Frags Browning

Hey Guys,

I've had my 30g frag tank up for about 4 months, moving to a 90g shallow reef in the next couple of months. Over the holidays my roommate was taking care of the tank and from what I could tell when I got back, he wasn't really staying on top of it. Several things happened:

1. Alk swings from around 10-11 down to 7-8. I'm not sure over what period, but I know there were definitely some swings.
2. Calc fell from 430 to about 360 - this happened over a week and a half
3. Cyano outbreak - several of my frags had Cyano growing on it - I manually removed as much as I could with tweezers, reduced the lighting period and feeding, increased skimming and started dosing vodka - since then the cyano is basically gone (for now!)

I have about 57 frags, several have turned brown (about 4 or 5) and two look like they have bleached green. From what I have read, zoox are either brown or green, this means i either have too little light and nutrients, or vice versa. Water quality has def been a contributing factor, but just want some advice as far as what to do with the brown frags - should I move them higher in my tank, leave them be and monitor the water for a while, or what? I also have an orange digitata frag that has been crushing it and all of the sudden has no PE and is going downhill fast.

My nitrates are ~0
Phosphate is <.02ppm
Alk back up to 9-10
raising calc slowly back up to 420-440

I have a 14k 150w MH the tank, good flow (koralia 750 in the tank, I have another koralia 1050 in there which I turn on from time to time although I think it is too much some times) and a rio 2500 return with 3 jets in the tank.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

How old is your bulb and what brand of bulb please?

Also water source?

Have you looked for Red Bugs?

Sounds like your tank is very similar to mine, size wise, lighting wise and flow wise.

What sps are you keeping?

Can you post an image of a few as well.

TIA

 

Aquatic Life 150w 14k - bought it new so should be around 4 months old

I use RODI from the fish store, registers 0 on my handheld TDS meter though it did read 20 on one batch.

I'm not sure what red bugs look like, will check that out - what are the symptoms?

Mainly Acros, a few montis - one anacropora, several tabling acros, lots of blues and greens - will take a photo at lunch and post

 

Blues/greens and yellows are sometimes hard to maintain.

I googled reviews on the fixture and it had decent reviews, however I would change out that bulb for either a Phoenix or a Radium, I do not think you will be disappointed.

RO/DI from fish stores can be very unreliable, they do not change out their members routinely. You might want to try another water source.

How many fish and how often do you feed and what do you feed?

 

Ca dropping to 360 will affect the more sensitive corals and could cause browning. Do complete parameter testing and report the numbers. Most likely a combination of all of the changes will be the cause.

 

I assumed as much - I have purchased 2 automatic dosers so that should bring some consistency back into it - are these corals able to recover from an event like this?

I have two fish, I feed them once a day, rotate between formula one flakes, mysis, and BRS reef chili

 

In the big picture I agree with John. Too many variables fell out of line in your absence. SPS do not take well to change.

 

In response to getting a new light, my TEK 48" 8 lamp T5 fixture came in today (finally!) for my new tank - tank won't be here for another few weeks, going to need to cycle it, etc. so probably 6-8 weeks away at least. Would it be a bad idea to hang that fixture 3-4ft above the water on my frag tank for the time being to give them some more light? I have a combo of new ATI lamps, I realize this is overkill but if I hang it high enough would it work without bleaching everything?

 

I'm not sure if I would change out the lighting just yet. I would imagine that all of the corals are very stressed out by all of the changes, and they might get even more stressed out if you change the lights. I'm not sure, though. I'll let some other people answer as well

 

I would not change anything. You just need to be patient. Good changes to SPS coloration hapen over months, Bad changes happen overnight!