Help with Lighting and fading LPS colors.

[mgould73]

Hi Everyone, been awhile since I've been on forums. I got discouraged after hurricane sandy when I pretty much lost almost everything because of 2 weeks without power and hard to find gas for the generator. With that being said, i've spent last few months working on tank and it's back to normal, so to speak expect for a problem I've always had even before the storm.

Tank background:

57G Rimless
20G Eshoppes Sump
Aquatinics TX5 5 bulb T5 fixture, 2 blue, purple, coral, actinic (fixture sits on top of tank)
Eshoppes Cone Skimmer
No reading on phosphates, or Nitrates.
1.025
10dkh
420 calcium
Temp 78-80
3 Fish, 2 clowns and royal gramma

My dilemma is my LPS seem to fade in color, I purchased a brown/green hammer coral (back in 2012) that had its dark brown and bright greens and it slowly faded to very light color. It was placed at the bottom of the tank, at that time I also had a favia which also was losing color. My Duncans however are still original color.

Now with that being said, the hammer that I bought back in 2012 was only 4 heads. It is now about 16 heads and fragged about 4 times since 2012. This is the strange part. When new heads grow, I can see its dark browns and greens, but as the coral grows and gets larger the browns fade as well as the greens. It's also hard to tell but in areas where some heads might be shaded the colors seem to be more vivid.

I have always fed very lightly ,sometimes skipping days and I only have 3 fish. Is it possible it is a nutrient issue? Am I starving them? Is my fixture to much light?? I've tried moving the hammer around (all frags) in different spots in tank and it doesn't seem to matter. The new heads start off brown/green and then fade.

I don't think that it's not enough light as this fixture seems to put off tons of light/par and the SPS I did have only a rock or 2 above were growing/showing color nicely.(before the crash)

My duncans have grown about 8 new heads or more since as well, and I attribute those doing well because of being fed.

I haven't really put any new coral in since I've cleaned up the tank past 2 months and don't want to until I can figure out what might be happening. Since I believe it's either too much light or not enough food I started feeding the tank every day PE Mysis, and every few days some cylopeeze at night.

Attached some pics so you can see the color.

Would love to hear your opinions.

 

[usingthejohn]

Hhmm with no nitrates I can only GUESSTIMATE that the lps are starved. In my limited understanding they need some nitrates in the water column.

 

[mgould73]

Thanks, anyone else chime in? What is best way to increase nitrates without increasing phosphates to much? Just add another fish or 2? Amino Acids?

I've got a slight hair algae problem from letting the tank go, not to bad and its dying since the water changes and GFO over 2 months. Phosphates read 0 but may be leeching from rock. Funny thing is I've never had a reading on nitrates on any kit.

 

[Fallling]

Sounds like they are starving. LPS will benefit from feeding such as cylop-eeze and mysis. Are you target feeding when you see their feeding tentacles at night? Also, having 0 nitrates seems to be a problem for many people. Bumping those up a tad often helps. Adding another fish and upping their feedings to once a day will help to gradually increase nitrates. For hair algae, doing a 24hr blackout helped a lot when I had bit of an outbreak combined with manual removal and water changes. From you pictures, I don't really see any hair algae though. Also, how old are the bulbs? If they're more than 6 months old, that could also be an issue.

 

[mgould73]

Sounds like they are starving. LPS will benefit from feeding such as cylop-eeze and mysis. Are you target feeding when you see their feeding tentacles at night? Also, having 0 nitrates seems to be a problem for many people. Bumping those up a tad often helps. Adding another fish and upping their feedings to once a day will help to gradually increase nitrates. For hair algae, doing a 24hr blackout helped a lot when I had bit of an outbreak combined with manual removal and water changes. From you pictures, I don't really see any hair algae though. Also, how old are the bulbs? If they're more than 6 months old, that could also be an issue.

Thanks for responding. Well as I mentioned I kind of let the tank go for over a year, not very many water changes etc. I had a massive outbreak of cyno, was covering everything. I Took out all rocks, scrubbed down in fresh salt water. Siphoned the 1/2 sand bed, took out about 50% and added new. 50% water changes for about 1 month. Siphoned sand etc etc, rinse and repeat. 2 months later I just have some residual effects of the cyno dieoff I suppose. I have some HA growing on a few rocks, its not very long and it seems to be dieing before it gets that way. So I assume I still have some phosphates, I am running GFO in a reactor.

The bulbs are new, replaced 2 months ago when I started the cleanup process. Before that, over a year, between the bulbs, and no water changes im sure that led to the cyno outbreak.

In any case, well before this mishaps when I introduced the LPS I've had this problem, (over 2 years ago). Honestly the more I look at the hammer now, It seems to have more color since I haven't done any water changes during that time period. However, I also rarely fed in that time as well.

Its just strange that it grew 4 times in its size, fragged 4 times 16 heads but colors still faded. I honestly believe I was just not feeding enough, not sure but I am going to add another fish or 2 and feed once a day PE Mysis, and mabe some oyster eggs 1,2 times a week.

I think having good food import and excellent nutrient export is the way to go.

Also, i've always had a hard time feeding the hammer, seems to just hold onto food a short time and floats away. Seems to be pretty common.

 

[Reef Frog]

It's true that some nutrients are desirable and aid in coloration.

But the light could be too intense and contributing to the condition as well. Yes, even with T5 bulbs. It happened to me when I switched from Gleissman bulbs to ATI bulbs. Moving the corals lower in the tank resolved the issue and everything colored back up. But other corals left higher up eventually adapted and regained full color. I'm not exactly 100% positive it was the ATI bulbs but the event was simultaneous with their installation.