One of my sps is bleaching...

BrianDJS · Feb 26, 2017

Help- this guy was thriving. All of a sudden, he's losing his color. Any way i can salvage him? Im guessing its my low calcium. Can anyone confirm please? And can anyone ID it also please?
I use io reef crystals, and have done 2x 10g water changes in the last 2 weeks. Before that was lfs water.

150g tank, hob skimmer, no sump.

Water temp- 75
Salinity- 1.024
Ph- 8.1
Ammonia- 0
No2- 0
No3- 0
Ca- 375
Mg- 1080
Kh- 6.4dKH

I have some reef foundation abc+, will that help?

Thank you in advance.

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wiz careefa · Feb 26, 2017

Raise your mg first. Get that up and then you can raise your calcium and alk

Tommy Ngo · Feb 26, 2017

20 gal wc on a 150 tank won't rise your alk, cal, and mag that much. At the moment all 3 are low.

I agree with wiz careefa.

Reef foundation won't help it at the moment.

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ChevelleJason · Feb 27, 2017

ID = Green Bird's Nest

djrice69 · Feb 27, 2017

Yup your water parameters low. As well as your no3 and po4

BrianDJS · Feb 27, 2017

djrice69 said:

The major change ive made has been the io reef crystals. I understand its only been 20 gallons added, but do you have any ideas why this happened? Sorry for the newbie questions.

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ChevelleJason · Feb 27, 2017

I doubt the salt was the culprit.

How long has it been in your tank?
Any changes to lighting?
Have you checked your po4?

BrianDJS · Feb 27, 2017

ChevelleJason said:

Its been in there about 2 or 3 months. It was fluorishing until 2 days ago. No lighting changes. I havent had it too close to any other coral, and havent noticed any stringers hitting it.

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BrianDJS · Feb 27, 2017

ChevelleJason said:

I dont have a phosphate tester. I will order one now.

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ChevelleJason · Feb 27, 2017

Calcium, Alkalinity and Mag is where I would focus my attention. Raise Mag as wiz careefa said and go slow. Bird's Nest is one of the "hardy-er" SPS to keep. But you still need balanced stability in the big 3.

Po4 testing is important so a kit is always good to have nearby. Hair algae on your rock work/sand is a sign your tank could be potentially phosphate rich.

BrianDJS · Feb 27, 2017

ChevelleJason said:

Thanks. Ill check it. Not much hair algae, just a bit on the powerheads.

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Reeferfourlife · Feb 27, 2017

Reef crystals is actually higher in ca and mag. I personally like to run my salinity at 1.025 to 1.026. Also raising that will bring up your parameters a little. Remember to raise everything slowly. Biggest mistake someone can make when they see their corals is unhappy is changing things too fast.

Nick Shades · Feb 28, 2017

+1 to raising salinity.

pga7602 · Feb 28, 2017

Yes, do 20 percent water changes a week while bringing up your salinity to 1.026 should do the trick. By the way.. the birds nest does not seem to be bleached. That looks more like STN. The fix is the same though. Changing your parameters will bring up your big 3. Alk and Mag is my guess on whats causing the tissue lost.

BrianDJS · Feb 28, 2017

pga7602 said:

Thanks, i started dosing magnesium last night. Ill do bigger water changes as well.

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Vikingrl · Feb 28, 2017

You probably need to dose ALk, Ca and Mg just to get it up, water changes aren't enough to get it where it needs to be.
Your temp is also on the low side, is that what your temp is at all day or is the temp going up and down during the day?
I would start by bringing up the Alk to around 8-9 but don't raise it more then 1 dkh per day, Ca to 440 and Mg 1400. Raise everything Over a few days. Then you need to be testing to make sure water changes are enough to keep those up other wise you need to be dosing daily.
Then bring salinity up to 1.025-1.026.
Also start watching your water temp to make sure it's not dropping and rising a lot, I make sure mine doesn't fluctuate more then 1 degree a day.
Good luck!!

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Smite · Feb 28, 2017

On a 150g tank dosing would probably be the easier and cheaper route rather than a bunch of water changes. You'll burn through salt like crazy and won't have the ability to correct levels individually. I think RC mixes at something crazy like 12-13 kdh so you might end up with way to high of an alk level by the time your ca and mag raise enough.

Your big 3 and salinity are low but my birdsnest/Montipora looked like that when I stripped my water of no3 po4.

BrianDJS · Feb 28, 2017

Smite said:

Did it recover? Is RC the wrong salt for my situation? LFS guy said red sea salt has high mg.

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Vikingrl · Feb 28, 2017

BrianDJS said:

High Mag isn't your only issue tho..... with you doing all these water changes just to raise your Alk, Ca and Mg your also stripping your aquarium of all the nutrients. Only reason to be doing that many water changes is to bring down nutrient levels which isn't your issue. A easy fix as many people already mentioned was to dose Alk, Calcium and Mg.

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BrianDJS · Feb 28, 2017

Vikingrl said:

I started dosing mg yesterday, i will keep an eye on it, i will slowly add the kh and ca as well.
Thank you.

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