Help with ORA bottle brush

[allsps40]

I have had an ORA bule bottle brush for a while, about 2 months. When I got it it had nice blue tips and good PE. Now it has nor blue at all lost it all but still has great PE. Many have seem my getting that color thread, I posted there but no one has replied, I think that thread is dieing now. So tank info. 50g total, 250w 20k MH new bulb, lost of flow.
Ca 450
Alk 9-10
mag 1350
no3 20, getting it back to 5-10
po4 undetectable
Any help on getting the blue back. Blue seems to be the color I have the hardest time keeping in my sps.

 

[Finland]

Tagging along. I still have a hint of blue, but that is fading,although pe is good. How high up in the tank do you have it? Mine is midway up directly below a 250w 12k bulb. I am wondering if I should lower it.

 

[deezmarine]

most blue acros like high light, is it just blue sps that are fadded

 

[29reef]

Check for red bugs. Blue also seems to be sometimes associated with potassium. I have never had an issue with blue sps so I've never added it, but I've read several threads where it's mentioned. I would suggest first checking for pests. You should also look into lowering your alk if possible. It should also remain constant. If it's bouncing between 9 and 10 DKH that could lead to problems.

 

[evsalty]

High nitrates can cause sps to brown out but I have had mine hit 20 before (wasn't there long) and had no issue with blues. High light does help to keep blues but with a 250w halide above a 40br you should be high enough at all levels of the water column.

 

[allsps40]

Tagging along. I still have a hint of blue, but that is fading,although pe is good. How high up in the tank do you have it? Mine is midway up directly below a 250w 12k bulb. I am wondering if I should lower it.

I tried it up high and down low now.

Check for red bugs. Blue also seems to be sometimes associated with potassium. I have never had an issue with blue sps so I've never added it, but I've read several threads where it's mentioned. I would suggest first checking for pests. You should also look into lowering your alk if possible. It should also remain constant. If it's bouncing between 9 and 10 DKH that could lead to problems.

I know for a fact I dont have any pests. I have red bugs once before and that was a huge problem, got ride of them long ago. I dose Lugal's daily which is a great source of potassium. All of my other sps are doing great, have good color, some hints of blues. Alk stays pretty stable at 10, I said 9-10 because I am getting down to 8. I use kalk top off to keep alk and ca stable, works very well.

 

[Pallobi]

My alk shifts a point or so at least, daily due to my manual application of two part... I have absolutely no issues from it... I don't feel that is the problem myself...

 

[evsalty]

Looking at your pics in your profile none of your SPS have much color other then brown w/some having some green. I would think that having high nutrients in your tank is browning out your corals.

 

[jscarlata]

I have a blue Marshall island bottlebrush frag as well. I bought it with two other "test" frags to see how sps will do in my tank. The bttlebrush has taken the longest to come around. When I put it in, only the top several tips were blue. Over the course of a few months it never browned out but also didn't improve. Only in the last few weeks has it turned around, now most of the tips are blue with the tips of of the polyps only starting to emerge. I've been giving my sps frags some aminos and zooplankton at feeding time and that seemed to help move the bottlebrush along. My other two frags are doing well, I don't know e species, but I have lots of pe and new growth as well.
Keep testing your water, get your nitrates down and be patient. I have very limited exp w sps, but from what I have seen, the bottlebrush is very slow to react. That may be my system, I do not know. Just don't make radical changes for one piece of coral, also, maybe try adding a frag of something else to gauge whether or not your water is good and it's just the coral that is slow.

 

[allsps40]

Looking at your pics in your profile none of your SPS have much color other then brown w/some having some green. I would think that having high nutrients in your tank is browning out your corals.

Those pics are old and I have gotten my tank back in check. Some new pics

It is not the NO3 I increased to help get more color, just went up more than I wanted I want it at 5-10. Keeping blues has been a problem even when I had 0 NO3.

 

[allsps40]

Current pic of my bottle brush

When I got it, see all the nice blue it had. left side of frag rack

 

[29reef]

Look like high nutrients. Those are some brown corals.

 

[evsalty]

Sorry to say but I do not see much color in your newer pics. They still are browned out.

No3 of 5-10 will help feed but it will take stability for the corals to respond. If yours overshot then you have too much now and need to get it to stabilize. If you did not have color at 0 then perhaps you were starving them completely. But seeing that you had bubble algae growing in the past I will assume that you have always had nutrients in this tank but the No3 was being used by the algae and giving you a false 0 reading.

 

[Snowsrfr]

Looks like you do have a high nutrient problem, thus all the browning of corals.

Once that's in check, I recommend dosing potassium iodide. I started this regiment, along with a few other products, and get really good colors out of blues.

 

[clowndude]

How often are you doing water changes? How much are you feeding your fish? I'd cut back on the lugols a little bit also.

 

[allsps40]

Sorry to say but I do not see much color in your newer pics. They still are browned out.

No3 of 5-10 will help feed but it will take stability for the corals to respond. If yours overshot then you have too much now and need to get it to stabilize. If you did not have color at 0 then perhaps you were starving them completely. But seeing that you had bubble algae growing in the past I will assume that you have always had nutrients in this tank but the No3 was being used by the algae and giving you a false 0 reading.

My camera sucks they look better in person but still not great.

Looks like you do have a high nutrient problem, thus all the browning of corals.Once that's in check, I recommend dosing potassium iodide. I started this regiment, along with a few other products, and get really good colors out of blues.

I do dose Lugal's which is a great source of postassium iodide.

How often are you doing water changes? How much are you feeding your fish? I'd cut back on the lugols a little bit also.

5g weekly water changes with 0 TDS RODI. I feed once a daily about what would be equal to one frozen cube.

 

[29reef]

I am not sure where this thread is going. Your getting input from others that you could change your routines and water conditions, yet it seems your defending yourself and don't want to change.

Suggestions to attain lower nutrients in your tank.

1. Run a 200 micron filter sock 24/7 changed every few days

2. Up the flow, and spray detritus from the rocks.

3. During a water change vacuum some of your sand.

4. Start a carbon dosing regimen. (vodka, BP, zeo, etc)

5. Shorten photo period to 6 hours for your halide (do it slowly!)

Those 5 things will make a big difference in your systems water chemisty. They are all popular methods and there are a lot of threads on them if your unsure of how to go about them. Remember to take it slow and do a little at a time to work towards your goal. HTH

 

[allsps40]

I run my MH for 6 hours, very stable water conditions, high flow tank stays very clean from waste, I did dose vodka but it caused problems. I do still dose MB7 daily.

 

[29reef]

The mb7 is likely doing nothing for you at this point. Likely the vodka wasn't a good experience because of something else(dosed improperly or something else). What kind of skimmer? How old is your MH bulb? Ballast? How old is the tank?

I can sit here and ask questions all day long but if your going to tell me your doing eveything right and are getting poor results I'm not very inclined to believe you.

 

[allsps40]

MB7 can be doses without a carbon source. Tank is 3 years old so very mature and stable. I replace my MH bulb every 6 months, was just changed 2 weeks ago. Skimmer is a SC-150 cone. I have been reef keeping for several year this is my 3rd reef tank, stable water parameters, good light, strong flow and regular water changes. I feel like I am doing things correctly Im not a newby. I did have a high TDS issue a few months back and I stripped the water of nutrients with vodka dosing, that is a fine line to walk between great results and starving corals. Everything is recovering now nicely but the marshall island bottle brush and my ORA miami orchid. Need some help with these.