ginoandres
Community Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2016
- Messages
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Hi all,
Lately I've noticed the coloration of my corals is not as vibrant. This is my first reef tank and, other than this, everything has been going very well. Corals are open and fish are healthy--just the color has been fading. My torches, pictured below, have started to look somewhat transparent. I know there are many variables here, so I will try to be as thorough as possible in describing tank parameters and other relevant details:
My tank is relatively new, having been set up for a little over 10 weeks. Parameters have been pretty stable for a while now. See my signature for my equipment setup.
Parameters:
Nitrates: 0
pH: 8.2 (stable)
dKH: 9
Ca - 400
Mg - 1350
Salinity - 1.025
Phosphates - 0.03
Media & other details: I use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt and up until last week, had been conducting a roughly 20% water change per week as the tank cycled and stabilized. Now that parameters have been stable for over a month, I will be reducing my WC schedule. About 6 weeks ago I added Seachem's Matrix to my sump (for nitrate reduction) and Seagel (which contains Activated Carbon and Phosguard for phosphate control). Both seem to have worked, as my Nitrates are undetectable and the worst part of the "Uglies" seems to have passed in my young reef. I have a small plum-sized clump of Chaeto in my refugium, but it hasn't grown much since I added it 5 weeks ago. Hair and slime algae have grown plenty on the live rock in the sump, however. I remove that stuff every water change, and it has slowed down in growth in recent weeks.
At first I noticed my green torch was becoming transparent under white lights. Under blues, it's hardly noticeable. Then I noticed my small gold torch coral was also becoming transparent. Now as I look more closely, I suspect most of my corals are also not as bright as they once were... specifically my Green Tree Nephthea, my Zoas and my Acans. All still have color, but it doesn't appear to be as bright as when I first got them.
Here is my Gold Torch that has grown transparent over the last few weeks:
Here is my Green Torch that has faded the most out of all my corals:
Here is a wider shot of several corals. The Green Tree Nephthea in the middle has been growing and happy, however it's not as neon as when I first got it. The Metallic Neon Hammer pictured on the right has faded over the last two weeks, not as neon, and the Frogspawn has been pretty much that dull since I got it so that may not be my fault. The Tricolor Torch in center view is brand new, two days in my tank, so it still looks solid. Note the Rainbow Acan at the bottom right that has also lost some color and is almost transparent under white light:
And here is the Green Torch shortly after it went in my tank. Note how it's much more solid in coloration than now.
As a new reefer, it's hard to gauge what may or may not be going well in cases like this. So I come to all of you for help. An experienced reefer has helped me in planning, establishing and stocking this tank and with his input, I have come to suspect a few issues that may be responsible for this:
1) LED lighting may have been too strong, and consequently it shocked the corals. This was my first suspicion, as many shops also use LEDs here in Taiwan, and most seem to run them pretty low. I have since turned my MarsAqua 300w fixture down to see if this helps. Previously I'd been running blue channel for 10 hours at 40% and white channel at minimum power for 4 hours. This seemed a conservative approach, based on feedback from others using the same lights. Now I'm not too certain this may be the underlying cause of the color loss, however, as others with similar corals have been running the lights at comparable strength and photo periods with success.
2) The water is too clean. Nitrates dropped pretty rapidly a few weeks ago from 25 ppm to undetectable, and they've remained that way since. Presumably, the Matrix media is at least partially responsible for this. My tank is predominantly LPS/softies and will stay that way. I also feed my fish pretty lightly twice per day, and spot feed my corals 2-3 times per week with high quality frozen marine mysis shrimp.
3) The Phosguard and/or Matrix media is leaching aluminum into my system. Not sure how probably this is, but a friend suspects this may be contributing and advised me to remove these media slowly. I will likely wait and try one approach at a time so I know what is and isn't working.
Please chime in with any feedback or if you've had similar experiences. I know there are many variables in all this, so I've tried to be as thorough as I can to give you an accurate picture of the situation. I want to do my best to restore coloration and get my tank looking as best it can. Thanks for reading!
Gino
P.S. The fish stocking is as follows, if that's relevant: 1 Royal Gramma, 1 Sleeper Banded Goby, 1 Algae Blenny, 2 small Ocellaris Clownfish, 1 Banggai Cardinal, and 2 Blue Green Chromis added today. Inverts: 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 2 hermit crabs. All were added gradually, and all fish have been eating and healthy.
