Corals losing colour?

[silvertoe]

Hello all!

 

After my last attempt at something different (a sumped pico!) went badly wrong (a salt mixing on my part of all things), I was only away from the hobby for six months before getting a RSR170.

 

I will soon be putting up a build thread but I wanted to ask you all for some thoughts on what may be causing my corals to lose colour? It's most noticeable on my tricolour pocillopora but the purple Stylo is also not doing great and my purple hammer has never really thrived. Polpy extension on the SPS is 'ok' but colours are fading very quickly.

 

Admittedly, the tank is only 5 months old and I appreciate it's still relatively young for SPS- perhaps this is all it is. The weird thing is, things were doing well and now not. It does correlate with my foray into carbon dosing- more on that in a bit, but I'm also concerned about light (too much/ little?)

 

Params:

 

Salinity- 1.026;

Temp- 79

Ammonia and nitrite- 0

Nitrate- unsure. API test says 5-10ppm, brand new Red Sea Nitrate Pro test kit says over 64ppm (but it also reads high even on plain RO- faulty kit???)

Alk- 9dKH

Ca- 480ppm

Mg- 1350ppm

PO4- 0.03 (Hanna)

 

I'm a relatively experienced reefer and I would say that I am pretty stable with everything- I did wonder however if my nitrates had bottomed out since using NOPOx, but this was only started about 3 weeks ago (and the Red Sea test still is off the chart).

 

If any one has seen similar things in a pocillopora (in particular as this is doing the worst) and has any insight, I'd be really grateful.

 

Jonathan

 

 

[Clown79]

Loss of colour is usually due to lighting issues or lack of nutrients.

 

I have tested Api and Salifert nitrate tests against each other and there was only a 2 - 5 ppm difference.

 

Yours is a significant difference.

 

Are you using a good skimmer with nopox?  

[seabass]

5 hours ago, silvertoe said:

I'm also concerned about light (too much/ little?)

Too little light usually results in browning.  Too much often results in bleaching.  Since you do have measurable nutrients, I suspect the light might be a little too intense.

[silvertoe]

Thanks for your replies!

 

On 7/18/2019 at 8:40 PM, Clown79 said:

Loss of colour is usually due to lighting issues or lack of nutrients.

 

I have tested Api and Salifert nitrate tests against each other and there was only a 2 - 5 ppm difference.

 

Yours is a significant difference.

 

Are you using a good skimmer with nopox?  

I'm running a Bubble Magus Curve 5 on the tank though I must admit I'm not overly impressed with the performance (I suspect the sump water level is too low) and may 'upgrade' to a Nyos 120.

 

On 7/18/2019 at 11:38 PM, seabass said:

Too little light usually results in browning.  Too much often results in bleaching.  Since you do have measurable nutrients, I suspect the light might be a little too intense.

Thank you for this.


I've had my nitrates tested by a LFS today at 3-5ppm which correlates with my API test kit. I'm suspecting a faulty Red Sea kit, or I'm using it wrong! Either way, I have also killed the light a little as I had it mounted relatively close to the water and, after a few days, there seems to be some improvement.

 

Thanks so much for your help.

[mcarroll]

 there are a few potential's, but the most common causes by far is phosphate starvation, which seems like it definitely could be the case for you. Get your water double checked for nitrates at the local fish store or by buying another kit. If your nitrate number is even close to correct, then your system is almost surely phosphate starved.

 

Most of the time this is due to over filtration — use of products like GFO or organic carbon dosing. So if you're doing any of those things, stop. Your tank should be filtered by live rock, a protein skimmer and that's about it.

 

If that is not the case for your tank, or if corals continue to decline in spite of removing the extra filtration, then consider dosing some phosphates – up to a level of 0.1 ppm would be fine.  

 

That should provide immediate relief to any corals in stress.  

 

Maintain phosphate levels well-above zero until the tank starts doing better and nitrate levels get down somewhere close to the realm of normal.  (5-10 ppm is good)

[A.m.P]

Are you making sure to dilute and re-titrate your red Sea pro nitrate test? The first run is high range and will give high numbers, the second pass after diluting with something like 3:1 tank water will give you the accurate sub-10 values. 

Just a thought.

[silvertoe]

On 7/28/2019 at 5:42 PM, mcarroll said:

 there are a few potential's, but the most common causes by far is phosphate starvation, which seems like it definitely could be the case for you. Get your water double checked for nitrates at the local fish store or by buying another kit. If your nitrate number is even close to correct, then your system is almost surely phosphate starved.

 

Most of the time this is due to over filtration — use of products like GFO or organic carbon dosing. So if you're doing any of those things, stop. Your tank should be filtered by live rock, a protein skimmer and that's about it.

 

If that is not the case for your tank, or if corals continue to decline in spite of removing the extra filtration, then consider dosing some phosphates – up to a level of 0.1 ppm would be fine.  

 

That should provide immediate relief to any corals in stress.  

 

Maintain phosphate levels well-above zero until the tank starts doing better and nitrate levels get down somewhere close to the realm of normal.  (5-10 ppm is good)

Thanks for taking the time to write this reply mcarroll- I needed that rational input! I have stopped all GFO and carbon dosing and 'nutrient' levels are steadily rising with improved colour in the corals- always amazing how long these creatures take to recover.

 

On 7/28/2019 at 8:37 PM, Amphrites said:

Are you making sure to dilute and re-titrate your red Sea pro nitrate test? The first run is high range and will give high numbers, the second pass after diluting with something like 3:1 tank water will give you the accurate sub-10 values. 

Just a thought.

Hi Amphrites,

 

It's  huge possibility that I'm doing the test wrong (that would be embarrassing!) but it seems like the instructions say to dilute the tank water to be tested (1ml) with 15ml of plain RO (unless I'm mistaken)- this is still giving me a sky high reading.

 

I'll be embarrassed if I'm doing it wrong as I've just returned the test kit to the seller for inspection!

Many thanks,

 

Jonathan

[A.m.P]

No that is the correct ratio I think... Is it possible your RO source has dissolved solids or nitrate in it and is throwing off your test results? You could try with distilled water to double check.

[seabass]

17 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Is it possible your RO source has dissolved solids or nitrate in it and is throwing off your test results?

+1

 

When I started, I used RO from a water vending machine.  I couldn't figure out why I had 40ppm of nitrate no matter how much water I changed.  Then I tested the RO water, and it was 40ppm.  If you are diluting, it must be free of nitrate to work (RO/DI or distilled).

[silvertoe]

On 8/3/2019 at 1:55 PM, Amphrites said:

No that is the correct ratio I think... Is it possible your RO source has dissolved solids or nitrate in it and is throwing off your test results? You could try with distilled water to double check.

 

On 8/3/2019 at 2:15 PM, seabass said:

+1

 

When I started, I used RO from a water vending machine.  I couldn't figure out why I had 40ppm of nitrate no matter how much water I changed.  Then I tested the RO water, and it was 40ppm.  If you are diluting, it must be free of nitrate to work (RO/DI or distilled).

Ah! That makes sense. Although, it doesn't explain why the RS test was so much higher than the other two kits used.

 

Argh! This hobby..... I'll get the source water properly tested. Thank you all so much