resons for sps browning

[leftovers]

est pH throuhout the day. Your pH may be 7.7 in the morning and rise to 8.1 during the day. If you raise the pH to 8.1 in the morning it may rise to 8.5 during the daylight period. I would adjust your pH when the lights are on as not to raise it too high. After doing that you can drip your kalkwasser at night and that will help keep the pH up during night time hours.

This is bad advice, you should always add your pH buffer/kalkwasser at the lowest point. 7.7 is way to low for your corals. If you top off with kalk do so at night when the pH is at it lowest. This will keep pH swings more stable and closer in range. Adding at day time will raise it but the affects are temporary and increase above whats natural which is why you should add at night so as to keep your pH close to constant. It will still naturally decrease after you stop adding at night. The pH will again rise naturally during the day as O2 levels rise and co2 levels decrease due to organic activity with your lights on they might rise but shouldn't rise significantly above what your normally are seeing.

Acidity of the water can greatly affect the coloration of animals due to stress. It also sounds like the bulbs have changed that too could be directly affecting the animals coloration.

 

[Sea Turtle]

I really dont think it has anything to do with the pH. The lighting isnt the strongest but should still be fine as long as we are not talking sps at the bottom or sides away from the light. Have you tried moving the browning SPS into more light? If thats not the case I am going to stick with excess nutrients, be it N03, P04 or DOM. Do you run carbon? GFO is good stuff, but have you tested your P04? I have seen plenty of sps issues in the past and browning has always been either lighting or nutrient problems. W/C can't hurt unless the RO/DI water isnt right. Anyhow I would make sure they are getting enough light and if that doesnt help I would continue the W/C's and get my P04 tested.

Best of luck.

Thanks Ben. I have the majority of my sps corals at the top half of the tank. However, I do have one or two down towards the bottom and they are actually doing quite well with nice color. They are very easy corals to take care of though. Not sensative to swings.

I do agree with you on the PO4. I recently added a refugium and for some reason all the macro algae in the refug is getting covered with either red slime algae or dinos. I did another water change last night. I think that I am going to continue to do large water changes to see if this helps at all.

I do not run carbon. SHould I be? If I was going to, could I just add active carbon in a mesh bag or could I mix it with GFO media? What is the benefits of adding carbon?

 

[Sea Turtle]

est pH throuhout the day. Your pH may be 7.7 in the morning and rise to 8.1 during the day. If you raise the pH to 8.1 in the morning it may rise to 8.5 during the daylight period. I would adjust your pH when the lights are on as not to raise it too high. After doing that you can drip your kalkwasser at night and that will help keep the pH up during night time hours.

This is bad advice, you should always add your pH buffer/kalkwasser at the lowest point. 7.7 is way to low for your corals. If you top off with kalk do so at night when the pH is at it lowest. This will keep pH swings more stable and closer in range. Adding at day time will raise it but the affects are temporary and increase above whats natural which is why you should add at night so as to keep your pH close to constant. It will still naturally decrease after you stop adding at night. The pH will again rise naturally during the day as O2 levels rise and co2 levels decrease due to organic activity with your lights on they might rise but shouldn't rise significantly above what your normally are seeing.

Acidity of the water can greatly affect the coloration of animals due to stress. It also sounds like the bulbs have changed that too could be directly affecting the animals coloration.

I use B-ionic 2 part solution. So are you saying that I can dose additional calcium to raise the PH levels?

 

[Anonymous]

est pH throuhout the day. Your pH may be 7.7 in the morning and rise to 8.1 during the day. If you raise the pH to 8.1 in the morning it may rise to 8.5 during the daylight period. I would adjust your pH when the lights are on as not to raise it too high. After doing that you can drip your kalkwasser at night and that will help keep the pH up during night time hours.

This is bad advice, you should always add your pH buffer/kalkwasser at the lowest point. 7.7 is way to low for your corals. If you top off with kalk do so at night when the pH is at it lowest. This will keep pH swings more stable and closer in range. Adding at day time will raise it but the affects are temporary and increase above whats natural which is why you should add at night so as to keep your pH close to constant. It will still naturally decrease after you stop adding at night. The pH will again rise naturally during the day as O2 levels rise and co2 levels decrease due to organic activity with your lights on they might rise but shouldn't rise significantly above what your normally are seeing.

Acidity of the water can greatly affect the coloration of animals due to stress. It also sounds like the bulbs have changed that too could be directly affecting the animals coloration.

I use B-ionic 2 part solution. So are you saying that I can dose additional calcium to raise the PH levels?

2 part is Ca and Alk. Raising Ca too high will lower your pH and Alk helps you maintain the desired pH. However, you need to get your pH up prior to maintaining proper Alk levels.

 

[Anonymous]

Kalkwasser is not a buffer and is not intended to be. It is in essesnce a 2 part solution in on package. It does have a high pH, but if used to buffer pH and it is overdosed the Ca will precipitate. The same will happen with two part unless the dosage is altered. Too much Ca will also drive down Alk, which in turn will affect pH.

I find that when my Alk is out of balance my corals look terrible and grow very slow. Your Alk looks good, but when are you testing it?

