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help-sps are bleaching

jeremys

jeremys

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don't know if bleaching is the correct term, but, some of my older sps that have been in the tank 8 to 10 months are loosing their polyps (color) from the bottom up, first one was a couple months ago just one and everything else was fine. Then about 2 weeks ago my Green Slimmer (3 inch) was almost completely white I clipped off the top but it didnt make it, then 2 more Ive been able to save the tops of these so far. I have lots of newer ( to my tank) sps that are doing fine, It seems to be the corals that have been in the tank for a while??????

29g w/ coast to coast overflow, with 2 10g sumps, skimmer is way to big (maybe over skimming??) fuge, 250w mh, quiet one 4000 return pump, 2 ph's, nitrates were less than 5 when I lost the first one, Im fighting them now cant figure out why they are up 15 to 20. CA 460, KH 11, Phos 0, Nitrite 0, PH 8.1 to 8.2, salinity 1.027

`Any ideas
jeremy
 
Your salinity is a little high, you may want to drop it a bit. Other then that, overskimming can lead to pale colors IME, you may want to feed a little more.
 
I have the same issue with a green pocillopora but figured the coral itself deprives it's lower branches of light thus bleaching or just leaving the skeleton.
Check for any sponges that might have detritus
See your return might bee too much flow and that might not allow for the nutrients to be taken care of by the fuge.
 
tuberider said:
Your salinity is a little high, you may want to drop it a bit. Other then that, overskimming can lead to pale colors IME, you may want to feed a little more.
Click to expand...

were do you run your salinity? And I just cut back on the feeding cause of the nitrates, do you think over skimming does more harm than just faded colors, ie. pulling nutrients out of the water?
 
jeremys said:
don't know if bleaching is the correct term, but, some of my older sps that have been in the tank 8 to 10 months are loosing their polyps (color) from the bottom up, first one was a couple months ago just one and everything else was fine. Then about 2 weeks ago my Green Slimmer (3 inch) was almost completely white I clipped off the top but it didnt make it, then 2 more Ive been able to save the tops of these so far. I have lots of newer ( to my tank) sps that are doing fine, It seems to be the corals that have been in the tank for a while??????

29g w/ coast to coast overflow, with 2 10g sumps, skimmer is way to big (maybe over skimming??) fuge, 250w mh, quiet one 4000 return pump, 2 ph's, nitrates were less than 5 when I lost the first one, Im fighting them now cant figure out why they are up 15 to 20. CA 460, KH 11, Phos 0, Nitrite 0, PH 8.1 to 8.2, salinity 1.027

`Any ideas
jeremy
Click to expand...

where its turning white from the bottom up, is there still flesh? just kinda sounds like RTN/STN if there is no flesh.
 
Bottom up on larger and fast growing SPS is classic sign of low alk, and possibly secondarily related issues such as low Mg and low flow.

Double check those 3 things.

What alk test are you using?
 
bottom up, and the alk test kit is API, I have 3 diff bottles and they are all reading the same, the last time I checked mag it was good been about a month, and the flow is good.

I will check mag tonight and post my results

thanks guys
 
What color are you using for an endpoint on the API test?

Also, the kits can read high if you don't shake them up really well.

For the Mg, a month can be enough time for it to drop down too low.
 
I generally use the first shit in color on the Alk test to come up wit a #, it seems to provide some consistency with other high end dKH kits when I read them side by side. That said if it's changing at 11 drops that would be ~9 dKH minimum. Hopefully you have a good quality Mag kit, they are even worse than alk kit IME.
 
I find that if you go all the way to yellow, the API kits read too high.

I know what the directions say, but API is more accurate if you go to barely green.

I suspect between the high s.g. and the titration past end point, your alk is a lot lower than you want.

Here's a good way to do API:

http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/1164
 
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