kind of along the lines of a coral that is getting "starved" for nutrients and beginnng to lighten either doesn't have enough Zo-algae(I'm not even going to try and spell it) or the algae isn't strong enough to handle the excess light.

Sorry that was written like a 4 year old, I don't have the reefing vocabulary of some others on here.
 
broke1 said:
I have noticed a conection in my tank(s), although it could just be me but here it goes. As I have been slowly stripping the nutrients out of my tank, my corals in the well lit DT have lightened and some have actually quit growing, but the corals in the lesser lit frag tank are still colorful(same system). I wonder if there is some connection between nutrients and the amount of light a coral can handle. Kind of along the lines of a coral that is getting "starved" for nutrients and beginnng to lighten either doesn't have enough Zo-algae(I'm not even going to try and spell it) or the algae isn't strong enough to handle the excess light.

Sorry that was written like a 4 year old, I don't have the reefing vocabulary of some others on here.
Click to expand...

I understand, and yes youre right. Zoox. density is dependent primarily on nutrients and light intensity (among other things). So increased light will shed Zoox. from a coral, as will decreasing nutrients. So when you combine the two of them you can, in some cases, remove two much zoox. to the point where the coral can neither grow nor produce pigments. Some argue that we cannot drive nutrients low enough to cause this aquaria, but i disagree.
 
i went thru the same problem, i found out that my alk was going up and down, it killed 2 corals from the base up, now its at 9dkh and colors came back, a few weeks ago it did it again and all params where in check so i started feeding more to get some po4-no3 going, now there coming back, maybe like someone said, your tank is too clean

sana
 
Larry,I was thinking about this and I remember having a couple unexplainable issues like this thru the years.After many hours,days of thought I attributed it to alelopathy.These episodes of poor health,stn etc... occurred after a large fragging event and usually when I was cutting softies,xenia or other non sps corals and I am quite convinced this was the cause or at least the straw that broke the camels back scenario.May be unrelated to your issue but I thought I would throw it out there and see if might be related.
 
Give this a try. Yank your GFO and GAC. Do a small water change and throw a bad of Purigen in a high flow area of your sump.

I've had similiar issues with my reef in the past, and simply by removing all GAC and GFO and using Purigen instead my SPS came full circle. Just like every other product, don;t use too much Purigen. I think the "Bag" is good for 100 gallons of water.

Hope this helps you out!

Later,

Jim
 
I don't want to start making multiple changes at once and not knowing which change, if any, leads to a turn around. For now I'm going to keep doing 20g water changes every few days and see if the new 250w XM 10k's make a difference. I also picked up a bottle of Kent Zooplankton and will start feeding it to the corals.

Looking back on what may have started this, the only thing I can think of is my alk. For years I ran it at 7-8 dKH. Using Red Sea salt, it was easy to keep it al that level since that's right around where the salted mixed to. Ive heard bumping it up a little may help in faster coral growth, so I started mixing IO with Red Sea for a higher alk and stabilized my alk around 10 dKH. I've also read that ULNS Zeo tanks can't keep their alk high. Maybe the low nutrient levels in my tank along with the higher alk set this all in motion. So now with my alk back down in the 7-8 dKH range and more powerful lighting, only time will tell if this will put me back on the right track.
 
cccapt said:
I don't want to start making multiple changes at once and not knowing which change, if any, leads to a turn around. For now I'm going to keep doing 20g water changes every few days and see if the new 250w XM 10k's make a difference. I also picked up a bottle of Kent Zooplankton and will start feeding it to the corals.
Click to expand...

Just curious as to why you are doing a 20gal change every few days if you fear that you are at ULN? I almost think you should do the opposite. I shoot for 5% weekly.
 
Water changes never hurt and are never a bad thing. If I'm low on any trace elements, as it has been suggested, the water changes should bring those levels back up.
 
cccapt said:
Water changes never hurt and are never a bad thing. If I'm low on any trace elements, as it has been suggested, the water changes should bring those levels back up.
Click to expand...

True, but if it's the low nutrient level that is causing the paleness then your water changes are cleaning the water further.... You may find that your colors will respond with as little as 1 - 2ppm... even 5ppm N03 reading. I just dont think trace elements would be consumed at 20% every few days and would hate to see you spend money and possibly cause instability such as Ca Alk Mg swings. As long as you are watching out for all of that I guess no harm is done as you state.
 
platax88 said:
True, but if it's the low nutrient level that is causing the paleness then your water changes are cleaning the water further.... You may find that your colors will respond with as little as 1 - 2ppm... even 5ppm N03 reading. I just dont think trace elements would be consumed at 20% every few days and would hate to see you spend money and possibly cause instability such as Ca Alk Mg swings. As long as you are watching out for all of that I guess no harm is done as you state.
Click to expand...

I tried adding KNO3 (Spectracide? Stump Remover) and held this at ~0.5ppm with little more than accelerated growth. I tried this for more than 2 months...still nothing.

