Why does sps bleach

The Bubbles are huge, close to an inch in diamiter at the bottom of the Skimmer neck. Don't SPS corals often bleach when there is a lack of nutrients in the tank? How much are you feeding? I feed a ton and skim two hours a day with no phosphate.

Any time I have seen the tip bleaching on my coral the first thing I look at is the alk. You might try to let it settle down alittle and possible retest with another test kit to make sure yours is accurate. I had the same Exact thing happen when I added a skimmer to a previously skimmerless tank. I started dosing esv 2-part and doing more water changes. I also use Restor from brightwell.

Originally Posted by luv4paws2. I picked up some restore and well go from there. Do you guys think that I should dose some kind of phosphate into my tank along with all these aminos to "dirty" up the tank? No to adding phophates. Fish food contains phosphate - Maybe feeding heavier would be the way to go.

I have been having very similar issues. My tank has pretty much crashed over the last month or so and I have lost almost all of my SPS. The pieces I haven't lost appear to be on their way out as well, with the exception of a blue mille! Funny how you said that one appears to be fine in your tank as well.

I just wish I could pinpoint what has been causing the recession so that I can fix it. Parameters have been very stable, but I have noticed my nitrates seem to be up to almost 20 ppm!

I have been thinking about starting to dose a carbon source to bring the Nitrates down. That's the thing all of my parameters are stable and where they need to be. Nitrates and nitrites are undetectable with the salifert kits, phosphate is zero, top off has zero pom.

I'm getting quite frusrated to be honest and just might toto a fowlr system until me move in the process of buying a house. I just feel like I'm throwing money at this tank with no improvements. I have a feeling that my tank is still sterile because I'm loosing my palys still, every few days another disapears in the drag tank. Wow, it sounds like you are doing alot of things at once.

This will make it impossible to track down the problem. Have you had any major alk swings with removal of the Ca reactor? I would get a routine going and stick to it. Start off with water changes. Media New media New comments Search media.

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You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter Coraljunkie Start date Apr 24, Coraljunkie Well-Known Member.

Temp 77 Ammo 0 nitrite 0 Nitrate almost 0 Ph8. Cal Recently I took some rocks out and replaced with dry rock and changed the aquascape, at the same time I dumped in a good amount of marine pure bio filter spheres. I just noticed my anemones color is fading and 2 acros are turning white. The flesh is still on them but they don't look very promising.

The tank has been fallow since March 1 but every couple nights I throw in some pellets to make the cuc happy. On April 15 my alk was 9. I just changed out my chemi pure bag which was about a week away from having to be changed and I'm going to add some alk to slowly raise it up.

Is it low enough to hurt them? No but the fact that its dropping is. SPS are all about stability. I dont see a P04 test? If you started the tank at 7. But they dont like change. I've been trying to keep it between 9 and I got stuck working double shifts this week so today I finally had time to test and observe. They don't look like rtn or stn. Corals chosen for the hobby come from the ocean in array of beautiful colors. These recently arrived colonies then undergo an adaptation to tank life with the changes from real ocean water and sunlight to artificial saltwater and light fixtures.

Some coral will not survive in tank conditions and some coral may undergo adverse color changes over time in a tank environment. However, out of the many SPS corals imported, there will be some gems that will adapt well and keep their vivid colors and vitality, and prove that they are up to captive tank life.

Ultimately, colonies that are bright, vivid, beautiful and have been in a reef tank for a good while will always give the best chance of having one of their frags successfully thrive and wonderfully color in your tank. A plain, blah looking frag from a stunning tank-raised colony is truly preferable to a colorful frag without history. Colorful frags from freshly imported colonies can easily turn out to grow into duds, but frags from beautiful, brightly colored tank grown colonies will almost always turn out well.

Colonies that are recently imported might be bright with exotic colors but there is a high probability that the colors will change and falter once accustomed to aquarium life and artificial lighting. At one time, buying a named coral would imply lineage to that proven colorful healthy coral. However, more recently names have been abused or misused so now reliance on those terms is more confusing. In order to consistently have beautifully colored SPS corals, choose frags carefully and with discrimination from tank-grown brightly colored mother colonies.

