Restart the REEF!

[reefsurfing]

Hey reefers,

I have a 90 gallon sps tank and due to a vermetid that snuck in on a frag I tore down the tank and restarted. I knew ahead of time this would be difficult and some issues would spring up along the way so I wanted to ask for some advice. After breaking my tank down my SPS stayed in a temp. home (40breeder) while I re construted my 90. I used new sand and rock from BRS combined with my 9month established water. The cycle my tank felt was small and for the most part lasted only 2 weeks with barely noticable NO3,NO4 and still 0 phos. The tank has been back up and running for about 6 weeks and some colors are returning to my slightly browned sps. PE is wonderful and the polyps themselves have color but mostly browned out sps. my params are

ammonia-0
nitrates -5
phos-0
alk 11.5 (I know its high) salifert
calc 450 salifert
mag- 1450-1500 salifert ( I wish it was a little lower)
1.025-1.026-BRS refracto

I am currently using the rest of my instant ocean salt for 10-15% water changes weekly and then switching to tunze salt. My Best guess is that the small cycle combined with a possible alk swing from 9-11.5 is causing the brown issue; but I am wondering can I do anything besides test and wait?

PS for some reason my red planets (4) and my plum crazy look amazing
while Joe the coral, my pearlberry ,frogskin, borealis took heavy fire:blown:
while the tricolor valida, blue millie are somewhere in the middle not brown but not as vibrant as before.

All my LPS, Softies and Zoas are doing really well

:idea: Ideas?:idea:

The Red planet is getting its red color back in a lot of spots since this pic was taken.

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[allsps40]

Just keep an eye on your parameters and give it time. The tank is young since you restarted it with all new dry rock and sand. I would get away from IO and RC they have had some issues with the salt mix lately (high alk and ca, mixing really brown). I switched to H2Ocean, I have heard good things about Tunze also. Get you alk to 8-9 and keep po4 at 0. Stability the key to sps.