Please help me color up my SPS corals, pictures attached

[greg683x]

Hey all, the thread title kind of says it all. I have several sps corals, a hawkins, a red planet, a pink birdsnest, a red/orange monti cap, and a green slimer. All of these corals have been great growers. The Slimer and the monti cap have great color too, the monti has more than tripled in size since I got it 5 months ago. The red planet ive only had for two months, hes encrusted his plug but hes very white with a pink hue, and hes faded green at the base. Birdnest is pretty much the same, hes grown a lot but looks VERY white/pink and bland. The Hawkins isnt as bad but hes not that rich blue youre use to seeing with them, especially at the base.

Ive read a ton online about this and it can be frustrating because you read all these articles and some ideas contradict the other. So I really appreciate all of your help for those willing to give it, the stubbornness of trying to figure this out myself has started to wear off

I guess I'll start with my tank details/param and what Ive done so far.

I have a 90 gallon mixed reef with 40 gallon sump (estimate about 100 gallons of volume) - I water change 5 gallons every weekend
-In the tank I have a yellow tang, a melanarus wrasse, a leopard wrasse, two black clowns, a watchman goby, a lawnmower blenny, and as of last weekend in an effort to increase fish poop, I added three blue/green chromis

-salinity 1.024 (I recently noticed my refracometer was out of cal and am currently raising slowly to 1.026
PH- been pretty rock solid at 8.3-8.4 since I started using dosing pumps (before it was around 8.0-8.1)
ALK- 9.0 , dose 9 times a day with dosing pump
Cal- 430, dose 9 times a day with dosing pump
Nitrates- 0
Phosphates-0
-Chaeto is kept in my refugium in my sump
Temp-80-81.5 degrees depending whether its night or day
Lighting - 2 kessil A360WE on 12h ramp up and ramp down cycle, 2 single bulb sun blaster t5ho fixtures(one bulb ATI Blue+, the other is ATI coral+), one on each side of the kessils - they run 8h a day - the lights sit about 8" above the water line.

The red planet sits the highest in the tank at about 8" below the surface

I feed usually once a day when I get home from work, I feed reef frenzy, I usually put about a nickel sized chunk in. I also occasionally drop a small sheet of seaweed in for the fish

-- I stopped running my dual reactor with carbon and gfo about a week and a half ago after constantly reading that they can be part of the problem by stripping nutrients from the water

--My skimmer is a reef octopus super reef 1000sss. It hasnt been running since saturday, the impeller is bad so I wont have it running until the end of the day tomorrow. Im using this as a chance to see if no skimming has any kind of positive effect for a week.

--Ive been dosing acropower for a week, so far no change

--I got a potassium test kit and I was at 315, so I was going to dose potassium but then noticed my refractometer was out of cal. Once I fixed that and brought my water change reservoir to 1.026 from 1.023, my potassium went up to 400. So this should increase my potassium with water changes over the next few weeks


So this is pretty much where I'm at. :headwalls: This has been very frustrating, especially since the corals have been growing. If they werent, then id really know something big was wrong. I feel like theres one minor detail that I hopefully just need to adjust and everything will start to come around. Its just been a pain to figure out exactly what that is. If youre still reading, thanks alot, and I welcome all opinions.

 

[vhuang168]

Nitrates n phosphates at 0 are your issue. Couple that with highish alk n high light wig long light period and u get place colors/bleaching.

Does that hystrix still have flesh on it!?!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[oseymour]

What type of lights are you using? I've primarily used LEDs since I started in the hobby about 4 years ago with a brief stint with t5 but one thing I've learned is that different lighting can color corals in different ways.

I've brought home corals from the store in one color only to have it slowly change color weeks later.

 

[2wheelsonly]

i'm in the same boat, good luck.

I have gone from high nutrients, to low nutrients, to overfeeding to underfeeding to high alk to low alk to high calc to low calc to feeding the fish so much I am afraid they will die of obesity to feeding little to mass water changes to low water changes and then to flow so high it killed an SPS...no matter what I get fading and tissue loss.

Starting to think that these LED light kits are just junk. I'm about to chuck $5,000 worth of fixtures into the trash and go back to T5.

 

[Scorpius]

Those corals look hungry. Try lowering your temp to 78. I have better luck at 78 degrees.

 

[greg683x]

What type of lights are you using? I've primarily used LEDs since I started in the hobby about 4 years ago with a brief stint with t5 but one thing I've learned is that different lighting can color corals in different ways.

I've brought home corals from the store in one color only to have it slowly change color weeks later.

