Millie losing color and less PE

[Matt Bravo]

Evening everybody, something in my system seems to be off. torches became a bit stubbier, less polyp extension. 2 of my acros are also losing pe, my millie stems are turning grey after about 1.5 months of really good encrusting, pictures and parms posted below

Phos : 0.09
Nitrates 5
Mag 1300
Alk 9.6
Calc 440

FIrst pic was on 10/30
second pic was on 11/12
third pic was on 12/6
fourth pic is on 12/11 (took it today)

I did change my flow pattern, I purchased a gyre. I got the new ai orbit 2 on black friday. No lighting changes.
Only 1 wrasse in the current tank
3 chonches
about 10 hermit crabs
about 20 trochus snail
2 sexy shrimp

Anything helps, i really dont want to lose this guy since hes been growing so well and honeslty the most luck ive had

 

[Spare time]

Do you feed much?

 

[Matt Bravo]

Do you feed much?

The tank doesn’t get much food honestly, mysis for the wrasse twice a day and reef roids on Saturdays or Sundays. It had really good pe this morning, the colors is definitely fading though

 

[Rams]

What’s your tds from your rodi?

 

[tedfisher496]

Evening everybody, something in my system seems to be off. torches became a bit stubbier, less polyp extension. 2 of my acros are also losing pe, my millie stems are turning grey after about 1.5 months of really good encrusting, pictures and parms posted below

Phos : 0.09
Nitrates 5
Mag 1300
Alk 9.6
Calc 440

FIrst pic was on 10/30
second pic was on 11/12
third pic was on 12/6
fourth pic is on 12/11 (took it today)

I did change my flow pattern, I purchased a gyre. I got the new ai orbit 2 on black friday. No lighting changes.
Only 1 wrasse in the current tank
3 chonches
about 10 hermit crabs
about 20 trochus snail
2 sexy shrimp

Anything helps, i really dont want to lose this guy since hes been growing so well and honeslty the most luck ive had

What are you dosing? You could try amino acids or trace elements. When i lost color in my acro it was because some parameter had a swing.

 

[Matt Bravo]

What’s your tds from your rodi?

I don’t have any way of testing that, but I do have an ro system.

 

[Matt Bravo]

What are you dosing? You could try amino acids or trace elements. When i lost color in my acro it was because some parameter had a swing.

I used to dose ab+ but I haven’t in a while. Even though I am concerned about the color I’m also worried about the polyp extension.

 

[Rams]

I don’t have any way of testing that, but I do have an ro system.

Your tds meter in Rodi system will tell that.i suspect it’s your Rodi water issue

 

[Dburr1014]

Have you tried a water change?
It's possible something has depleted if you haven't done a wc at all. This would be the easiest to start with.

Which brings me to salanity. Do you know what it is? How do you test it? Is your tester calibrated correctly? How do you calibrate it?

 

[Matt Bravo]

Your tds meter in Rodi system will tell that.i suspect it’s your Rodi water issue

I don’t really have a specific “reef tank” water filter. A family member gifted me an ro filter about a year ago (search up “best water reverse osmosis filter from shaklee”)
That’s what I’ve been using any thoughts on it?

 

[Matt Bravo]

Have you tried a water change?
It's possible something has depleted if you haven't done a wc at all. This would be the easiest to start with.

Which brings me to salanity. Do you know what it is? How do you test it? Is your tester calibrated correctly? How do you calibrate it?

I will do a 10% wc today and see if that has any effect.

When it comes to salinity I use a refractometer, currently sitting at 1.025, never calibrated though. I usually just rub it with fresh water then dry it completely.

 

[dadnjesse]

I don't know if it's your water but you should have an RO/DI filter not just RO that's for drinking.

 

[Dburr1014]

When it comes to salinity I use a refractometer, currently sitting at 1.025, never calibrated though.

Okay, that is a big red flag.
It definatly needs to be calibrated.
Here is a link, give it a read. You can make your own calibration fluid with plain old table salt.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.php

Once calibrated, check your water.

About the ro water vs. ro/di...depends mostly on your water supply. Some people can get away with just ro. Not many, but a few.
You can always get an "add on" unit that is the di portion. Most units come with a digital inline checker so you can keep tabs what your water is doing.

 

[Matt Bravo]

Okay, that is a big red flag.
It definatly needs to be calibrated.
Here is a link, give it a read. You can make your own calibration fluid with plain old table salt.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.php

Once calibrated, check your water.

About the ro water vs. ro/di...depends mostly on your water supply. Some people can get away with just ro. Not many, but a few.
You can always get an "add on" unit that is the di portion. Most units come with a digital inline checker so you can keep tabs what your water is doing.

Thanks for the link I’ll definitely get it calibrated and post,

 

[tedfisher496]

I used to dose ab+ but I haven’t in a while. Even though I am concerned about the color I’m also worried about the polyp extension.

you may want to look into acropower, really helped my acro. PE can be just about anything from, no3, Po4, Salinity, to much light and flow. Check the PE 1st thing when the light comes on. From my experience my PE decreased when the po4 was elevated, you can also try an ICP test.

 

[Matt Bravo]

you may want to look into acropower, really helped my acro. PE can be just about anything from, no3, Po4, Salinity, to much light and flow. Check the PE 1st thing when the light comes on. From my experience my PE decreased when the po4 was elevated, you can also try an ICP test.

Technically they are elevated, I used to have them at 0.03 and nitrates at 4 (this was probably last month) I will look into acropower though

 

[Matt Bravo]

Also as an update, I had events come up and have not done a wc. I do have a matured tank that I’ve moved them into for the time being though. I plan on fixing whatever is wrong and then getting them back in. I appreciate everyone’s help here

 

[ScottB]

I don’t really have a specific “reef tank” water filter. A family member gifted me an ro filter about a year ago (search up “best water reverse osmosis filter from shaklee”)
That’s what I’ve been using any thoughts on it?

Yeah when you wrote RO instead of RODI, I kind a thought this could be a problem. RO is not enough for getting 0 TDS. Now, it is possible that nothing dangerous is passing through that RO, but perfect well water is ahrd to come by, and all municipal water has , chlorine or chloramines these days plus other active ingredients to keep the pipes from corroding.

 

[jackson6745]

What’s the lighting? Par?

 

[Matt Bravo]

I realized I haven’t updated this thread, my bad on that one. Anyway she ALMOST died on me (still don’t know why). Barely had any neons left under the UV‘s but I stuck it in here either way. Long story short the greens have slowly been coming up the “stalk” again.
(I want to keep track of this so I’ll prob post a few picks in a week or so)