Help! SPS color fade.

[jbarone]

I'm losing color in a couple of My SPS corals. One is a green birdsnest and the other is an
acro from fade I received from Shooter7. The acro should be a nice tan w/ green polyps. They both
look to be bleaching. Both are showing some PE but not what it should be. I have another pink birdsnest
that should have a more rich pink color. I would say all my SPS could and should look better.

Here are some pictures of them. Sorry there kind of crappy

<img border="0" src="http://www.jamiesplanet.com/post_pics/GBN042208.jpg" width="800" height="600"></p>

<img border="0" src="http://www.jamiesplanet.com/post_pics/Acro042208.jpg" width="800" height="600"></p>

<img border="0" src="http://www.jamiesplanet.com/post_pics/FTS042208.jpg" width="800" height="600"></p>

My parameters are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10ppm
Ca 450-480
Alk 9dkh
Mg 1475
PO4 0 but not too sure about that.
PH 8.15 - 8.23
Temp 78-79



Alk and Ca are maintained using 2 part and dosing pumps


Alk 179.4 ml per day of Recipe 2
Ca 109.2ml per day of Recipe 1


My lighting is a 48" Current Outer orbit fixture 6" off the surface
2 150w 14k Hamiltons
2 130w dual actinics

Is this too much light?

12 gallon water chages w/ RC every 2 weeks

1.5 cups of carbon in a TLF reactor 24x7

Cheato and rock in the sump on a reverse light cycle.

BK skimming wetish

I have three fish I feed once a day with homemade food. About 3/4 of a cube.

So, should I raise the lights, stop the GAC, run phosban, feed more, add more flow?

Thanks,
Jamie

 

[reefnut1]

That seems like a large amount of Alk you are adding daily for what you have in corals and tank size. Corals are very sensitive to ALk and PH changes (Most likely due to dosing.)
Do you alternate flow with your power heads?
I dont think you have to much light at all. I would suggest a little more, but I doubt that is what is causing your corals to bleach.
I suggest that you take your alk and ph test kits to shooters house (if possible) and test his water to see what is different from your tank to his.

 

[dphins]

Did it happen all of a sudden or over a period of time?

 

[jbarone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12389210#post12389210 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefnut1
That seems like a large amount of Alk you are adding daily for what you have in corals and tank size. Corals are very sensitive to ALk and PH changes (Most likely due to dosing.)
Do you alternate flow with your power heads?
I dont think you have to much light at all. I would suggest a little more, but I doubt that is what is causing your corals to bleach.
I suggest that you take your alk and ph test kits to shooters house (if possible) and test his water to see what is different from your tank to his.

It does seem like alot however, my consumption is 1.9dkh per day. When I reduce the amount my alk drops. I have several test kits. API, Salifert, Elos and LaMotte. I've alos had the water tested at the LFS so I think my kits are OK. The PH is monitored using a Pinpoint meter that I calibrate monthly. I suppose I could get that verified.

I do not have a wave maker on my power heads. This is something I've been thinking about.

 

[jbarone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12389312#post12389312 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dphins
Did it happen all of a sudden or over a period of time?

Over a period of time. Maybe a couple of months.

The only thing I've changed is switching from B-ionic to DIY 2 part. That was about 2-3 weeks ago.

 

[dphins]

I have never done the 2 part so I can't comment on that. You might want to feed your tank a little more since you have that big dog skimmer.

 

[Homereef]

My comment would be it looks like there is no food in the water.

ALL your corals look bleached to me. I see your Zoanthins, Mushrooms, Frogspawn, Big Leather, they all look like they have no zooxanth. The only healthy looking coral looks to be the Monticap, but that one is probly new to the tank, is it not ?

You might be stripping your water of phyto, DOC's, and other particulate foods. Do you dose DT's or any other phyto ?

It looks like you are running close to a barebottom tank. No detritus there to feed corals.

I would get a definate PO4 reading, maybe pull out your GACand don't add any FO and feed those corals !

 

[jbarone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12389438#post12389438 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Homereef
My comment would be it looks like there is no food in the water.

ALL your corals look bleached to me. I see your Zoanthins, Mushrooms, Frogspawn, Big Leather, they all look like they have no zooxanth. The only healthy looking coral looks to be the Monticap, but that one is probly new to the tank, is it not ?

You might be stripping your water of phyto, DOC's, and other particulate foods. Do you dose DT's or any other phyto ?

It looks like you are running close to a barebottom tank. No detritus there to feed corals.

I would get a definate PO4 reading, maybe pull out your GACand don't add any FO and feed those corals !

I would have to agree. Other than the food I feed the fish I add nothing else to the tank. And yes the Monti is 2 days in to my tank.

I hate to sound stupid but, What and how should I feed the tank? Just Phyto? More fish food?

Thanks by the way.

 

[reefnut1]

DID THAT LARGER ACRO IN YOUR SECOND PICTURE GROW TO THAT SIZE IN YOUR TANK THEN LOOSE ITS COLOR OR DID YOU BUY IT CLOSE TO THAT SIZE?

