Trying to narrow down what's fading some of my SPS.

[LgTas]

The problem:

Top of my rock is about 375 PAR as measured by a seneye. I have a mix of Acros and Seriatopora in this space. Some of the stags, A. echinata, strawberry short cakes etc. have paled or bleached while others like my bird of paradise seriatopora, A. spathulata, and A. horrida are growing well. I'm guessing too much light and am debating turning my lights down to around 250 par but this will impact my LPS which are growing well in the lower reaches (sitting around 150 PAR). Tenuis and other acros lower down are growing well.

Parameters:
I've attached my last ICP. I am dosing Seachem Reef Trace, Manganese, Zinc, and Vinegar. I do weekly 10% water changes with unfiltered NSW from my local bay.

Alk - 8.3
Cal - 460
Phosphates - 0.6
Nitrates - 9
Mag - 1360

Any other suggestions to resolve this before turning the lights down?

 

[Lago]

How long were the corals in the tank before they paled?

 

[LgTas]

around a month to two before they started fading.

Salinity 35 ppt

 

[penguinexdeus]

are your phosphates a typo? icp had it at 0.049 - did you go from 0.049 up to 0.6 or did you mean 0.06?

 

[Lago]

I would say a safe thing to do would be to try and move your affected corals lower (depending if only a minority are bleaching/paling) and see if there's any improvement after a few weeks. I say move them because I don't see a point in messing with the whole tank (if from what it seems like) a lot of your coral are doing fine.

I also don't know if this is always the case maybe someone else can help chime in. But when I gave my acro too much light I found that the symptoms were more of exposed branches got bleached the hardest and anything shaded experience little to no loss in color.

 

[Lago]

are your phosphates a typo? icp had it at 0.049 - did you go from 0.049 up to 0.6 or did you mean 0.06?

Yeah I saw that but even with those phosphate levels they would be seeing more coral browning that coral bleaching. So I don't think phosphates are the issue in this case.

 

[LgTas]

are your phosphates a typo? icp had it at 0.049 - did you go from 0.049 up to 0.6 or did you mean 0.06?

Yup sorry typo. 0.06 per last Hanna check.... why you shouldn't write posts while in a meeting!

 

[LgTas]

I would say a safe thing to do would be to try and move your affected corals lower (depending if only a minority are bleaching/paling) and see if there's any improvement after a few weeks. I say move them because I don't see a point in messing with the whole tank (if from what it seems like) a lot of your coral are doing fine.

I also don't know if this is always the case maybe someone else can help chime in. But when I gave my acro too much light I found that the symptoms were more of exposed branches got bleached the hardest and anything shaded experience little to no loss in color.

I've tried this with one pink acro and I have a highlighter acro thats going the same way. I'll move that one down too and monitor.

The green slimer has been moved to my frag tank which has about 180 par.

 

[LgTas]

Bump

 

[LgTas]

Still struggling with the fading and now my bird of paradise is stning. Latest icp attached.

Made the call and turned the lights down today. Will monitor and see what response i get.

3 x Noopsyche k7 v3 plus 2 x populargrow 110cm light bars at the rear.

W - 17%
LB - 28%
RB - 28%
UV - 28%
R - 15%
G - 12%

Frustrating

 

[LgTas]

bump

 

[Lago]

Only thing I can think of would be to increase your nitrates and phosphates. I would not always recommend this but raising my nitrates (currently at 30 ppm) and phosphates (at .2 ppm) seemed to help my corals gain color back. Certainly get other opinions if you plan to go down this route.

 

[LgTas]

Only thing I can think of would be to increase your nitrates and phosphates. I would not always recommend this but raising my nitrates (currently at 30 ppm) and phosphates (at .2 ppm) seemed to help my corals gain color back. Certainly get other opinions if you plan to go down this route.

Not a bad shout. My phosphates usually sit around 0.08 so the recent drop to 0.04 could be causing stress.

Ill whip out the reef roids and slowly start raising them. Ill also increase my nitrate dosing slightly and monitor.

 

[Pod_01]

Still struggling with the fading and now my bird of paradise is stning. Latest icp attached.

Made the call and turned the lights down today. Will monitor and see what response i get.

3 x Noopsyche k7 v3 plus 2 x populargrow 110cm light bars at the rear.

W - 17%
LB - 28%
RB - 28%
UV - 28%
R - 15%
G - 12%

Frustrating

Just an opinion, decreasing / sinking PO4 levels especially below 0.1 have always been problematic for my SPS.

Looking at your ICP report I would increase Iodine to 60, I observed better SPS response at that level.
Also number of your trace elements are 0. Perhaps consider Tropic Marin A and K elements? I had good luck with these trace element mix or increase what you are using now…

Last consider using good quality coral foods. Corals have lot of hungry mouths and they do require food, contrary to popular belief lights alone will not feed them. Alternatively feed the fish so they produce coral food…

Good luck,

 

[LgTas]

Just an opinion, decreasing / sinking PO4 levels especially below 0.1 have always been problematic for my SPS.

Looking at your ICP report I would increase Iodine to 60, I observed better SPS response at that level.
Also number of your trace elements are 0. Perhaps consider Tropic Marin A and K elements? I had good luck with these trace element mix or increase what you are using now…

Last consider using good quality coral foods. Corals have lot of hungry mouths and they do require food, contrary to popular belief lights alone will not feed them. Alternatively feed the fish so they produce coral food…

Good luck,

I've been using seachem reef trace but its only a subset of trace elements so will swap to tropic marin.

Will also increase feeding (though my fish get at least 3 feeds a day).

 

[LgTas]

Remembered I had Red Sea Trace ABCD knocking about so started dosing that and got some AquaForest Power Elixer which I used to dose in my old system.

Lets see how we go.

 

[ctsps]

I have had uv bother corals and I keep mine at 10 percent

 

[LgTas]

Well it appears the red sea trace, amino dosing, and new life spectrum reef cell small coral feeding has made a positive impact.

Everything has stopped fading and TNing, many have started improving colouration, and generally just look alot healthier. My LPS have also responded well, especially my hammers, torches and gonis.

Phosphates are back up to 0.07.

Still early days but i think we're on the right track.

My next icp results will be interesting.

 

[ninjamyst]

It's rarely too much light. Most shops blast their acros with a 400-500 par. Glad you found the issue!

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

Nutrients are to low. Contrary to popular belief I think phosphates below 0.1 is to low for most acro's in an aquarium. Most people who are successful with ultra low nutrients are doing something to make up for that like dosing amino's or whatever. In the wild is doesn't matter because they are getting a lot nutrients from capturing plankton.