PALE SPS!!! BRS gfo and carbon maybe?

[pusanpa]

I have been battling with pale sps for more than two years now.
I tried out everything but nothing have worked.:deadhorse1:

LAST NIGHT I read that sometimes bad batch of carbon with high copper contamination will result pale, starving look sps.
I have been using BRS brand last two years.:bigeyes:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=83178

High copper means = pale coral. (similar to zeo spur 2)
Does anyone have healthy sps tank using BRS gfo and carbon?

Does anyone experiencing this with BRO carbon/gfo this? Or is it just me? :uhoh3:

Joe

 

[NeilFox]

It is really hard to source out good GAC. Why don't you test for copper and see?

 

[WayneL333]

Hey Joe, sorry to hear about your problems. I use brs gfo and carbon exclusively for over two years too and never had any issues. I change them out every 3 weeks or so.

How often do you change yours? He much do you use? Do you use biopellets too by any chance?

 

[jscarlata]

This happened to me as well, but I believe it was more to the water being stripped too Much leaving no nutrients for the corals.
I took both offline for a while and color came back, still coming back actually.
However, I first went thru a cyano bloom, then hair algae...I now have some GFO back up, and I feed the coral Red Sea reef energy a/b and sometimes oyster feast.
Test your nitrate and phosphate levels and see where it's at..

 

[t4zalews]

Your corals are starving....and need to ease back on stripping the water. Corals need some stuff in the water to color up. Try feeding your fish more

 

[aileen]

I agree with the above! GFO can strip the water of all phosphates and you need some. U wanna use a Hanna phosphate checker and if u have lps and sps 0.05 - .07 is good. Nitrates of about 0.25 - 0.50 are okay too for a mixed reef. Try feeding oyster feast every other day.

 

[pusanpa]

I removed the GFO and carbon and added two more fish.
I will keep you updated.

 

[Andyf30]

I had this happen. You may have too much carbon and gfo in your system. They strip a lot of stuff out. Dial back the volume of media and you should be fine. I lost one or two corals when I first added GFO since it dropped phosphates so fast.

 

[Lpoole]

Yeah they are hungry. I use combination of oysterfeast and amino acids. Also I've heard of using higher kelvin bulbs like 20k bulbs. Bulbs that are 10k are more for growth. But that's for another thread.

 

[williewilliams]

Feed and use amino/vitamin supplement, as stated above. I went through the same thing, then I started feeding heavy. All corals colored back up and no problems with phosphates. You will have to find the sweet spot on the amount of feeding so you don't have an explosion of algae. good luck with it.

 

[pusanpa]

FTS. You will be disappointed when the daylight is on.

SPEC
50G breeder (drilled for Gl******* overflow box 700gph)
20g sump
Equipment
TEK T5 x6 bulbs 9hr actinic 4.5hr full lighting
cs 150 cone skimmer with atman 2600 pump
Dual Auto top off straight from RODI using two solenoids
50LB liverock (40lb in the sump)
GFO 24/7 (in reactor) not anymore!
Carbon 24/7 (in reactor) not anymore!
koralia, tunze
Quiet one return pump 800gph
Sea swirl ¾” return

Dosing
ALK done by BRS doser on auto timer
Manual Ca & Mg
Microbacter every weekend

 

[Arkayology]

Feed your corals bro.

 

[animalkingdom]

adding more fish could be an easy solution...but yes looks like a bit on the low side of nutrients

 

[ksicard]

adding more fish could be an easy solution...but yes looks like a bit on the low side of nutrients

+1

Most of the time people overlook the power of fish poop. People will sometimes spend 3x as much money of foods instead of just buying 1-3 more fishies to reach the desired level of nutrients. Just add a fish or two and re test 1 to 2 weeks later to see where your nutrients are at, once you get some nutrients in the tank just give your corals time to color back up.

 

[tdb320reef]

+1

Most of the time people overlook the power of fish poop. People will sometimes spend 3x as much money of foods instead of just buying 1-3 more fishies to reach the desired level of nutrients. Just add a fish or two and re test 1 to 2 weeks later to see where your nutrients are at, once you get some nutrients in the tank just give your corals time to color back up.

+3 In order

1. Add Fish and feed them a few times a day
2. Mix up freeze dried Cyclops eze, Reef Chili and coral frenzy and dose daily.
3. Feed Oyster feast every other night
4. Mix Amino Acid and Trace elements and dose 1/3 amount.
5. Turn down skimmer

That is what I did.

 

[ksicard]

that in order part cracked me up. Not sure why, but it did. tdb320 hit the nail on the head I'd follow his feeding regimen and advice.

 

[mpoletti]

More fish poop.

 

[Zstriker]

I think you need to be very careful with:

1. Turning down skimmer
2. Shutting down GFO completely

I have gone through this recently - I found I had pale corals, so I shut everything down and then fed, fed, fed. Corals went from Pale to Pale Brown. Pale brown? Is that possible....unfortunately, yes!

I learned a very good lesson from some advice on RC. Corals need food in the water column - so up your feeding. However, corals also don't like a polluted tank, full of inorganics. It is a balancing act of nutrients in and then out.

So I would vote for keep the GFO running, don't over use it, keep the skimmer moving, but add fish and nutrients to the tank. This will feed your corals, improving color, but won't hinder the growth by keep phosphates low. I have been on both extremes, 1. ton of filtration and minimal feeding, to 2. Overfeeding, heavily stocked, amino acid pouring tank, with filtration equip shut off.

Supreme growth and color did not return until I managed to involve principles from both 1 & 2 simultaneously. Uhh - except just feed a substantial amount...it is hard to under feed and over feed

Just an opinion. But please keep us posted!

Many reefers struggle with this, search the forums, only to come across threads like this, where the OP never returned back to report what happened! So keep us in the loop!

Good luck!

 

[pusanpa]

Zstriker
Thanks so much for your message. Very helpful!!!!
I have gone though step 1 and 2 and back to 1 again.
I will try lots of feeding as well as good filtration.

 

[Zstriker]

Also - couple more helpful things to watch for....

When coming out of the pale coral business, you will see your corals darken, some even go darker brown, this is good! Slowly, some of these will turn green, not sure why, but many corals will go dark brown/greenish during the coloring up process. I would encourage you to take individual pics of corals with your phone, then document changes every 3-5 days.

At this point, if your corals continue to darken, up your photoperiod to 5.5-6.5 hours for your daylights. I noticed you listed 4.5 hours for full day time lighting which is slightly low. However, I know how frustrating lighting a shallow tank with t5s can be! You basically try everything to stop things from bleaching! Anyways, just wanted to clarify what I have gone through when dealing with this. Basic point being - when the coral start to darken from more feeding, don't panic, the color will come.

Another thought - I'd aim to keep your tek fixture 6-10 inches above that tank(perhaps on the higher side of this). I believe a 50 breeder is pretty shallow? Doing so may help the corals rebound faster. Once the coral darkness returns, you could drop it back down lower.

Last thought - Man I've gone through everything in this hobby....watch your alk levels during this process. You may find that while overfeeding, underfeeding, raising lights, increasing photoperiod - may all influence alk consumption shifts. I'd imagine demand will decrease slightly while the corals darken, then resume to a higher consumption rate once things get dialed back within a month or so.

Just a couple thoughts that could save you further grief.