The most important characteristics for a successful reef tank and ultimately colorful coral are both vigilance and diligence. You must test your tank frequently and observe your corals regularly for signs of good health.

Most everyone enjoys looking at his or her beautiful colored SPS, so constant observation is easy to achieve. Testing your tank parameters is not difficult but does require commitment. Typical signs of good health are well-colored, fleshy branches and polyp extension. Best practice is to both read your coral, which is simply keen observation, and test your parameters once or twice a week.

Changes in parameters cannot be seen, they require testing. The most critical parameters seem to be alkalinity and nitrates, followed closely by phosphates, calcium and magnesium. A reefer who can keep alkalinity stable can likely keep most everything else stable.

The exact number for alkalinity is not critical but keeping the number in a tight range is. Coral thrive with a dKh anywhere in the broad range of but only if kept within a relatively narrow strata within that range. Most current reefers typically run their reef tanks somewhere near 8 dKh where in years past much higher levels were the goal.

Once a target alkalinity is achieved, it is imperative to stay very close to that target because SPS respond so negatively to fluctuations in alkalinity. When it comes to your tank, almost every decision is based on personal preference. When it comes to tank water test kits, some hobbyists feel their brand is the absolute best. Continue Reading. Brown coral are often an indicator of an abrupt change in parameters or less than ideal conditions. I maintain a range of alkalinity in my tank between 7.

The two best choices for alkalinity stability are either a doser or calcium reactor. Both will also allow for calcium supplementation as well as magnesium and other minerals. Calcium and alkalinity need to be in balance and a calcium reactor will allow you to target one or the other but will keep those two in balance.

Since measuring alkalinity seems easier than calcium levels, most reefers will target alkalinity. Dosers allow for much more flexibility because typically two, three or more separate containers are dosed individually allowing for lots of customized regimens. There are a variety of different manufactures of major and minor trace elements and they each have their approaches.

I have a calcium reactor for my display, a reliable dual chamber Procal Calcium Reactor by Marine Technical that I have had for many years. I use Reborn coarse aragonite and ReMag in the reactor. I use a Bubble Magus doser for my small frag tank with Aquaforest Components.

I test alkalinity with a Hanna Checker and nitrates with a Salifert test kit. I test both at least once and usually twice a week. I test Magnesium levels infrequently.

I use Triton Lab water testing about twice a year. Nitrates and phosphates are required for organisms to grow and thrive. Too little or too much of either can present problems. High phosphates reduce coral calcification and generally feed unwanted algae. High nitrates also have been reported to feed algae and dinoflagellates. Most people find with very high nutrients that SPS coral will turn brown.

There is the rare reefer who has very high nutrients and a stable and pretty tank. If the nitrate levels are very, very low and the lighting very intense, the potential exists to burn or bleach the SPS. If nitrate levels are very low, then alkalinity levels need to be in a lower range, closer to seawater, otherwise the potential is for burnt SPS tips. There is also a relationship between the absolute levels of nitrates to phosphates that is required to maintain a healthy biological balance. A nitrate to phosphate ratio should likely be anywhere from to , although that ratio is probably very forgiving.

It seems if that nitrates or phosphates drop too low or if the nitrate: phosphate ratio falls out of range, that stability is compromised and that encourages harmful cyanobacteria blooms as well as other harmful or destructive plagues. SueT said:. I learned a lot from reading this site and reefcentral with a grain of salt. There are a slew of other books out there though.

My best learning was from finding other reefers that had been keeping SPS for a while successfully and learn what they were doing differently from the folks that were failing i. Hello, "Aquarium Corals" by Eric Borneman is a also good book. Sudden increases in lighting intensity. Swings in alkalinity, calcium, etc.

Changes in multiple water parameters like from one tank to another, or from the wild to captive environment. High levels of organic compounds.

HTH, Kevin. You must log in or register to reply here. Latest posts A. What's been your best DIY reef tank project so far?