After the 2 part has been dosed? and, how do you you dose your 2 part? day time or night?

Be very careful when adjusting your Alk and pH. A quick increase or decrease will shock your corals and possibly bleach/kill them.

 

[Anonymous]

I really dont think it has anything to do with the pH. The lighting isnt the strongest but should still be fine as long as we are not talking sps at the bottom or sides away from the light. Have you tried moving the browning SPS into more light? If thats not the case I am going to stick with excess nutrients, be it N03, P04 or DOM. Do you run carbon? GFO is good stuff, but have you tested your P04? I have seen plenty of sps issues in the past and browning has always been either lighting or nutrient problems. W/C can't hurt unless the RO/DI water isnt right. Anyhow I would make sure they are getting enough light and if that doesnt help I would continue the W/C's and get my P04 tested.

Best of luck.

Thanks Ben. I have the majority of my sps corals at the top half of the tank. However, I do have one or two down towards the bottom and they are actually doing quite well with nice color. They are very easy corals to take care of though. Not sensative to swings.

I do agree with you on the PO4. I recently added a refugium and for some reason all the macro algae in the refug is getting covered with either red slime algae or dinos. I did another water change last night. I think that I am going to continue to do large water changes to see if this helps at all.

I do not run carbon. SHould I be? If I was going to, could I just add active carbon in a mesh bag or could I mix it with GFO media? What is the benefits of adding carbon?

Adding a refugium will initially raise nutrient levels. You will need time for critters and bacteria to colonize the sandbed. Your test kits will show 0 PO4 even though it is present. It is getting used up by the algae, cyano and diatoms in the tank and will not register on the test kit. You can add GAC(Granular Activated Carbon) in a mesh bag in a high flow area of your sump. GAC will remove many unwanted nutrients, as well as wanted supplements like iodine. It's benefits out weigh it's draw backs IMO. You can mix it with GFO, but I believe that GFO normally out lasts GAC, so I prefer to use it seperately.

 

[Ben1]

I also perfer not to mix my GAC and my GFO becuase the GAC seems to grind the GFO up a bit. I perfer piggy backing reactors and running into the GAC then into the GFO and back to the sump. When I ran GFO I ran them that way and it worked well. I changed both monthly and it served me well for some time.

 

[Anonymous]

It just occurred to me that your new refuge may also be dragging down your pH. The new cycle can do this.

Do you light the fuge?

If you do, using a reverse daylight schedule will help keep your pH up.

 

[bfessler]

Have you looked at your water flow? How much total flow do you have? If your powre heads and returns are pointing down you may not be getting enough oxygen exchange at the water surface. Try placing powerheads low in the tank and pointing them up. The more turbulance in the surface water the better. This will help remove carbon dioxide and increase oxygen which should help raise the PH.

 

[leftovers]

Kalkwasser is not a buffer and is not intended to be. It is in essesnce a 2 part solution in on package. It does have a high pH, but if used to buffer pH and it is overdosed the Ca will precipitate. The same will happen with two part unless the dosage is altered. Too much Ca will also drive down Alk, which in turn will affect pH.

I find that when my Alk is out of balance my corals look terrible and grow very slow. Your Alk looks good, but when are you testing it?

After the 2 part has been dosed? and, how do you you dose your 2 part? day time or night?

Be very careful when adjusting your Alk and pH. A quick increase or decrease will shock your corals and possibly bleach/kill them.

You are correct and incorrect...Kalk will not cause precipitation if you dump a load in. You would merely kill the tank due to pH shock and even alkalinity shock as you pointed out. I have never seen anyone cause precipitation due to dumping in kalkwasser.

It is not in any way a 2 part solution nor is it intended to be. It does deliver carbonates and free calcium in a high pH, high alkaline solution but most if not all 2 parts contain magnesium which is the critical component for buffering. this is not found in Kalk.

Kalk is used to buffer (read Reduce) pH swings and is an inexpensive way to deliver high alk solution with free calcium to your corals. Kalk should be ideally be added at night to counter act the natural decrease in pH that all tanks experience at night as CO2 levels increase due to lack of photosynthesis.

Alkalinity and pH do and will affect coral coloration as well as lighting conditions,

 

[Sea Turtle]

Kalkwasser is not a buffer and is not intended to be. It is in essesnce a 2 part solution in on package. It does have a high pH, but if used to buffer pH and it is overdosed the Ca will precipitate. The same will happen with two part unless the dosage is altered. Too much Ca will also drive down Alk, which in turn will affect pH.

I find that when my Alk is out of balance my corals look terrible and grow very slow. Your Alk looks good, but when are you testing it?

After the 2 part has been dosed? and, how do you you dose your 2 part? day time or night?

Be very careful when adjusting your Alk and pH. A quick increase or decrease will shock your corals and possibly bleach/kill them.

My two part is on a contiunous 24 hr dosing schedule.

 

[Sea Turtle]

It just occurred to me that your new refuge may also be dragging down your pH. The new cycle can do this.

Do you light the fuge?

