SPS whitening + browning. Help please.

[Logitek]

I have a mixed reef and below are my water params as of today and the cal, alk and mag stays quite consistent as I dose daily manually to keep them around that figure.

Ammonia NH4: <0.25
Nitrate NO3: 0ppm
Nitrite NO2: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
KH:
8.0
Calcium:
405
Magnesium:
1350
Specific Gravity: 1.025

My fish are 2 Bangaii Cardinals, 1 Fire Fish, 1 Clown Fish and 1 Royal Gramma. None of my inverts cause any trouble to my corals as far as I'm aware.

My tank is a 2ft cube with 2 Kessil A360's set at 6" from either side so there is plenty of light coverage for all corals.

Seriatapora Birdnest - This is losing polyps and going completely white, it has started from the base and is working it's way up. In saying that I still see new growth at the tips.

Purple Acropora - It was once a very nice dark purple all around and now is almost completely white and brown.

Blue Branching Montipora - The polyps were nice and blue however I accidentally snapped off 2 pieces and glued one to a frag plug and another to some rock. Both the snapped pieces have lost colour and the polyps turned brown, the original piece is also turning brown slowly.

Forest Fire Montipora - I haven't seen any growth on this since the day I bought it and I don't think the polyps have extended fully at all.

Any help?

 

[Logitek]

Also this is my latest edition, can someone ID it. You can see it's already losing it's nice green colour and the polyps stopped extending as well after 1 day in my tank.

 

[markalot]

I would say you are stripping the tank of nutrients. Running GFO?

 

[Logitek]

I would say you are stripping the tank of nutrients. Running GFO?

All I have is Rowaphos in a bag in the sump, no reactors.

 

[markalot]

All I have is Rowaphos in a bag in the sump, no reactors.

Still too much, get it out, let the tank ride for a while. 0's are not good.

 

[Logitek]

Still too much, get it out, let the tank ride for a while. 0's are not good.

Mind you when my nitrates were at 5ppm and nitrites at 2.5ppm or whatever they were for a while I still had this issue.

 

[markalot]

Mind you when my nitrates were at 5ppm and nitrites at 2.5ppm or whatever they were for a while I still had this issue.

Nitrites > 0 indicate tank is not cycled. Is this a new tank? Nitrates of 10 or less is not a big concern IMO, PO4 .1 or less also not a big concern, especially if tank is new.

GFO only reduces PO4 and it can reduce it fast, which can harm corals.

 

[Logitek]

Nitrites > 0 indicate tank is not cycled. Is this a new tank? Nitrates of 10 or less is not a big concern IMO, PO4 .1 or less also not a big concern, especially if tank is new.

GFO only reduces PO4 and it can reduce it fast, which can harm corals.

The tank is 4 months old, what do you think my water params should look like to be good for my sps?

 

[markalot]

The tank is 4 months old, what do you think my water params should look like to be good for my sps?

Tough call, it depends on how you want to run the tank.

8 KH and rock steady
~420 Ca
1350 Mg
5 Nitrate
.08 PO4

There is no such thing as a perfect set of numbers. New tanks are tough because you need to move a lot of food through the water column and get it back out but the tank is still maturing so you WILL have algae issues.