Losing Color in Corals

[suzig]

if you have macro algae in your sump ie:chaeto..make sure you trim it back and discard it. i try and trim back 50% every water change.

 

[jharding08]

Sounds like a sound plan to me. Do you feed nori? Its a good way to feed just your tang, and not the entire tank. Again, it's a fine line between low nutrients and over stripping. GL

I do feed seaweed on Mon,Wed,Fri. Sometimes they rip big chunks of it off and not sure where that winds up. My trochus and nassarius snail population has dwindled in the past couple months as has my hermit crab population. I do have two serpent stars (I know I have one, I saw it yesterday). Will that be enough of a clean up crew or should I get more?

I might try more seaweed more often once my PO4 gets back down.

 

[jharding08]

if you have macro algae in your sump ie:chaeto..make sure you trim it back and discard it. i try and trim back 50% every water change.

I dont use macro algae. My sump is just three filter socks, a skimmer and some live rock. The sump looks somewhat clean, not alot of detritus in the chambers

 

[Giants13]

I started dosing Red Sea reef care because I noticed my pink xenias where not so pink anymore , the iodine helps pink pigmentation I think it was so I focused mainly on that, and they look a lot better a lot more heads too.

 

[jharding08]

I have always used this document for coral color issues -
http://************.com/2008/09/03/guide-of-sps-coral-coloration-make-them-more-vivid-bright/

Unfortunately, my yellow scroll coral is bright yellow still, so I'm not sure if that PO4 only affects color of yellow acropora, hard to find those!

 

[Giants13]

I have always used this document for coral color issues -
http://************.com/2008/09/03/guide-of-sps-coral-coloration-make-them-more-vivid-bright/

Unfortunately, my yellow scroll coral is bright yellow still, so I'm not sure if that PO4 only affects color of yellow acropora, hard to find those!

I want a yellow acropora!!

 

[Johnseye]

Is that first picture with all the cyano on the sand bed recent or from a while ago?

 

[jharding08]

it was before i did my water change. I have always had some kind of cyano on the sand bed. I cant really vacuum it up well with the water change vacuum.

I stopped trying to vacuum the sand behind the front rock pillar, I would always break a coral or knock one off trying to get back there

 

[Johnseye]

it was before i did my water change. I have always had some kind of cyano on the sand bed. I cant really vacuum it up well with the water change vacuum.

I stopped trying to vacuum the sand behind the front rock pillar, I would always break a coral or knock one off trying to get back there

So my guess is this is all due to high phosphates. I know your PO4 is at .04. At the very least this should help eliminate the cyano. I had a brief battle as well. What has worked for me was the following:

1. Regular siphoning of the sand bed. You can even siphon through a filter sock back into your sump. You want to remove the detritus.
2. Using Zeobak along with Coral Snow. KZ also makes a cyano product but I didn't read enough positive info on it. The Zeobak provides a positive competition to the cyano. Coral Snow helps the Zeobak.
3. GFO and GAC in reactors
4. Adding pods and phyto
5. Increasing my CUC. I added an emerald crab, some hermits and more snails of multiple varieties.

I would start there to get your water chemistry stable. Get the right micro/macro fauna in place to help do the work for you.

 

[Johnseye]

6. 3 day lights out
7. Chemiclean
8. Powerhead placement and schedule change

I should also mention that those 5 steps in my previous post were to after I did a 3 day lights out on the tank and dosed it with Chemiclean twice. Cyano is a nasty and unhealthy bacteria that is tough to eradicate. The Chemiclean and lights out were done to wipe out what was there. Then I had to correct the poor habits I had in place and reestablish the micro/macro fauna.

When I started AWC I neglected siphoning the sand bed regularly. That caused cyano, dinos and whatever else to start growing. So now I regularly siphon the bed, turkey baste the rocks and have added power heads with schedules to stir up the sand and detritus.

Everything I've done so far has prevented the cyano and dinos from returning. This in turn has helped with my coral colors.

The next thing to look at if the loss of color is actually bleaching would be your light intensity but if that hasn't changed in 2 years I doubt it's the lights.

 

[jharding08]

6. 3 day lights out
7. Chemiclean
8. Powerhead placement and schedule change

I should also mention that those 5 steps in my previous post were to after I did a 3 day lights out on the tank and dosed it with Chemiclean twice. Cyano is a nasty and unhealthy bacteria that is tough to eradicate. The Chemiclean and lights out were done to wipe out what was there. Then I had to correct the poor habits I had in place and reestablish the micro/macro fauna.

When I started AWC I neglected siphoning the sand bed regularly. That caused cyano, dinos and whatever else to start growing. So now I regularly siphon the bed, turkey baste the rocks and have added power heads with schedules to stir up the sand and detritus.

Everything I've done so far has prevented the cyano and dinos from returning. This in turn has helped with my coral colors.

The next thing to look at if the loss of color is actually bleaching would be your light intensity but if that hasn't changed in 2 years I doubt it's the lights.

Have you been able to get the blanket of cyano out of your tank via vacuuming? I can get it into the tube, but its never seems to get up far enough to get sucked into the waste water container. Most of it winds up getting mixed in with the sand. If the piece is that big, I just go in with my hand and pull it out.

 

[Johnseye]

Have you been able to get the blanket of cyano out of your tank via vacuuming? I can get it into the tube, but its never seems to get up far enough to get sucked into the waste water container. Most of it winds up getting mixed in with the sand. If the piece is that big, I just go in with my hand and pull it out.

Vacuuming or siphoning removes some of the detritus, and probably some of the cyano but you're not going to get rid of it by just vacuuming. That's more of a regular, keep your bed clean, maintenance. It's bacteria. What got rid of my cyano was the 2 rounds of Chemiclean. Everything else is done to keep up good tank husbandry and reestablish the micro fauna that Chemiclean wipes out.

 

[tmz]

What is the PO4 now? 0.04ppm won't harm the montis IME. GFO to get ecessively low PO4 levels might.

 

[jharding08]

I will check again on Sunday. Last Sunday it was .09, two Sundays before that was .12.

When my tank was at its best, my PO4 was .04. I had good colors on all corals and good growth.

 

[jharding08]

What is the PO4 now? 0.04ppm won't harm the montis IME. GFO to get ecessively low PO4 levels might.

I am going to make the GFO decision after I let my current method of feeding and WCs work for a couple weeks. If GFO isnt below .08 or the corals arent coming back, then I might think of GFO on a low dose

 

[jharding08]

It has almost been a week since my last water change and the cyano that normally starts to form on the sand bed is now black instead of the dark red. What does this mean? A different bacteria in the water?

 

[Johnseye]

It has almost been a week since my last water change and the cyano that normally starts to form on the sand bed is now black instead of the dark red. What does this mean? A different bacteria in the water?

I don't see much difference in the picture, but you should eliminate that cyano.

 

[jharding08]

Does the sailfin tang look skinny in the picture above?

 

[PhaneSoul]

Cant really tell but from the available pic he doesnt seem to have a sunken stomach

 

[tmz]

It has almost been a week since my last water change and the cyano that normally starts to form on the sand bed is now black instead of the dark red. What does this mean? A different bacteria in the water?

Cyano bacteria can shift pigmentation balances via it's chromospores to more effectively use the avaailable light spectrum. The balance between red pigments(phycohilin) and blue pigments ( phycoerythin) can adjsut in miliseconds in some cases.