First off sorry this is long winded but I want to give you some background info. I have never ever had this problem before but I cannot figure out my faded out SPS colors. This is especially effecting my monti caps, birdsnests and few acros. My LPS, softies, most of my acros are all doing well and have pretty good color. All fish are fat & happy and some are even breeding.
A little background on the tank it is a 150G custom cube, Vortech MP40 pump, Quiet one 3000 return pump, Itech cone skimmer, dual BRS phosphate reactor run BRS carbon & phosphate remover and has been set up for almost a year. The lights are a 6 bulb T-5 on the front half of the tank and a 250W MH Radium with LB reflector on the back half.
Tank Params:
Salinity 1.25
Temp 77 degrees
Calcium 450
Alk 8.5
Mag 1330
Phosphate 0 (Hanna digital)
Nitrate 0
I use two part (BRS, with dosing pumps) for alk & calcium supplementation, also add some Kent products (Coral Accel, micro vert, etc.) My colors were pretty good for the first 7 months, but then I ran into problems. The problems seem to have started when I started using Brightwell BM7. After using it for about a month the colors were getting even better. Then I had a little bleaching incident with the monti caps, (it was a few spots here and there on the caps) and my Miami Orchid Acro colony bleached a litlle bit on the tips. After that the corals in question began to fade. So I did some homework and thought it may be a potassium issue, so I stopped dosing BM7 and got a Potassium test kit and found that the potassium levels were around 200 PPM, so I started adding K+ (for about a month now) and the levels are now around 300 PPM. Still low but I am taking it slow, everything has stabalized and the burnt tips on the acro have grown back but all my encrusting & mont caps colors are blah, it is also effected my ORA red planet, ORA Borealis, ORA Joe the coral all very muted in color.
So do I just be patient keep getting my potassium levels up or should I do something different? Thanks for any help!
A little background on the tank it is a 150G custom cube, Vortech MP40 pump, Quiet one 3000 return pump, Itech cone skimmer, dual BRS phosphate reactor run BRS carbon & phosphate remover and has been set up for almost a year. The lights are a 6 bulb T-5 on the front half of the tank and a 250W MH Radium with LB reflector on the back half.
Tank Params:
Salinity 1.25
Temp 77 degrees
Calcium 450
Alk 8.5
Mag 1330
Phosphate 0 (Hanna digital)
Nitrate 0
I use two part (BRS, with dosing pumps) for alk & calcium supplementation, also add some Kent products (Coral Accel, micro vert, etc.) My colors were pretty good for the first 7 months, but then I ran into problems. The problems seem to have started when I started using Brightwell BM7. After using it for about a month the colors were getting even better. Then I had a little bleaching incident with the monti caps, (it was a few spots here and there on the caps) and my Miami Orchid Acro colony bleached a litlle bit on the tips. After that the corals in question began to fade. So I did some homework and thought it may be a potassium issue, so I stopped dosing BM7 and got a Potassium test kit and found that the potassium levels were around 200 PPM, so I started adding K+ (for about a month now) and the levels are now around 300 PPM. Still low but I am taking it slow, everything has stabalized and the burnt tips on the acro have grown back but all my encrusting & mont caps colors are blah, it is also effected my ORA red planet, ORA Borealis, ORA Joe the coral all very muted in color.
So do I just be patient keep getting my potassium levels up or should I do something different? Thanks for any help!
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