 

[dphins]

Try feeding your fish Rod's food. It has a mixture of everything. It feeds your fish and corals at the same time.

 

[Homereef]

No problem.

New Life Spectrum Pellets
DT's Phytoplankton & Oyster Eggs
Rod's Fish Food
Selcon

I forgot the name of the product but it is a phytoplankton for bivalves/clams and is super concentrated. I would use that ofver DTs.

You could try and make some 'Papone' yourself. I would go with more conventional food right now tho.

 

[Shooter7]

Jamie, could be a few things. Even though you have a smaller tank than mine, it looks as though your corals are about the same distance under the surface as mine are in my tank. Thing is, you took them from a 250w halide to a 150w, so that could be one thing. My system runs at zero nitrates and I run PHOSaR constantly now to work on the phosphates. I feed daily, and often use my homemade food that I mix up really well in some water so that very small particulates circulate throughout the entire tank at feeding time. All the corals have massive PE at this time to nab up what they can get from the food in the water. Your flow might be a bit different as well. Just a few ideas to think about I suppose. It could be a combination of things contributing to them not being happy.

btw, looks like you did a good job with that big monti frag mounting.

 

[breutus]

I would have to agree with homereef and others feed feed feed,

and certianly not to much light, probably not enough especially if they came from more and there was no feeding during the transition. can you change one of your actinics over to 10k lighting? it would probably help alot

 

[jbarone]

Reefnut1 - The acro in the second picture has better than doubled in size since I got it several months ago. The hydno in my avatar has grown 15x it's size in a year. Growth has been OK

dphins, Homereef, Shooter7,
Thanks for the suggestions.

Breutus - Unfortunately I'm unable to change out my Actinics for anything else.

I think feeding is the key here. The corals did look much better. I have some before pictures I try and dig up.

The thing is I've been working hard at improving my water quality so I can keep SPS corals and I think I may have sorta sterilized the tank. It's very clean.

So this is my plan,
I have stopped the GAC. I will get some DT's, Rod's and Oyster Eggs in the next day or so. I think I'll reduce my water changes to only 15gal a month for a while or at least only every 3 weeks instead of 2 and skim a little less. I think I'll shut the skimmer down for a few hours during feeding time each day.

How's this sound to start?

What do some of you feed your tanks and how do you go about it?

Thanks again for all the help.

Jamie

 

[drgabe]

Feed those corals!
Add some cyclopeezee to the party as well. Get a timer and feed the fish a couple of times a day - its the break down of food that fuels the coral growth.

Alternatively, you can have your skimmer run for a just a few hours per day (i.e. 12-12 or something like that) until you get some nutrient buildup. Or change it to run very dry.

Or... add more fish and feed them until they are nice and phat (or is it fat, I can never remember!).

 

[Reeferhead]

How old are your bulbs?

 

[jbarone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12392392#post12392392 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drgabe
Feed those corals!
Add some cyclopeezee to the party as well. Get a timer and feed the fish a couple of times a day - its the break down of food that fuels the coral growth.

Alternatively, you can have your skimmer run for a just a few hours per day (i.e. 12-12 or something like that) until you get some nutrient buildup. Or change it to run very dry.

Or... add more fish and feed them until they are nice and phat (or is it fat, I can never remember!).

Cyclopeeze is in the food I feed now, I just don't feed the fish that much. I like the idea of only running the skimmer part time for a while. And adding more fish is on the list. I have the QT ready to go so I think I'll get some this weekend.

 

[jbarone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12392748#post12392748 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reeferhead
How old are your bulbs?

All have been replaced 6 months ago.

 

[breutus]

I would suggest not to start out feeding a ton all the sudden, if you have been feeding very little or in this case not at all you won't have the life in the tank it takes to clean it up when you overfeed.

heres how I feed typically, I take all the foods that i want to get into the tank that day, some times It's oyster eggs sometimes I put in phyto depends on the day, but one of them always go in, and everything else rods food a couple of silversides choped up, selcon, brine shrimp and then mix it all together in saltwater. then I get a turkey baster and gently blow it at each coral in the tank.

But for starters over the next week i would start with a small amount and build up a little more each time to get the life in your tank used to it. I feed a 16 ounce cup of very concentrated slurry every couple of days.

 

[Reeferhead]

So this is my plan, I have stopped the GAC. I will get some DT's, Rod's and Oyster Eggs in the next day or so. I think I'll reduce my water changes to only 15gal a month for a while or at least only every 3 weeks instead of 2 and skim a little less. I think I'll shut the skimmer down for a few hours during feeding time each day.

FWIW, If you want to discover the real source of the problem, try changing just one thing at a time, rather than the shotgun approach. Take it slow, making huge multiple changes often makes things worse and makes it difficult to determine the source of the problem.

If you think you're nutrient starving the system (I'm not convinced yet that you are) then try skimming a bit drier or feed a little more and allow your system time to adjust.