Underfeeding versus too much light on sps?

[dnguyen1]

Hey guys I am in a phase I think people go thru where due to algae I am feeding less to deprivr nutrients. All my parameters are low.

Alk 8.1
Cal 475
Phos 0
Nitrates 0
Mag 1400

My sps is pale and not really growing... My zoas seem fine tho... They are growing and actually bigger than usually. The change has been going from just ap700 led to now the ap700 with 4 t5 supp.

When it was led only I was running 73%
Now with t5 I am running 45%.

I used to dose corals every other day with reef roids and fed fish every other day. Now I feed fish every other day or third day and only go reef roids once a week.

I also dose acropower daily but totals 25ml a week

No chaeto. Running carbon and gfo.

Any advice would be appreciated. Not sure if too much light or too little feeding. My sps isn't bleaching but appear to be paling and recessing slowlyyyyyy

Thank you!!

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[Oldreeferman]

Pretty polished water your running there.
In nature the nitrates in the Ocean is low too but at 0.25 so maybe just allowing a tad would help to feed the SPS. Maybe some food that is a bit more natural verses processed would help & still keep phosphates low like you have em. Maybe.....

Besides the lighting change its all i see, was the SPS looking ok before the light change?

Usually any change especially lighting make a difference that takes acclimation time so that could be it if all was well before the light change.

Best thing ive figured out is when deciding to actually alter things is to only alter 1 thing period, then give it a week or two to see how things react if all is well then i do my next alteration, that way you know exactly what you did that had the undesired effect.
How long ago when you did this might help to know & again was both changes done at the same time?
With parameters so low in nutrients my guess would be try feeding again since you have nice lighting bet that is it. Most corals need some nitrates not all need light like say NPS but nitrates absolutely.

 

[hkgar]

How would you feel if you were only feed every other day or every 3rd day? Fish in the wild pretty much spend all their time feeding.

I feed 9 grams of frozen food daily plus Nori and romaine lettuce for the herbivores. Corals do not need reefroids or any other type of food. They will feed from the NO3 and PO4 in the water column.

IMHO over feeding is better for both the fish and corals (SPS) and if necessary use a nutrient export method, i.e., ATS or carbon dosing.

 

[dnguyen1]

How would you feel if you were only feed every other day or every 3rd day? Fish in the wild pretty much spend all their time feeding.

I feed 9 grams of frozen food daily plus Nori and romaine lettuce for the herbivores. Corals do not need reefroids or any other type of food. They will feed from the NO3 and PO4 in the water column.

IMHO over feeding is better for both the fish and corals (SPS) and if necessary use a nutrient export method, i.e., ATS or carbon dosing.

Not good for sure!!! Thanks for the advice I can definitely see your point!


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[dnguyen1]

Pretty polished water your running there.
In nature the nitrates in the Ocean is low too but at 0.25 so maybe just allowing a tad would help to feed the SPS. Maybe some food that is a bit more natural verses processed would help & still keep phosphates low like you have em. Maybe.....

Besides the lighting change its all i see, was the SPS looking ok before the light change?

Usually any change especially lighting make a difference that takes acclimation time so that could be it if all was well before the light change.

Best thing ive figured out is when deciding to actually alter things is to only alter 1 thing period, then give it a week or two to see how things react if all is well then i do my next alteration, that way you know exactly what you did that had the undesired effect.
How long ago when you did this might help to know & again was both changes done at the same time?
With parameters so low in nutrients my guess would be try feeding again since you have nice lighting bet that is it. Most corals need some nitrates not all need light like say NPS but nitrates absolutely.

Things were good before I stopped feeding but didn't think it'd go so fast I'll be back to my once a day now and monitor my nitrates and phosphates

Frankly I think my rodi unit was what caused the algae growth

Thanks everybody for the insight

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[Timfish]

Sorry but your phosphates are way too low. Definitely increase your feeding. The problem you're going to have is as you transition to a feeding level acceptable fo ryour corals you're going to have to stay on top of nuisance algae as it will respoond faster than your corals will.

Here's links to research showing how critical PO4 is to corals:

Phosphate Deficiency can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Nutrient enrichment.pdf

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00103/full

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301601?via=ihub

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022098111004588

High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/16/2749.full

I also wouldn't be feeding your corals directly. The University of Hawai'i looked at feeding artificial foods to several so called "SPS" coral species and found when compared to controls most feeding regimens had a negative impact on their growth. Also SHantz and Burkpile (2014) reviewed the data from something like 208 experiemnts from 56 research papers and found dosing nitrates had a far worse impact on calcification than PO4.

 

[hkgar]

the secret to colorful,healthy corals....obvious to some,elusive to many