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Help!! Corals fading

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Joe, Oct 26, 2016.

  1. Joe GIRS Member

    93
    Southeast Iowa
    Ratings:
    +18 / 0 / -0
    Yes and on that note I am having trouble with my corals fading and I don't know why. My prematers are
    Salinity 35%
    Cal 440
    Alk 8.5 dkh
    Mag 1300
    Feed reef chili every 2 days and use only the club food.
    I have a 120 gallon with around 30 SPS corals and 2 Lps and red mushrooms. It all started about a month ago and has been slowly getting worst. The tank is about 5 years old yet the setup was redone two year ago.
     
  2. Pygmey Well-Known ReefKeeper

    751
    Cedar Rapids, IA
    Ratings:
    +119 / 1 / -0
    What lighting do you have?
     
  3. Joe GIRS Member

    93
    Southeast Iowa
    Ratings:
    +18 / 0 / -0
    2 - 250 watt MH 20k radium
     
  4. Pygmey Well-Known ReefKeeper

    751
    Cedar Rapids, IA
    Ratings:
    +119 / 1 / -0
    Hmmm... Nice setup.. Maybe Jeremy or Matt can jump in here.. Alk seems low but would need there input.. They seem like magicians with SPS :) Also what are your nitrates and phosphates? Is your water too clean?
     
  5. Joe GIRS Member

    93
    Southeast Iowa
    Ratings:
    +18 / 0 / -0
    I have several of Jemery's corals in my tank right now. Just lost my favorite one I got from him.
     
  6. hart

    hart Well-Known ReefKeeper

    730
    Ratings:
    +131 / 0 / -0
    Just issues with corals fading? Lps and sps? Any other issues? Are they fading to white or just less color? Nitrate and phosphate? Carbon dose? Still have any PE?
     
  7. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,818 / 14 / -0
    I split these posts off into a new fresh thread :)
     
  8. Buku Well-Known ReefKeeper

    597
    Ankeny, IA
    Ratings:
    +202 / 4 / -0
    What do you use to measure salinity? Also what are your phosphates at?
     
  9. Joe GIRS Member

    93
    Southeast Iowa
    Ratings:
    +18 / 0 / -0
    Let me start a new post and get off this one
     
  10. Joe GIRS Member

    93
    Southeast Iowa
    Ratings:
    +18 / 0 / -0
    Ok now phosphate are 0.01 Hanna checker
    Nitrates 0
    BRS refractometer
    No carbon dosing
    I also thought my water was to clean that's why I started the reef chili.
     
  11. hart

    hart Well-Known ReefKeeper

    730
    Ratings:
    +131 / 0 / -0
    The most common issue I see now with corals fading is lack of nutrients, I also have had fading due to zero nutrients. Feeding more can work, but careful not to overshoot, you won't see any changes and them BOOM, a lot of phosphate and nitrate. Phosphate looks good, I would try feeding/dosing with nitrate so you don't add any more phosphate. Can make a solution to increase nitrate about 1ppm and watch corals over the next day along with seeing how fast nitrate drops back down. Easier to see cause and effect this way.
     
  12. jeremy Acro Addict

    Davenport, IA
    Ratings:
    +836 / 4 / -0
    Joe I had same problem and my parameters were close to yours. I run
    1.026 Milwaukee digital
    Alk 7.2 red sea
    CA 400 red sea
    MG 1320 red sea
    Phosphate usually about .02 hanna
    Nitrates at 2-4 range Sali fort.

    When my colors were pale I dropped my alkalinity below 8 because my nutrients were so low. I took gfo reactor off line and started feeding my fish heavier. I don't feed my sps anything but light and fish poop.
    I had to start dosing nitrates to get any reading on my tests. I dose seachem flourish nitrogen. I dosed a couple cap full a day until I got to 2ppm on nitrates kit. I have run it up to 5 but no noticeable advantage over 1 or 2ppm.
    It took a while. Like a few months but my fox flame went from a cream/pinkish to red and some of my blue acros are deeper in color and my rainbow Millie freaking glows.
    You saw my filtration when you stopped by. Just run filter socks, large skimmer, a Turbo L2 algae scrubber and water changes. And I still add nitrates about 1 time a month to stay above 1 ppm.
     
  13. jeremy Acro Addict

    Davenport, IA
    Ratings:
    +836 / 4 / -0
    And since I started dosing the nitrates and cleaning the scrubber every 3 or 3 weeks my Phosphate stays at 0 according to the hanna meter. But colors are good. I could probably get better colors by running a bit more blue light but I am really happy with growth.
    2 14k 250 watt Hamilton
    2 blue plus
    2 purple plus
    2 blue reef brite strips.
    I am actually consider going to 10k halides for growth and some better red colors.
     
  14. Joe GIRS Member

    93
    Southeast Iowa
    Ratings:
    +18 / 0 / -0
    Ok cool I just bought a algae scrubber from Roman and planned on adding it soon. He is keeping it running till I get it from him, so the algae growth is well established for me. I lost the super man acro but the rainbow milli, the Aussie gold and the blueberry all have crusted to the size of between a nickel and quarter. So all my growth is good. I was thinking of doing a diy T5 lights to add some color. I will get the item you added and try them. Thanks
     
  15. jeremy Acro Addict

    Davenport, IA
    Ratings:
    +836 / 4 / -0
    I will send you a pic of it. It's actually a freshwater tank additive for a planted tank.
     
  16. jeremy Acro Addict

    Davenport, IA
    Ratings:
    +836 / 4 / -0
    Freshwater Planted Aquarium Nutrients: Seachem Flourish Nitrogen

    There are some threads on reef2reef about dosing spectracide stump remover for increasing nitrates. But this was also recommended.
    You can increase your dose until you get a reading on your test kit. I just dosed email caps daily. It took a couple weeks.
    You will like the scrubber. Bud makes a good scrubber. Works well for me. But it takes a while to really get going and working good. But we'll worth it. And I got rid of all the complex crap I was doing for nutrients reduction. This scrubber really makes it easy.
     

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