Need help from the experts!! Lost color!

[sslak]

The problem starts around April of 2010, every SPS frag I put into the tank turns brown and pale. My frogspawn (moved from my biocube I tore down) loses the neon green and turns transparent. All visible coraline algae is gone...the rocks were dark purple everywhere, now I have almost no purple. Any spots that grow on the glass are nearly white.

I have great growth! The most obvious is a neon green birdnest, now pale tan, grown from a 2" frag into a colony twice the size of a softball. All SPS has grown from tiny frags to baseball or larger size colonies, neon candy cane from three heads to a softball size colony.

Fish are happy and healthy - the clowns are 5 years old, mandarin is nearly 2 years old.

I'm using API test kits, I replaced them all with a new box hoping the kits were bad, all readings are the same on the old and new kits.

Here are my readings since I started recording:

As you can see from about June to October 2010 I got frustrated with the crappy colors..couldn't fix the problem, and stopped testing..slacked on water changes...etc. I get it...I'm a bad reefer. Been working my butt off since then and I just can't seem to get the color!

Jan 2010 is when I started dosing 2part (see all the testing) - Prior to that I wasn't dosing. I thought that would fix it. It has improved growth, but not color.

I always read 0 Nitrates/trites, 0 PO4, 0 Ammonia. As you can see I have a bit of an algae issue from the neglect. It's improving. I run a TLF reactor with BRS GFO, changed weekly with my water changes.

I added a 250w halide back in April 2010 thinking maybe I didn't have enough light with a single 175 and 2x39w T5

I dose BRS 2 part, trying hard to be consistent.
Religious weekly 15gal water changes with Reef Crystals
Light cycle is:
2x39w T5 ATI Blue+ 3:30pm-10pm
1x175w Hamilton 14k SE and 1x250w Phoenix 14k DE: 4pm-9pm
Halides are 9" off the water (yes I have the UV glass on the DE bulb)

Here is a BEFORE reference - see the top of the last page - great purple coraline and notice the frogspawn colors and that blasto colony.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=18054102#post18054102

I was running 8 hours of halides...reduced it because I thought perhaps the softies couldn't handle it....turns out my blasto colony completely melted. It's just a skeleton now.

Here's pics from TODAY, FTS:

Here's the "neon green"...epic brown :thumbdown birdsnest

And the pale clear frogspawn (same colony as in the other thread photos)

I'm looking for ideas!!! Please help...I love this tank and I just want it to be as beautiful as I know it can be...some of the colonies I have are really expensive frags blue mille, oregon tort, miami orchid, blue tenius, etc. that if they would just color up, my tank could be stunning.

 

[Reefer1225]

I am no expert and relatively new to this as well, but it looks like you are on the right track. Your corals just need time to recover it looks like. I think it was the alk/cal swings. Stability is key as everyone says. Dosing to maintain parameters is important. I'm suprised your SPS survived through it. Regular water changes is a step in the right direction. I keep my parameters at 1.025-1026 Salinity, 78 Degree Temp, 420 Calcium, 9 DKh, 1300 Mag, 0-5 Nitrates, and < 0.04 Phosphates. Well, at least I try to stabilize it at these. Hard to do. I bought dosing pumps recently and waiting to install, so the swings won't be as dramatic.

Some of your corals looked bleached. Try cutting the photoperiod or the reducing the intensity if possible. Looks like you got good growth, and its just a color issue. So, makes me think is water chemistry and stability issue.

Next time you buy test kits, try Salifert or those Hanna Checkers. I think they are more accurate than API. My two cents. Good luck!

 

[Finland]

My 1st thought looking at the corals, is "They look hungry". I know when my corals really faded out and lost colors, it was because of a lack of food. I upped the feeding and they recovered. Just have to careful not to over feed. How much do you feed the tank? IMO, the photo-period is fine. 5hrs with the halides is not excessive. Another thought is how old are the bulbs? Corals do not do well with old bulbs. Other then that, just keep things stabile and regular water changes

 

[acroholicreefer]

Your problem is GFO. Cut it off and you should see improvements in a few weeks.

 

[sslak]

Bulbs are replaced every 12 months.

I didn't start running GFO until after I had the issue? I'm not sure how GFO would be the problem.

I feed H2O Life Reef Fusion (frozen blend) - I've been feeding 1/2 cube every other day. I was under the impression algae was from over-feeding.