Larry - Do you have a DSB or SSB on the system? If so, I found that the amount of KNO3 I was adding to maintain a consistent 0.5ppm level was out of my 'safety zone' with a 0.5"-3" SB in 4.5ft^2. Once the hydrogen sulfide starting showing (dark patches in the corners of the SB), I ceased dosing. With two avid digging clowns, all I need is a massive die-off from them deciding to dig in this corner this week.

OMG!..... I wonder if the irritation caused from the sand storm every 2-3 days created from the clowns could be causing my issue.....:idea:
Larry - You have any fish that recently started diggin more?.....
 
Frank, I have a SSB. When I started the tank it was all about 1" deep. Now some spots have no sand and some maybe 1.5"-2" deep. No sand digging fish either.
 
Hi,

I had something similar over the past 2 months, in my case I fired up my UV and color seem to be coming back.

Not saying my problems were identical but if you're not running UV it might be worth a shot.

Tim
 
Glad to hear your problems are turning around, but I think it's only a coincidence it happened with a UV unit turned on. I don't see how coral colors can be related to uv usage.
 
great thread. I have been dealing with this for 2 months now. I have a 180 lots of stuff. My acans and chalices are fine, as are all softies (for now). But my monti's and acros are getting real pale, I have a large open brain that is almost translucent! and right next to these pale corals I have others that are just fine. I have 2 different superman monti's one is the same as it always has been blue/red the other is sky blue and pink - they were from different sources, but they used to look the same.

I do not think they are dying - do not see any shrinkage. But they have went from crayon colors to pastels. I have not had a problem like this in 15 years and all of a sudden it hit. My ALK is high 10.8 but everything else is spot on
ph 8.10
calc 420
no phosphate or nitrate
salinity .024

I need to follow this thread. I started using a dip tonight on several of my duplicate corals that are pale. again this is strange, some caroals are affected and some are not. Ny fear is that it is only a matter of time before it spreads to everyting
 
Even tho it's only been about a month since I started taking some action on this issues, I think I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I've changed over 200g worth of water in that time (20g every 2-3 days) and the new 250w XM 10k's have been in use a almost 2 weeks now. I also started feeding Kent Zooplex every other day.

What I see so far is much better polyp extension and the colors seem to be coming back. The bleaching was slow to begin with, so I can't tell if it's stopped, but it isn't getting faster. I pullled 1 of the corals out that was bleeching at the base and covered the area with SuperGlue. That seems to have stopped the base from bleeching. The tips/branches aren't affected on any of the corals, it's only the base of a few select corals.

For now, I'm going to continue with the 20g water changes for another week or so and then go back to my regular bi-weekly water changes. If I was lacking any trace elements, they should be built back up. I will also remove the final layer of eggcrate (I used eggcrate and 2 layers of screen to help light acclimate the corals to the stronger PAR from the XM bulbs) next week. Only time will tell if these small changes made any difference, but I do see some rays of hope.
 
cccapt said:
As far a salt, I use Red Sea Coral Pro or regular Red Sea. I don't want to start trying a bunch of things at once and I really don't want to get into dosing trace elements. I know you guys on the other side of the pond are into alot of different supplements but I want to keep it simple.

I'm going to see what happens with the 250w XM 10K's and keep doing 20g water changes every few days. I'm just baffled. How can everything grow so nice for 2 years and then all of a sudden bleaching starts on a select few corals....but only the base while the branches are still growing new tips. No doubt something happened, but I have no clue.
Click to expand...

Ccapt, this started happening to me too recently and I could not figure out the problem. I lost a couple of montis and mainly my pink acros which was unusual as most greens and blue, purple fine. They would lose any brown pigment turning fluoro like they were on zeo over several weeks then continue fading and become so pale and then RTN.

The only thing I believe it maybe is the Red Sea Coral pro salt. Ive been using a large bucket and this is the first time Ive had this problem and the first time Ive used this salt for this long.

Suprisingly I havent done my weekley water changes for 3 weeks and just dosed alk, calcium, iodine, Amino acids, vitamin C and cleaned my skimmer and filter socks and one of my montis that was bleaching is regaining flesh and PE as well as some other acros.

I will now be switching salt and see if this maybe the cause, let you know how I go.

Cheers

Nam
 
Nam, I don't think the salt has anything to do with it, but I can't say for sure. I used regular Red Sea for many years and when they came out with the Coral Pro version a few years ago I started using that. I probably used 10 buckets or so. The only thing I don't like about it is the calcium is a little too high and alk a little too low. I'm back to regular Red Sea now with lower calcium and a little higher alk. I don't dose anything but ca, alk and mag.

I still don't know what the root cause was, but the affected corals are definitely improving. 1 thing I think for sure made some difference is the lighting is almost doubled in PAR now. I always thought the 175w Iwasaki 15k's were bright, but these 250w XM 10k's make them look like night lights. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Z
New lps frags - 1 day not doing well
Replies
16
Views
2K
Reefing102
Reefing102
B
I’m a idiot
Replies
3
Views
771
griss
griss
Guygettnby
If not for bad luck...
2
Replies
30
Views
7K
leebca
L
D
Yellow on Rock
Replies
5
Views
669
griss
griss
M
Another Reefer back from a 13 year Hiatus
Replies
12
Views
1K
Anemone
Anemone
Back
Top