Please Help - SPS Corals Pale / Almost Bleached

H

hilde123

Member
I have been fighting extensive coral paleness (almost bleaching in my opinion) in almost all of my sps corals. Some have been added about 6 months ago and some are 5+ years old (many are frags from old colonies that I lost in a RTN/STN event about 8 months ago). The STN/RTN issue was the result of overly high magnesium (too high to even register on test kit) that was caused by overdosing magnesium trying to achieve 1400 ppm with a bad test kit. Also I had a refractometer that had gone bad and my SG was really 30 ppt when my refractometer was telling me it was 35 ppt.

That was resolved about 8 months ago and I just can't seem to get those vibrant colors to my corals that they once had. I used to dose vodka but stopped at the time I had the STN/RTN event and haven't resumed. The tank is a 180 gallon display, 55 gallon refug, and 20 gallon sump. Lighting is two 250W DE 14k MH (run 4 hrs per day) and 480watt VHO (2 Actinic and 2 50/50) that run about 10-11 hours a day (they ramp up/down from Solar 1000 Dimmer). I run a Geo calcium reactor and a kalk reactor. I have an Reeflo Orca 200 Skimmer, and dose ozone at 40 mg/hr into a old skimmer that acts as a reaction chamber. Also, I run GFO in a reactor as well (only a cup or so that I replace once a month). I run carbon (about a cup as well) in a mesh bag in my sump which I replace monthly as well. Flow is from 2 return pumps - Iwaki MD-30RLXTs, 4 12v Koralia 4's on wavemeaker, and 4 penductors on a OM 4 way with Iwaki MD70RLT (runs periodically throughout the day for short periods). The refugium is packed with chaeto and the display tank has 2 clams, various SPS, LPS, and only 2 small softies.

I am wondering if I am dealing with a nutrient deficiency that may be effectively starving my corals. I feed every other day (in the morning before lights turn on). Food consists of 1/2 a cube of frozen coral mix and a homemade fish food (scallop, clam, squid, shrimp, nori) which is about a 3/4" X 3/4" X 1/4" inch piece. I rotate the fish and coral food every other day, in other words, fish food is given once every 4 days and coral food is once every 4 days. I did recently change my filter socks from felt type (that used to hold a lot a detritus), granted I only cleaned them once a month or so, to nylon mesh ones that I clean every 5 days or so (they dont seem to hold any detritus. I wonder if those dirty socks were keeping nutrient levels, nitrates, phosphates up enough to promote growth. I am curious of everyone's opinion if they believe I am dealing with a nutrient deficiency or not.

Water parameters are as follows:

PH 7.9 to 8.2 (Night-Day)
Temp 76-77
ORP - 360-380
SG - 35 ppt
Mag - 1500 ppm
Alk - 8.8 dkh
Calc - 385 ppm
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0

I'm really at a loss of what I should attempt to resolve the issue, and I don't want to take drastic changes and just make things worse. I did start dosing Brightwell Amino Acids about 4 days ago (about 1/4 recommended dosage) to see if that helps corals but haven't seen any difference (I know it is too early to tell). The only thing that is perplexing is that I have some GHA (not sure which variety) that seems to always grow slowly in the dark/low flow areas of the tank which I question is possible if I have low nutrients.



Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Pics below:

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4hrs seem a little low.I run mine for at least 7 hrs, also ramp up the feeding
Slowly to daily till you get your results. fishload is important too.
 
Will increase feeding to daily, alternating food type. Also plan on adding some more fish in the next few weeks. Hope I dont have nutrient overload! As far as lighting I was afraid that the paleness could be too much intense light, is that not a valid concern? I was thinking that 480W VHO was quite a bit of light and the 2-250W MH really werent necessary for that many hours.
 
I run a 50 gal sps with 2x 250 10K and 4 vho actininc 8 inches off the water at 12 hours vho 10 hours for the MHs.

I second the above post. Increase the photoperiod and the nutrients.
 
I have a similar situation with my system which is primarily SPS along with some Acans, Favia, Ricordea, Zoanthids, Chalices, Scoly and a clam. Seriatopora and Pocillopora seem to be largely immune to it. Some acros look great but most seem to fade and even bleach completely some time after introducing. Montis seem to be more resistant but I do notice some fading in my christmas monti and chili pepper monti. I have a particular peach cap that has not faded but STN's in random places. I've had some success in stopping it by adding reef epoxy to the STN'd area and it usually grows back over it. More recently, it has got the best of a large section of the coral. My LPS looks great as do the zoanthids, rics, scoly and clam. I have had AEFW but I regularly inspect for worms/eggs as most of the acros are removable. I baste them with a turkey baster at least once a week and have not seen any in a while. They were laying eggs on a Tri-color and I glued the crap out of it so I doubt they are there any longer. I actually pull acros out and dip them in Revive from time to time just to be safe and there is nothing. There are no red bugs either. What's interesting about your post is your high mag. I actually noticed my mag was off the charts the other day. I don't inspect it often. How high was yours? I have mine dosed automatically along with Ca and Alk. I use the standard ratio for the most part and I tend to trust the Mag is following the Ca and Alk so as long as Ca and Alk are in check, I don't check the Mag. I just found that it took 1.1 ml to change color on the Salifert test kit. At 1 ml, it would have been 1500. I'm suspicous of it now, but had never heard of mag causing a similar issue prior to reading your post.

