Hey All, I just got back after a long weekend away and noticed certain corals were bleaching and a few appeared to have RTN. I don’t think this was a result of something that happened this weekend but I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back. This is my first time experiencing something like this, so I’d love to hear others thoughts and experiences.
Here’s the back story. I set up my Redsea Reefer 170 late this February, I always intended to stock it wall to wall to really achieve that bustling reef feel. As a result, I overbuilt my filtration with a Roller Mat, Skimmer and Algae Scrubber all stuffed into a ~34 gallon system. About a month or two ago, the Algae Scrubber got rolling and began quickly depleting the nutrients in the tank. I increased feeding to keep nutrients up but my tank consumes nitrates faster than phosphates (or my food has a higher phosphorous concentration). I have been dosing Nitrates to keep them around ~3, which I’ve largely failed at, they hover around 1 (slowly increasing the dose to get to ~3). My phosphates hover around 0.03-0.08. This whole time my calcium has been falling. I kept increasing the dose on my dosing pump to no effect. An ICP test from 2 weeks ago pegged It at 345. Today I recalibrated the dosing head and realized the line was clogged and has been since I last replaced the calcium bottle a few months ago. You fool!!
7 corals are affected. 3 Leptoseris, 2 Cyphastrea, 1 Stylophora, and 1 tiny little piece of a Tri Color Valida that broke off the main frag and I glued it to a rock (because why not). I think 1 Cyphastrea, the Stylo, and Tri Color have RTN, and I think the rest have bleached or are bleaching. the Stylo and Tri color are in the line of fire from a gyre and the tissue loss is on the exposed side so I have a feeling that is the cause and thus this is not connected to the broader bleaching event. The remaining Leptos and Cyphastrea are all generally in low flow and low (almost indirect) light. Many of these corals were showing growth up until a few weeks ago. My working theory is that low nitrates coupled with low calcium created this issue, the odd thing is my other coral are fine, almost happy. It seems to really only affect Leptos and Cyphastrea. The last thing I’ll mention before getting to the Pics is that I increased my light intensity from 75% to 100% recently but I’ve done it over 46 days via the acclimation mode on my lights and I still don’t think they are in too much light (currently on day 43 of 46 so at ~97%). Most are getting ~70 par at the full 100% and the highest is the Jack-O-Lantern Lepto that gets ~130.
Here are the coral that I think have bleached:
And here are the ones that I think have RTN:
Here are my ICP results from 5/18. I dose all the deficient trace elements, via the Captivate Aquaculture but clearly not enough.
Lastly, here is an FTS, generally things seem happy and healthy, growth has slowed since the great calcium shortage of summer 23’ but alarm bells are not going off left and right.
Thanks a lot for bearing with me through that wordy explanation. As always, I’d love to hear any and all advice!
- TM
Here’s the back story. I set up my Redsea Reefer 170 late this February, I always intended to stock it wall to wall to really achieve that bustling reef feel. As a result, I overbuilt my filtration with a Roller Mat, Skimmer and Algae Scrubber all stuffed into a ~34 gallon system. About a month or two ago, the Algae Scrubber got rolling and began quickly depleting the nutrients in the tank. I increased feeding to keep nutrients up but my tank consumes nitrates faster than phosphates (or my food has a higher phosphorous concentration). I have been dosing Nitrates to keep them around ~3, which I’ve largely failed at, they hover around 1 (slowly increasing the dose to get to ~3). My phosphates hover around 0.03-0.08. This whole time my calcium has been falling. I kept increasing the dose on my dosing pump to no effect. An ICP test from 2 weeks ago pegged It at 345. Today I recalibrated the dosing head and realized the line was clogged and has been since I last replaced the calcium bottle a few months ago. You fool!!
7 corals are affected. 3 Leptoseris, 2 Cyphastrea, 1 Stylophora, and 1 tiny little piece of a Tri Color Valida that broke off the main frag and I glued it to a rock (because why not). I think 1 Cyphastrea, the Stylo, and Tri Color have RTN, and I think the rest have bleached or are bleaching. the Stylo and Tri color are in the line of fire from a gyre and the tissue loss is on the exposed side so I have a feeling that is the cause and thus this is not connected to the broader bleaching event. The remaining Leptos and Cyphastrea are all generally in low flow and low (almost indirect) light. Many of these corals were showing growth up until a few weeks ago. My working theory is that low nitrates coupled with low calcium created this issue, the odd thing is my other coral are fine, almost happy. It seems to really only affect Leptos and Cyphastrea. The last thing I’ll mention before getting to the Pics is that I increased my light intensity from 75% to 100% recently but I’ve done it over 46 days via the acclimation mode on my lights and I still don’t think they are in too much light (currently on day 43 of 46 so at ~97%). Most are getting ~70 par at the full 100% and the highest is the Jack-O-Lantern Lepto that gets ~130.
Here are the coral that I think have bleached:
And here are the ones that I think have RTN:
Here are my ICP results from 5/18. I dose all the deficient trace elements, via the Captivate Aquaculture but clearly not enough.
Lastly, here is an FTS, generally things seem happy and healthy, growth has slowed since the great calcium shortage of summer 23’ but alarm bells are not going off left and right.
Thanks a lot for bearing with me through that wordy explanation. As always, I’d love to hear any and all advice!
- TM
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