New chalice losing color

[Reeferguy365]

Hey everyone I've been having problems with chalices losing color lost two of my rainbows before I turned my light down thought everything was fine so I bought a new mommies eye chalice had it on the sand but under the light by the end of the day started noticing it losing color so I moved it to the edge of my tank where my other chalice are. Now my question is if it's eating will it get its color back? It's only bleached on one little 1/4 of an inch spot so far. I'm hoping that's all.

 

[tyler1503]

If it's bleaching that quickly, it sounds like a chemistry issue. With it being on the sandbed, it doesn't sound like too much light, however we won't till we know what lights your running and the settings.
Also, what are your parameters?

 

[mtraylor]

what is your alkalinity in the aquarium?

 

[Reeferguy365]

Alkalinity is at 10 calcium is 350 nitrates are at like 1 Maybe phosphates are a little high .7 my tank is a 29 gallon BioCube and I have a 155 watt light with 3 watt LEDs so the light is a little strong for the tank. that's why I was mainly just curious that if they're eating will they heal quicker?

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Could be the chalices trying to adjust to new light and Alk.

 

[Centerline]

I have about 20 rainbow chalice and this is my subjective experience. It may or may not be valuable.

1. I have had very poor luck with rainbows coloring up under LEDs. Keeping them at 50, 100 and 150 par they seem to loose the richness of the reds first and then the blues and greens. This happened under AI Hydra 52 HDs. That being said I have seen several very nice rainbows under LEDs so the issue may be the settings. I would recommend that you shoot for a 17-20k and keep the whites and or a cool whites to a minimum. Chalice don't seem to need much light but I have kept them in as little at 50 par and as much as 300 with success.
2. Chalice seem to like high mag levels. I keep mine at 1450, cal at 450 and alk at 12.
3. Chalice need some nitrate and phosphate so a 0/0 SPS system may be a suboptimal environment but at .7 a water change might be in order.
4. Feeding a couple of times a week will really help and yes they will color up much faster with food and regular feeding.

Hope this helps and remember this is just my subjective opinion based on personal experience. There are plenty of people around here with more experience than myself.