If you do, using a reverse daylight schedule will help keep your pH up.

I do light the fuge 24hr per day with a low watt flourescent bulb. Should I not be doing this?

 

[Sea Turtle]

Have you looked at your water flow? How much total flow do you have? If your powre heads and returns are pointing down you may not be getting enough oxygen exchange at the water surface. Try placing powerheads low in the tank and pointing them up. The more turbulance in the surface water the better. This will help remove carbon dioxide and increase oxygen which should help raise the PH.

I have a votech MP40 that I keep about 8 inches bellow the surface. Looks like the tank is boiling.

 

[Ben1]

Alkalinity and pH do and will affect coral coloration as well as lighting conditions,

I have never seen alk effect coloration, nor pH. Then again pH has never been an issue for me. When I see alk get to high or low I see STN not color change, I think the same would hold true for pH.

 

[leftovers]

Alkalinity and pH do and will affect coral coloration as well as lighting conditions,

I have never seen alk effect coloration, nor pH. Then again pH has never been an issue for me. When I see alk get to high or low I see STN not color change, I think the same would hold true for pH.

Color change doesn;t happen over night. It will affect color as coral struggles, it will fade from a bright vibrant color and even turn brown, tan or conversely darken to the point of appearing brown dark tan. Lighting too will affect coloration the same way, too much light can shock and kill, as can too little over time weaken a sensitive coral.

pH most certainly affect the coloration and health of the animal. Too low and the animal will darken and struggle all the while its slowly dying as it cannot calcify new skeletal elements and is actually slowing dissolving, too high and the soft tissue and zooxanthellae are affected. Alkalinity as well, too low and same thing the animal will slowly die and when RTN hits people often wonder why. Too high and again it begins affect and stress the zooxanthellae.

Large daily swings in these will stress the animals and color changes and death are symptoms.

Coloration of corals requires a healthy water quality that should avoid wild swings and stay within the safety zone consistently. Lighting should be changed regularly and if bulbs are really old only change a few at a time as you can shock your corals. Increasing lighting times too if they are too short, and inversely reduce the lighting times if too long. Most reefs only see a few hours of direct intense lighting followed by hours of indirect lighting. You don't need 12hs of MH lighting on your corals to see "intense color" and "wicked growth". 6-8 hours are more than ample along with dusk dawn lighting will usually be more than enough. Your corals and fish will both thank you as will your electric bill.

If you have a refugium, it too doesn't need 24 hrs of light and having one shouldn't affect the coloration of your corals unless it's got some bizarre algae thats secreting toxins that are stressing the animals and thats not likely (though it is possible). Reverse light the refugium and run the lights 10-12hrs max. This is a tried and tested method that reduces pH swing and again is more natural on the refugiums inhabitants and algae.

 

[Sea Turtle]

I tested my PH yesturday afternoon and it is still sitting at 7.7 to 7.8. How do I go about getting it up to the 8.3-8.5 range? I only use the B-ionic not Kalk. Did I hear that baking soda will do it?

 

[Anonymous]

I tested my PH yesturday afternoon and it is still sitting at 7.7 to 7.8. How do I go about getting it up to the 8.3-8.5 range? I only use the B-ionic not Kalk. Did I hear that baking soda will do it?

Baking soda will raise Alk, and initially lower your pH. After that you pH should rise. However, you Alk looks good already. Something is driving your pH down and you need to isolate the problem.

24/7 is fine, it should help keep the ph up during the night and keep it higher during the day.

 

[Ben1]

pH most certainly affect the coloration and health of the animal. Too low and the animal will darken and struggle all the while its slowly dying as it cannot calcify new skeletal elements and is actually slowing dissolving, too high and the soft tissue and zooxanthellae are affected. Alkalinity as well, too low and same thing the animal will slowly die and when RTN hits people often wonder why. Too high and again it begins affect and stress the zooxanthellae.

JMO but the tanks I have seen with these issues do have colorful SPS, just either base up or tip down STN. Who knows though I guess any stress could cause issues, I have just never seen color effected by those issues.

The only time I would use 24/0 lighting on a fuge would be if it had caulerpa since 24/0 lighting on it can prevent the going sexual event that can cause some issues. I perfer using just cheato in my fuge and in that case I would do a reverse light cycle.

Have you read this article?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.php

 

[Sea Turtle]

ok I will cut down the light cycle on the fuge. I am getting red slime algae growing in there also. It is kinda taking over.

I went out and bought oyster feast today. Maybe this might help. I added some and it looked like all the sps corals let out a long white tentacle from each polyp to feed. What was that?

Anyway, do you use oyster feast? How much should I add to my tank and how often? 75 gallon with 20 gallon sump.

 

[Ben1]

I used to use DT's oyster eggs, but I only feed my SPS if I feel like my water is so stripped that they need more nutrients in the water. Unless my tank is in a ULN state I don't feed for the SPS. I feel untill my tanks get there they don't need the feedings. When the tank is really stripped of nutrients then the SPS will get a really light pastel like colors in the tissue, and their growth will slow a lot. If I see that starting I feed heavier with everything and their tissue will darken.