I do agree you should feed more. I used to feed similar to your schedule, but eventually increased. I now feed 1 cube and 1 similar size chunk as you of Rod's food daily (both of them). I also feed Nori daily and add a few squirts of Brightwell's Zooplanktos-L and ELOS Aminos every couple days or so. P04 is 0.02-0.03 per a Hana ULR meter. N03 is undectible. I feel we have a similar situation so it will be interesting to find what comes of both of our issues after some time.
 
I stopped dosing msg about 8 months ago when everything went to hell, now it is just over 1500. I have not had any pests (knock on wood) but our issues seem very similar. I still am curious what the symptoms are of a coral that is exposed to too much light. I'm going to boost feeding and see how things go the next few weeks.
 
While I agree that not enough light can be a factor, I don't think it's the cause in your case. Yes, we have similar issues. I on the other hand have 2 60" T5's on a dawn/dusk dim period of one hour each and full intensity for another 9 hours. I also have 2x 250w Reeflux 12k halides and 1x 400w 20k Radium all mounted in Lumenbrite reflectors that are on for 8 hours. I see bleaching with corals mounted high and low in the tank (26" tall). I stopped dosing Mag yesterday after confirming it's still above 1500. We'll see.
 
The tank has 3 fish, 1 powder blue tang (~3"), 1 matted filefish (~1"), and one clownfish (~1-2"). I dont believe I have a lack of light issue, the corals in the tank were vibrant and colorful 1 year ago with the exact same light schedule (note VHo bulbs are 3 mos old MH bulbs 1 mo old) so I dont think it is the lights.
 
Compared to a year ago when the coloration was good on your corals, what has changed? Have you lost fish?

I think for a 255g (gross volume) system you could certainly have more fish. The fish will provide bio-load (nutrients) and feeding will provide NPK both from the fish food and what comes out the rear of the fish. :fish2:

PO4 and NO3 at zero with hair algae...hmm? Have you tried testing after respiration period before the lights come on? What tests are you using for PO4 and NO3?

If you have limited nutrients for photosynthesis then direct feeding of the corals would be a good counter. Aminos would help but I would target dose/feed with a turkey baster. Phyto and/or zoa based coral feeds may help since you already have clams your reef.

Another component that may help is Potassium. I dose a bit of potassium and it seems to help with blue coloration on my acros. I noticed richer coloration in montipora with potassium dosing and it prevents the washout I get with low nutrients. Hope this helps. :)
 
Sam:

Thanks for the info/suggestions, what does "NPK" stand for? The only things I can think of that changed from last year was the loss of a large Sailfin Tang (5-6") it seemed as though it got someblockage in its digestive path (or a growth) that made a bulge in the middle of its body, it got alrge and larger and it finally died. Come to think of it, I bet that being the largest fish probably did provide significant nutrients to the tank. The only other change was replacing the felt filter socks (whihc really used to hold detritius and never really got clean) to nylon mesh socks which clean up really well and dont hold any detritus. As far as potassium, I do add Kent Reef Essential Elements and Coral Vite (10 ml each after bi-weekly water changes (15 gal)). I checked the bottles and they do contain potassium. I test NO3 and PO4 with sailfert test kit, using high resolution method, I have had the LFS test and they came up with sme results. I will try testing tommorrow morning before lights come on and will post results. Thanks for your help, please keep it coming.
 
I had problems detecting P04 with Tropic Marin and purchased a Hanna ULR meter for around $50 and haven't used my Tropic Marin kit since. I consistently get 0.02-0.03 ppm. I did use GFO for a short time when I had higher readings, but I suspected it was causing my water to get too clean and discontinued it while still seeing readings of 0.02-0.03 ppm. I see some hair algae in my frag tank, but none in the display. I suspect my Sailfin takes care that would otherwise appear in my display as I've transferred frags with some HA growing on the plug and the Sailfin takes care of it within a day. I've ruled out lighting as my bulbs are only a few months old. So, some residual P04 is present in the system but I don't believe enough to causing the bleaching of the SPS. Every system needs some amount of P04.
 
I think Im going to get one of those Hanna testers, you know I bet that Sailfin was doing a number on the GHA, it may have been after he died that I began seeing it!
 
I would definitely pull your GFO. Every pale sps thread I come across has GFO involved. You have 0 phosphate, 0 nitrates, and you're running GFO and Carbon. You're SPS need SOME phosphate and nitrates to survive. They're basically starving.

As for having algae, well, algae is highly efficient (think about hair algae, massive surface area to absorb nutrients). They can manage to pull nutrient out of the water with extreme efficiency. Basically, they can pull it out faster than your skimmer can. So hand removal is a good option. Also, they could be getting some nutrients from detritus on the rock, blow off your rock weekly along with water changes to loosen detritus.
 
Temp runs from 76.5-77.5 (it changes with the season on the Apex maxing at about 81. Im sure the temp is accurate, I have two probes on apex and just recently used a calibrated Hanna temp probe +/- .5 degree and it is spot on.
 
It's fair to say that a much higher bioload could help you balance your system. I'm doing the GFO/carbon thing too, but I'm feeding my 8 fish a good deal everyday and dosing Phyto and Oysterfeast every other night. I'm running about 150gal total volume.

Hanna testers/checkers aren't a bad thing to have.
 
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