very pale sps need advice

R

reefereef

New member
So tank has been going for about 18months, been using Bio pellets for around 10 months, just started group a month ago. So here's the deal, about every couple months I get a cyano bloom and some hair algae. All my sps have great polyp color and great growth tips but that's it, my Ted planner has zero green in it along with my blue voodoo, no green. Using salivary tests I show zero nittates or phosphates . Growth is excellent on everything. Going crazy as I know what my sps should look like just can't get them there. I do weekly water changes of 20g,tank is 200g. Have tons of flow.

Any help appreciated.
 
when i first started using bio pellets i did double what i needed and really pulled too many nutrients out and found i was dosing so many elenments to keep color and the same prob with cyano and hair algae. it seemed as if the system starved itself and bio pellets "starve" then all of sudden they would start to cycle again and do this all the time. i finally cut back on the amout recommened by manufacture(half dose) started up a fuge and put gfo online. what i found was pellets do not really help in phosphates which feeds algae, also by not taking so many nutrients out SPS color darkened. Basically you turn your tank into a zeovit tank and get that pale look from low nutrients. another thing is how is your ph, sometimes that will drop die to pellets, reason why people pipe the efluent from the reactor to inlet of skimmer

i would slowly remove the amount of bio pellets and start running a high grade GFO. also you may want to look into dosing some trace elements. i like dosing strotium, potassium, iodine, and trace elements, as i only do 20% water change a month.
 
I think you are probably starving the sps. Try upping your coral feeding, either by adding food like rotis and clycops to the tank when the lights are out, or by adding more fish. Also SPS love a small amount of phosphates. I have seen the best colors in my tank when my phos was around .03-.04 and alk around 9.5. Random flow, diet and light I think are the main variables when it comes to coloration. What kind of lights are you running and what are you other parameters at?
 
I figures the pellets were stripping the water, will start pulling them out over the next few weeks, think j am ruling around one quart worth. Running brs gfo also.
 
I just recently chucked my pellets. My tank is just too small to run them and they were stripping the water. I lost a couple frags I was very fond of as a result.

It's supposed to be way better to start with a small amount and work up with biopellets.
I've relegated myself to skipping them altogether and doing a slightly larger weekly water change. Soon as I removed them everything started getting much happier again.

For some, they dont work as intended. For others they are great.
I can't control them enough to use them effectively in my system.
 
If you got algae you got phosphates.
You seem to be unaware of the reason why to don't measure any phosphates.
 
Or you can just start FEEDING the tank more! FEED it 2 times a day and test nitrates and phosphates. I bet your SPS start coloring up. Everything benifits when you feed more in a ULNS system. It's import/export. You need to find the balance is all.
 
i feed around 8 cubes of mysis and 2-3 half sheets of nori along with spectrum pellets in between the frozen food, also feed roti just before the lights go out. All my fish are crazy fat and i skim around 3-4 gallons a week of brown gunk.

took out around 1/3 of the pellets, gonna wait a week and take out another 1/3.
 
Keep us updated on any improvements. Is it true that it's not good to run GFO with your pellets due to the bacteria needing a little phosphate?
 
reefereef,
Well then I would keep doing what your doing! Whats your lighting and run schedual like??? I would cut tthe GFO off too. Are you testing with a phosphate meter?
 
using salifert po4 test kit, water never changes from clear. for lighting i am running blue on for 12 hrs, whites come start to ramp up to 75% intensity 90 minutes after blues come on, then over 3hrs they ramp from 75-100-75%, then 90minutes before blues go of they ramp from 75-0%. my no3 also never changes color from clear with my kit, all test are salifert. in my last system i used only GFO and never had an issue, that tank was also aways zero on both po4 and no3 test, didnt use pellets back then and corals always looked great. i still get great growth thought, my leng sy cap grows about 1/4-3/8" a week, it never lost its green or purple.
 
reefereef,
I could never get anything with that Salifer ttest kit. I finallybought a meter(Hanna) and now I can get readings! Anything below .06 and I am good. Above that and I start to lose a little color and some algae starts to grow.
I like 0.03! Thats the number I shoot for. On your lighting, whats the wattage and how close are they to the water.
I'm hopeing I am giving you some useful ideas............
 
lighting a DIY LED, 8" above water, only running 120 3w cree;s but growth is good, gonna add in another 60 leds mixing up some other colors like red and what not
 
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