I have 2 kessil A360WE's the intensity maxes out at 70%

I have have two single tube sunblaster t5ho fixtures. One has a ATI Coral+ bulb, the other had Blue+ -- the t5's run for 8h each day

 

[greg683x]

Nitrates n phosphates at 0 are your issue. Couple that with highish alk n high light wig long light period and u get place colors/bleaching.

Does that hystrix still have flesh on it!?!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think so?? Its been that way since I recieved it. It's polyps do come out, some are red, some are not.

Its definitely not as thick as you see in some pictures but I think pink birdsnest can have have really thick branches but also really thin ones. Am i wrong?

What makes you think ALK is high, Ive read in lots of places 9 is a pretty solid place to keep it at

 

[greg683x]

Those corals look hungry. Try lowering your temp to 78. I have better luck at 78 degrees.

Im gonna lower the temp a bit.

For the moment Im a bit hesitant to reall blast the tank with food since Ive been skimmerless for the past week. Once I get my new impeller Im gonna start feeding more and target feeding the corals, maybe even see if I can get a bump in nitrates to like 1 or 2

 

[reefanatik]

I think so?? Its been that way since I recieved it. It's polyps do come out, some are red, some are not.

Its definitely not as thick as you see in some pictures but I think pink birdsnest can have have really thick branches but also really thin ones. Am i wrong?

What makes you think ALK is high, Ive read in lots of places 9 is a pretty solid place to keep it at

I lost a few corals and some have burned tips. From my research on RC it seems as though my problem is low nutrients and high DKH of 9.5. A low nutrient tank should have a DKH of around 7-8. I reduced my DKH to 8 and am finally starting to see new growth on my sps. I still have allot to learn but that's what I think my problem was. Good luck

 

[greg683x]

I lost a few corals and some have burned tips. From my research on RC it seems as though my problem is low nutrients and high DKH of 9.5. A low nutrient tank should have a DKH of around 7-8. I reduced my DKH to 8 and am finally starting to see new growth on my sps. I still have allot to learn but that's what I think my problem was. Good luck

Pardon my inexperience but how is Alk related to low nutrient systems?? I dont mind lowering it, I just dont want to do it just do it. One person will say 9 is too high you should lower it to 7.5. Another person will say 9 is too low, raise it to 12.

I thought a dkh of 9 was good place, at least it is according to the nice folks at vivid aquariums :bigeyes:

 

[HurseMaGurse]

do you test magnesium? i see a fading of color when my mag drops.

 

[UTCReefer]

+1 to all the above comments. I had some light colored corals like yours when my nutrients got too low. I added a few more fish and then also started mixing some reefroids in with my fish food a couple times a week. Corals are all colored up now and growing nicely, so is my chaeto.

 

[vhuang168]

I think so?? Its been that way since I recieved it. It's polyps do come out, some are red, some are not.

Its definitely not as thick as you see in some pictures but I think pink birdsnest can have have really thick branches but also really thin ones. Am i wrong?

What makes you think ALK is high, Ive read in lots of places 9 is a pretty solid place to keep it at

9 is on the high end of "normal" range. I keep mine at 9.8-10dkh. BUT my nitrates are 1-2 n phosphates are at 0.02-0.03.

If you want to keep it at 0 nitrates 0 phosphates, you will need to lower the alk level or possibly suffer alk burn and you will have pale or bleached sps (as you have noticed).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Grant W]

Lower alk to 7.5 ish and feed that tank.

 

[Bdial]

I'm in the same color boat you are. My corals are growing like crazy. I'm seeing really good growth. But my colors suck. Some look good. Most don't. They are pale and ugly. I know my bulbs need changed for starters. A few months ago I lost several fish due to a contamination issue I was am unaware about. But I've since me fixed that and I'm getting my bio load back up. Try feeding some more, stirring your sand, blasting your rocks. I was doing that once or twice a week this summer and saw great growth and happiness.

 

[IAShane]

I have a similar setup as you, same size tank, similar sump, etc. You have more fish than I do and I feed three times as much as you do.

I agree that feeding more would be helpful. In my experience, the more I feed my tank the happier it is. Just don't over do it. Increase food slowly and see what happens.

 

[greg683x]

i'll be letting the alk drop down to 7.5 over the next day or so.

I'll also be dropping my temp down to 78 over the next couple days too.

I'll report back after a sufficient amount of time to see if any of this helped.


I'll also be jacking up the feeding too once my skimmer pump impeller shows. So much for guaranteed delivery on thursday

 

[Ucantwin]

Alk is related to nutrients because higher alk tends to lead to faster growth. If you don't have the nutrients to support the higher alk, you run into issues. Also do not be afraid of nutrients. There is a reason a corals entire body is made to eat . I would try to keep no3 between 3-5ppm and po4 around .02. 100% your sps look so faded is because your low no3 and po4.