Need some help with browning out sps
 

Hey guys,

I was wondering if I could get some guidance on 2 pieces of sps that I have in my 20 gallon. I have another piece in there that is nice and green and has awesome polyp extension, however the other two not so much. When I bought them from the store they were nice and blue and pink in color, however in my tank they have browned out. I have had them for about 4 months and there is a bunch of growth on them and the polyps were looking good.

I have had them under radions since the beginning of August at 38% and figured that the extra light could help them out. So I upped the lighting to 45%. After doing that, the polyps would not come out on one of them, and the polyps were just visible on the other. I left them like this for about a week with no improvement in color or polyp extension. So I put the lights back to 38% and right away the polyps came out again.

I have another thread on here asking about dosing so I'm wondering if that is my issue but here are my params as of tonight.
pH 8.0
alk 6.8 - 7 dKH
Ca 400
Mg 1280
PO4 slight coloration in my test. (red sea test kit)
0 Nitrates

Would my params be causing any issues with the browning coloration in the tank?

I do run an HOB skimmer, an AC70 modded with a fuge with chaeto running lights 24hrs live rock and chemi pure elite. I have sufficient flow in the tank and the flow on the sps corals is strong (not too strong) and turbulent.

I do have some bubble algae in the tank and scrape the glass every 2-3 days of algae.

Do you think that it's the PO4 in the tank that is causing the brownish color? If so, what could I run to help drop this issue?

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

Tagging along., similar troubles here, tried turning up the lights as well as changing the flow.. params are good on my end. I'll be interested to see what you find out.

I'm sure someone with lots more knowledge than me will chime in ...

I wouldn't blame your PO4 at this point
And the only time I've read about SPS problems with phosphates is when they are stripped from the system rapidly

Without knowing what lighting/params etc the LFS had them under/in it's hard to say

I'd say your readings are 'balanced' - you may see some improvement if they were all a touch higher, but don't mess with them yet
Either get your dosing where you want it now, or focus on the lights, but I'd suggest you don't try to do both at the same time

I think you are on the right track concerning the lighting and you should work on getting your params up 'just a bit' and leave the lights down @ 38% until you have the dosing under control
Then, after a couple weeks of watching what is going on, you could consider turning the lights up some more and watch closely what happens

I currently am not dosing, but am looking into it to bring some of those params up a tad.
Is anybody else running radions with some sps? If so, what do you have your program set up like? Just looking into what possible changes I can make to my programming if I get to that step.

OK, so I'd still say it's more your lights than your params

Keep the lights lower until the corals come back, then bump them every couple weeks, and watch for a week or 2 each time
Then bump some more and so on

But, I did say I hope someone else with more experience replies as browned corals can mean more than one thing

what kelvin spec are you using on lights.
I run at 18000k with my radion at 30% about 10'' above water.

I had adjusted the color all the way through my schedule. I will have to look at my program and see what closest it looks like.

Chemistry looks fine, but I doubt the NO3 is 0. Really tough to get no nitrate at all. I'd double check that on a different kit. Browned out is too much zooxanthellae in the coral tissue. Which means probably nutrients, coupled with maybe higher temp.
What is the temp?

I'm running my temp ~80o.

I agree with the nitrates. I'm using an API test kit for nitrate. However, i have been using Red Sea for Ca, PO4, Mg, and alk.
I can definitely turn down the temp a bit as my heater does turn on momentarily.

Do you guys think I should be feeding anything extra for the sps? All I feed right now is mysis, sparinly mind you, and I spot feed my LPS once a week with mysis.

I've never fed my SPS, feeding the fish is enough. Drop the temp slightly, good size water change, keep any filter media really clean or remove it. How much rock have you got in the tank? Maybe post a FTS if you've got one.
Also, how long is the light on?