SPS turning brown, please help me

[dvillar20]

Hey guys I recently prchase some frags and I notice that my green bali slimmer and millerpora lost most of their green intensity color and are turning brown. I can still see the polyps full extended, but the color it's totally gone.

However, i have several kinds of green montipora and they are doing just great as well as my lps. Other sps that are not green or purple ar doing find

My paramenters are:

Calcium 470
Alkalinity 10.5
Magnesium 1400
Nitrate .50
Nitrite 0
PO4 0 (i'm going to my lfs to buy other test to double check)
Ph: 8.15
Ammonia: 0
Salinity: 1.023
Temperature: 79.1 celcius

I feed my tank twice a week with
Red sea reef energy A B
Marine snow
Cyclop-peeze
Dr g's SPS max
Reef Chili

I mix everything together and target feed all my corals.

Partial water changes every tuesday of 10gal with red sea salt.
In addition, i have 2 Hydra AI hanging about 18" from water level.

I have no idea if the problem is too much light? I need more ligth, low nutrients? Please I really need help this is becoming very frustrating.

Thanks a guys

 

[sharkboy99999]

Silinity is kinda low should be more around 1.025 and cal is a little high for me at least . I keep mine cal at 445ppm and salinity at 1.026

 

[horseplay]

Try to match the levels to NSW.

Corals turn dark brown when there is not enough light.

When you make changes only change one factor at a time otherwise you will not know what have changed.

You SPS maybe starving too even if you're feeding. Fish poop is the best food for corals. What is your stocking level?

I would start with matching water parameters to NSW.

 

[dvillar20]

Try to match the levels to NSW.

Corals turn dark brown when there is not enough light.

When you make changes only change one factor at a time otherwise you will not know what have changed.

You SPS maybe starving too even if you're feeding. Fish poop is the best food for corals. What is your stocking level?

I would start with matching water parameters to NSW.

My fish stock level is:
2 clown
1 yellow Tang
1 longnose hawk
1 royal gama
1 six line wrasse
1 sailfin tang
1 kole yellow tang
1 watchman goby
2 damisels
2 blood shrimps

If i have to choose I think it might be light.. But how can I know if it's lack of light. All the acroporas Are about 8" below water surface....

If i have to increase led intensity; which color should I have to increase? AI hydra's give me the option to manage every single led...

Thanks

 

[dvillar20]

Silinity is kinda low should be more around 1.025 and cal is a little high for me at least . I keep mine cal at 445ppm and salinity at 1.026

Perfect, I will increase salinity to about 1.025. Calcium I'm still playing with since I'm using a dosing pump. I will lower the daily amount.

Thanks

 

[Oldude]

How long ago did you buy the frags in question? It is not uncommon for sps to color down when put into a new system.
Your specific gravity is a bit low but I doubt that is the problem. With the amount you are feeding I would think you likely have high phosphate levels. Mix that with inadequate lighting you have a perfect recipe for brown sps.

 

[dvillar20]

How long ago did you buy the frags in question? It is not uncommon for sps to color down when put into a new system.
Your specific gravity is a bit low but I doubt that is the problem. With the amount you are feeding I would think you likely have high phosphate levels. Mix that with inadequate lighting you have a perfect recipe for brown sps.

Just went to my LFS and seems like my phosphate kit was expired. It reads .08ppm which I believe is still on the low range. Should I use phosphate rx to lower it down?

In addition, i spoke with a great rep from AI and seems like i have my hydras hanging a little to high at 18". He suggested to lower them at about 12" above water surface. And also increase my intensity by 5% per week.

What do you guys think about it? Any other guess or advice?

 

[bogg]

+1 oldude chill with the foods/target feeding also

 

[dvillar20]

+1 oldude chill with the foods/target feeding also

Thanks, what's your advice?? I should not be target feeding the acros? How often would you feed. My tank is 90gal mix reef.. But as you can see having some issues with my SPS

 

[dvillar20]

How long ago did you buy the frags in question? It is not uncommon for sps to color down when put into a new system.
Your specific gravity is a bit low but I doubt that is the problem. With the amount you are feeding I would think you likely have high phosphate levels. Mix that with inadequate lighting you have a perfect recipe for brown sps.

Oldude, I bought the frags about a week ago. I bought them in Puerto Rico and brought them back to Panama, Central America in my lugagge. I have done this many times in the past. We have 0 live stock for sell down here.

 

[dvillar20]

Bump... for more advices please.... I need more suggestions

 

[ReefWreak]

don't target feed acropora or other hard corals. Feed the fishes a reasonable amount, and the acros will eat fish poop and dissolved nutrients from the water column.

I think that you're likely seeing, as someone else mentioned, the bounceback from the frags. When moving to a new system, especially one with different light and different nutrient concentrations, corals brown out, but then come back. Sometimes it takes a month or more.

Your phosphates are a little high, though there is a lot of dissent these days about whether ultra-low nutrients are a good or bad thing. You should aim for ultra-low nutrients by default, and can eventually experiment with higher nutrient levels. I would say start slowly adding a GFO-based phosphate remover. I would also stop feeding all of those "coral foods" and just focus on feeding the fish for my above reasons and to lower your nutrients.

 

[dvillar20]

don't target feed acropora or other hard corals. Feed the fishes a reasonable amount, and the acros will eat fish poop and dissolved nutrients from the water column.

I think that you're likely seeing, as someone else mentioned, the bounceback from the frags. When moving to a new system, especially one with different light and different nutrient concentrations, corals brown out, but then come back. Sometimes it takes a month or more.

Your phosphates are a little high, though there is a lot of dissent these days about whether ultra-low nutrients are a good or bad thing. You should aim for ultra-low nutrients by default, and can eventually experiment with higher nutrient levels. I would say start slowly adding a GFO-based phosphate remover. I would also stop feeding all of those "coral foods" and just focus on feeding the fish for my above reasons and to lower your nutrients.

That's great, thank you very much for your advice. I will stop target feed my acros and other hard corals.

I currently use a Phosban reactor, Should I add something else to lower my PO4?

 

[ReefWreak]

That's great, thank you very much for your advice. I will stop target feed my acros and other hard corals.

I currently use a Phosban reactor, Should I add something else to lower my PO4?

No, I would just continue that. Cutting back on feeding while keeping your normal GFO/Phosban regimen will reduce your PO4.

Just keep in mind you will do more harm than good if you lower your phosphates too quickly. Everything in moderation, even if changing from bad to good.

 

[acrohead500ppm]

Im not sure what test kits you are using, but considering your salinity is 1.023 and your calcium is reading at 470 at this salinity level tells me that might be a false high.

using API by any chance?

also, more than likely the kit you are using to test P04 only picks up on inorganic p04, not the organic phosphates added by foods/coral foods.

Finally, as others said some corals will temporarily lose some color while acclimating to a new system, however if you don't see the color returning in a few weeks, evaluate lighting and nutrients.

 

[dvillar20]

Do you all think one of the reasons the corals change to brown might be lack of light because they are hanging too high from water surface? is this possible?

 

[acrohead500ppm]

Do you all think one of the reasons the corals change to brown might be lack of light because they are hanging too high from water surface? is this possible?

What lights were they under before? how deep of water?

 

[dvillar20]

What lights were they under before? how deep of water?

The frags were under T5.. it was basically a display tank and probably they were pretty high about 2-3" from water surface.

I'm using RED SEA pro kit to measure all my water parameters. As I said before, my PO4 kit seems like it was expired since the reading was 0 all the time. Went to the LFS bought another RS kit and it reads .08ppm.

I just did a 10 gal water change and I'm planning un cutting down the feeding a little be to help the PO4 get lower.