 

[Finland]

I would feed everyday. Maybe frozen on one day and flake the next. Mix it up a little. Keep the gfo and keep up with the weekly water changes, that should keep the algae in check.(as long as you are using RO/DI for water changes) What kind of salt are you using? We had a club member that had some issues he couldn't figure out. He changed salt brands and his problems went away.

 

[sslak]

Currently using Reef Crystals salt. I was using Tropic Marin Pro when the problem first emerged. I tried changing salt mixes to see if that would solve the problem. It didn't.

5 Stage RO/DI constant 0 TDS. I change filters/DI when the TDS reads anything but 0.

 

[ezerasurfr]

you may be too "clean". I just ran into this issue myself and am recovering from it. was running rowa GFO, carbon, and over-powered skimmer and 3TDS on my ro/di. I started to see good PE but no color, then it degraded fast as most are frags and TN crept up. I realized the GFO is just stripping the water column too well. I run it once a week/ 10 days now just to keep algae in check. frags are slowly but surely coming back (most of them anyway).

 

[sslak]

^too clean doesn't make sense. If that was the case I wouldn't have an algae plague.

Someone in another thread suggested too much light, thoughts?

 

[Mark 75g]

I dont think GFO has anything to do with the issue. I run GFO everyday in my 175 and have great color and pe. My skimmer usually gets emptied every 3 to 4 days. I feed my fish atleast once per day sometimes twice and I also feed the corals twice a week.

Give it time with the salt. I was using reef crystals and swithed to tropic marin and I lost all color in my zoas and some sps. I then switched back to reef crystals and all my color has returned. It might have been the salt. I would keep the course and continue with the salt and do a water change every week. I change out atleast 10% every week and have noticed a difference.

 

[power boat jim]

When corraline algea turns white it is usually a sign of too much light. So is the green hair algea all over everything else. Try 20K bulbs you might have more color then you know, its just not showing up. Also, why do you need to dose anything if you are doing 100% + water changes every month? It seems to me if you skim and change that much water you should be good. Less is often more in this hobby.

 

[sslak]

Dosing is mostly to keep the Alk where it belongs. I'm only doing about 20ml per day of Alk and Ca as needed.

I like the 20k bulb idea. Right now I'm going to run with the 250w turned off...if I see improvement and determine light is the problem, I will look for a lower par 20k bulb to use for the 250

 

[batt600]

OK from your readings your not stable at all but thats not your problem it your lights it way to much for that tank run your T5 12 hours a day and run you MH only for 4 hour and see if that helps stop your bleaching.. If you can get a par meter to test par that would be good .

 

[Fish4Me2]

My colors improved dramatically when I stabilized my alk. And by stabilized, I mean it says within a .5 or less dKh range consistently, week to week over testing. It amazed me how much of a difference doing that made with color. I see your values jumping, even on measurements with dates close together. I'd recommend focusing on stabilizing that, and see how things change over a few weeks or months. Good luck!

 

[denash24]

OK from your readings your not stable at all but thats not your problem it your lights it way to much for that tank run your T5 12 hours a day and run you MH only for 4 hour and see if that helps stop your bleaching.. If you can get a par meter to test par that would be good .

+1gazillion / stability= success and in your case less light= better color....

 

[allsps40]

Ok in the OP the water parameters are posted from over a year. Looks pretty darn unstable to me, SG, Ca, Mg and it looks like the alk swings a lot as well. You need to get your tank a lot more stable to keep sps happy.

 

[sslak]

Yeah, I'm working hard to stabilize things...but it's not JUST the SPS. I can't imagine the frogspawn is all that sensitive to Alk swings. Combination of Alk swings and light seems plausible.

 

[allsps40]

All corals are sensitive to alk swings. Get a ATO and add kalk to the top off water or get a 2 part doser.

 

[sslak]

I already use an ATO.

I dose my 2part manually. Dosing pumps aren't in the immediate budget. I don't believe gadgets are entirely the answer...I know people with successful reefs that dose manually.

I'm a bit worried they would malfunction and overdose as well.

 

[allsps40]

Ok since you already have a ATO just add kalk into the top off water, this will keep can alk and sg stable. You will need to do daily water tests to dial in the amount of kalk needed for your tank. Manual 2 part dosing can be iffy on keeping stability.