Coral help

[Hp1836]

So I am new to sps and having a problem I can not figure out. I have a 90 gallon display mixed reef. Soft corals are doing well as well as most Lps. The problem I am having is sps. A large percent of the frags I have tried either bleach within 24 hours or they bleach mostly and leave small streaks or spots of bright color throughout. I have kept some of these in and they just seem to stay like that. Leptos and other encrusting sps mostly. I have also had a few that sort of dulled out at the very top of the frag but are fine at the sides. However some are doing well. I have a few different plating and branching months that are doing very well and growing fast. Any ideas?

Display is 90 gallons with 30 gallon sump.

Flow is 2 nero 5s at 50%

Lighting is 4 ai primes with an ai blade to supplement and prevent shading. Schedule and intensity attached.

Alkalinity 9.7
Calc 420
Mag1385
Using hanna checkers and dosing with b-ionic as needed
I don't test phosphate and nitrate regularly but last I checked phosphate ulr was 0.9 and nitrate 45 at all 3 LFS I keep getting told these are actually perfectly fine. I do run refugium every night though with chaeto, sea lettuce, and mangroves and have very little algae in display

I feed mysis 2x a day as well as phyto and a sheet of dried seaweed and sometimes throw in bloodworm as I have tons leftover from another tank and all my fish love them.


Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[Lavey29]

How old is the tank? Do you have abundant coralline growing?

 

[Hp1836]

Sorry these are the correct lighting for the 4 primes 2 hour ramp to these intensities then 11 hours to 2 hours down until moonlight

Also the tank is 4 years old most of that time just gorgonians and leathers.
Yes to abundant corraline depending on how much I run fuge

 

[Lavey29]

Sorry these are the correct lighting for the 4 primes 2 hour ramp to these intensities then 11 hours to 2 hours down until moonlight

Also the tank is 4 years old most of that time just gorgonians and leathers.
Yes to abundant corraline depending on how much I run fuge

This is good. Have you done a recent ICP test to look at everything? Have you par checked the tank especially the areas where your SPS frags are? Lights should be on 10 hours total with ramp up and down. Numbers are ok so then lights would be the next concern? Do you dip SPS frags before the tank?

 

[Outlaw Corals]

A mixed reef isn’t easy, you have 3 different species of corals that will need different light requirements and flow requirements, it’s not easy to get that dialed in to keep them all happy

 

[Hp1836]

I have checked par. Nothing crazy high. 75-100 mostly near the bottom. 250ish at the highest point. Lighting was my 1st thought since a few of them have sort of dulled out in color at the very top of the frag where it directly faces the lights but stayed fine around the edges so i was thinking it was to intense but the par test showed nothing crazy high.

Never done an icp. And yes I dip everything using bioadvanced


.

 

[Lavey29]

I have checked par. Nothing crazy high. 75-100 mostly near the bottom. 250ish at the highest point. Lighting was my 1st thought since a few of them have sort of dulled out in color at the very top of the frag where it directly faces the lights but stayed fine around the edges so i was thinking it was to intense but the par test showed nothing crazy high.

Never done an icp. And yes I dip everything using bioadvanced


.

I never dip SPS frags especially if they are shipped. They are stressed and delicate during shipping and a dip can cause RTN as you experience. 250 is ok 350 is better for SPS. The color issue would be due to elevated nitrate levels. 45 is not terrible but can cause browning on SPS. With your alk level 20 nitrates is better range.

 

[Lavey29]

As stated above, mixed reef lighting is difficult. I have an SPS dominant mixed reef. 350 par at the top. 150 to 250 mid tank and 75 to 125 at the bottom.

 

[Hp1836]

I never dip SPS frags especially if they are shipped. They are stressed and delicate during shipping and a dip can cause RTN as you experience. 250 is ok 350 is better for SPS. The color issue would be due to elevated nitrate levels. 45 is not terrible but can cause browning on SPS. With your alk level 20 nitrates is better range.

I will run refugium a lot more to bring down nitrate and see what happens. I haven't seen browning at all. It's more like rapid bleaching or rapid partial bleaching most of the time.

 

[Lavey29]

I will run refugium a lot more to bring down nitrate and see what happens. I haven't seen browning at all. It's more like rapid bleaching or rapid partial bleaching most of the time.

I run mine 12 hours but opposite of the tank lights. You mentioned colors getting dull and that's basically the beginning of browning due to elevated nutrients levels.

 

[bossman818]

Lower nitrate. You will see a difference.

 

[Hp1836]

Thank you everyone. Good to know it's nothing major. Just did a 30 gallon water change. Will do another one in a few more days. Also going to run refugium a lot more. Will see what happens