Lately I've noticed the coloration of my corals is not as vibrant. This is my first reef tank and, other than this, everything has been going very well. Corals are open and fish are healthy--just the color has been fading. My torches, pictured below, have started to look somewhat transparent. I know there are many variables here, so I will try to be as thorough as possible in describing tank parameters and other relevant details:
My tank is relatively new, having been set up for a little over 10 weeks. Parameters have been pretty stable for a while now. See my signature for my equipment setup.
Parameters:
Nitrates: 0
pH: 8.2 (stable)
dKH: 9
Ca - 400
Mg - 1350
Salinity - 1.025
Phosphates - 0.03
Media & other details: I use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt and up until last week, had been conducting a roughly 20% water change per week as the tank cycled and stabilized. Now that parameters have been stable for over a month, I will be reducing my WC schedule. About 6 weeks ago I added Seachem's Matrix to my sump (for nitrate reduction) and Seagel (which contains Activated Carbon and Phosguard for phosphate control). Both seem to have worked, as my Nitrates are undetectable and the worst part of the "Uglies" seems to have passed in my young reef. I have a small plum-sized clump of Chaeto in my refugium, but it hasn't grown much since I added it 5 weeks ago. Hair and slime algae have grown plenty on the live rock in the sump, however. I remove that stuff every water change, and it has slowed down in growth in recent weeks.
At first I noticed my green torch was becoming transparent under white lights. Under blues, it's hardly noticeable. Then I noticed my small gold torch coral was also becoming transparent. Now as I look more closely, I suspect most of my corals are also not as bright as they once were... specifically my Green Tree Nephthea, my Zoas and my Acans. All still have color, but it doesn't appear to be as bright as when I first got them.
Here is my Gold Torch that has grown transparent over the last few weeks:
Here is my Green Torch that has faded the most out of all my corals:
Here is a wider shot of several corals. The Green Tree Nephthea in the middle has been growing and happy, however it's not as neon as when I first got it. The Metallic Neon Hammer pictured on the right has faded over the last two weeks, not as neon, and the Frogspawn has been pretty much that dull since I got it so that may not be my fault. The Tricolor Torch in center view is brand new, two days in my tank, so it still looks solid. Note the Rainbow Acan at the bottom right that has also lost some color and is almost transparent under white light:
And here is the Green Torch shortly after it went in my tank. Note how it's much more solid in coloration than now.
As a new reefer, it's hard to gauge what may or may not be going well in cases like this. So I come to all of you for help. An experienced reefer has helped me in planning, establishing and stocking this tank and with his input, I have come to suspect a few issues that may be responsible for this:
1) LED lighting may have been too strong, and consequently it shocked the corals. This was my first suspicion, as many shops also use LEDs here in Taiwan, and most seem to run them pretty low. I have since turned my MarsAqua 300w fixture down to see if this helps. Previously I'd been running blue channel for 10 hours at 40% and white channel at minimum power for 4 hours. This seemed a conservative approach, based on feedback from others using the same lights. Now I'm not too certain this may be the underlying cause of the color loss, however, as others with similar corals have been running the lights at comparable strength and photo periods with success.
2) The water is too clean. Nitrates dropped pretty rapidly a few weeks ago from 25 ppm to undetectable, and they've remained that way since. Presumably, the Matrix media is at least partially responsible for this. My tank is predominantly LPS/softies and will stay that way. I also feed my fish pretty lightly twice per day, and spot feed my corals 2-3 times per week with high quality frozen marine mysis shrimp.
3) The Phosguard and/or Matrix media is leaching aluminum into my system. Not sure how probably this is, but a friend suspects this may be contributing and advised me to remove these media slowly. I will likely wait and try one approach at a time so I know what is and isn't working.
Please chime in with any feedback or if you've had similar experiences. I know there are many variables in all this, so I've tried to be as thorough as I can to give you an accurate picture of the situation. I want to do my best to restore coloration and get my tank looking as best it can. Thanks for reading!
Gino
P.S. The fish stocking is as follows, if that's relevant: 1 Royal Gramma, 1 Sleeper Banded Goby, 1 Algae Blenny, 2 small Ocellaris Clownfish, 1 Banggai Cardinal, and 2 Blue Green Chromis added today. Inverts: 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 2 hermit crabs. All were added gradually, and all fish have been eating and healthy.
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so expect a little browning out or loss of colors in few coming months before everything stabilizes and colors start improving.
