Who's has high Trates and still keep colors?

J

Johnjohn713

In Memoriam
I'm losing colors on my sticks yet all the Params are within acceptable range. Only thing I could think of is my Nitrates which sits @ 10 ppm. Below are my numbers. Please advise. Many thanks!

Alk 8 Dhk
Ca 420ppm
Po4 .04
SG .026
6x54watt T5HO
 
P04 is typically too high for awesome colors as well. .01, or lower is what most tend to shoot for.
 
I actually get better colors in the .02-.04 range with Po4.

When you say losing colors are they getting pail or are they turning brown?
 
Stability is the key, have bought down phosphate rapidly lately?
Or had an alk change?

As for nitrate, I have found 2ppm about the limit before I see colour loss. Well browning of certain corals
 
As long as all the parameters are staying steady without any major shifts I would up my water changes to work on Nitrates. Just make sure you don't cause any major swings by going too aggressive.

The fact that you have SPS both browning and getting pale is a different twist for me. Are the browning ones located differently than the ones getting pale?
 
No everything is exactly the same through out-location,flow, light etc. i know i have enough nutrient cuz i get algae on my glass in 2 days.

Doing weekly WC of about 10-20 gals on a 100 total vol of water system.
Only thing i matched are temp, salinity and alk before i do wc.
 
Johnjohn713 said:
No everything is exactly the same through out-location,flow, light etc. i know i have enough nutrient cuz i get algae on my glass in 2 days.

Doing weekly WC of about 10-20 gals on a 100 total vol of water system.
Only thing i matched are temp, salinity and alk before i do wc.
Click to expand...

I have had similar issues with corals browning and become pale all at the same time. Not exactly occurring AT the same time, but I have corals that are doing both.

For me, it was low nutrients that was causing the problems. As nutrient levels began to rise from 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate, colors began to improve with the pale corals but I still have an A.Aspera (brown) that refuses to color up.

Btw, even with numerous test kits all reporting 0's, I still had algae growth on the glass.

-Mark
 
Johnjohn713 said:
Just tested again Po4 is .027 via Hanna's egg :)
Click to expand...

your Hanna goes out 3 decimals? mine only goes out 2. that said, i got poor color when PO4 was <=.02; now that I have it at .05, color has started to get much better.

can't speak to NO3 as mine stays really low, prob <2ppm.
 
I work to keep phosphates at .02 -.05 and nitrates at 2 ppm or I see slower growth. I never have lost color but I'm using NSW and do a 20% weekly water change.
 
Spar said:
your Hanna goes out 3 decimals? mine only goes out 2. that said, i got poor color when PO4 was <=.02; now that I have it at .05, color has started to get much better.

can't speak to NO3 as mine stays really low, prob <2ppm.
Click to expand...


I have an URL Hanna Phosphorous where you'd have to do a conversion to get a low reading.

I'm gonna have to lower my trates so it seems.
 
I stopped worrying about nitrates when I found out that WorldWideCorals nitrates are always about 20. My nitrates hover between 15-30 and I get really deep color out of everything. I also haven't changed my water for about 2 months. I know, it defies all that we've learned but as long as everything continues to look good, I'm not going to rush to clean up my water :-)

P04 is between .04-.06.

I'm using 3 Hydra 52s with all colors at 100% except whites (75%) for 5 hrs a day.
 
Last edited:
Man I don't know anymore. We're all been told high nitrate &po4 are not very helpful when it comes to colors but these days I keep hearing/seeing nice tank with off the chart phosphate .1+ and nitrate anywhere from 10-20ppm...sigh
 
Yeah.. your params all look fine. Some other things to check:

Salinity -- if you haven't already, use another method to measure your salinity.
Bulbs? -- maybe the bulbs could use replacing. Have you ever measured your PAR?
Fish -- Could you use some more? I have a really messy blue tang and moorish idol that crap whenever they see a bubble. The acros love the crap.
Light intensity/spectrum -- How long do you keep all T5s on? Which lights do you use?
Carbon -- if you're not running it, definitely do; removes anything bad that might be in the water

Maybe iodine or strontium deficiency but if you're doing water changes once in awhile you should be good.

Or maybe you're right and you just need to drop the nitrates. There's some weird chemistry going on in our tanks and what works for one reefer doesn't always work for others (dirty water) . Good luck John!
 
I second the fish! I recently went from 6 small fish to 13 with a large fox face and a pb tang and my growth has exploded. Also added 3 anthias so I feed 3-4 times a day now. I can't say that has helped but I have had a pretty serious explosion in growth after the addition.
 
OP, can you provide details about your system as follows:<O:p</O:p

1. How many gallons is your tank?<O:p</O:p

2. How much (lbs) liverock do you have in the system/display? Was it liverock or did you start with dead rock?<O:p</O:p

3. How much food do you feed per day?<O:p</O:p

4. How many fishes do you have in the tank?<O:p</O:p

5. How many cups of GFO do you use and how often is it replaced?

6. Any other chemical/biological filtration used?


Once I get the answers to the above, I will see if I can make some suggestions. I was in your position a year or so back. Now most of my corals are coloured up really nice; but I still have one or two stubborn brown ones. But those I think need some more time.
 
100g total volume of water

50 lbs LR with lot of micro fauna

Ceramic rings + chaeto in sump

1 Small hippo & a YT

Half cube of brine or mysis a day. Fish gazed on algae on glass all day long

1/3 cup of BRS Gfo changed every 30 days

Bulbs are 4 months old on for 8hrs
Coral plus
Aquablue Speacial
2 blue plus
1actinic
1 50/50

SG measured wit digital refractometer. Small amount of carbon maybe half a fistful.
 
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