Why is my BTA losing it's color?

[Sun1914]

My water quality is fine...sps are all fine growing. Yet, the BTA my clowns are gosting is losing it's color. She bubbles and opens up just fine. I'm not sure what to do to get it to regain it's color.

Alk: 10.3 ( working on getting it to 11.5)
Cal: 450
Mag: 1300
Temp: 78

 

[jilly92]

My water quality is fine...sps are all fine growing. Yet, the BTA my clowns are gosting is losing it's color. She bubbles and opens up just fine. I'm not sure what to do to get it to regain it's color.

Alk: 10.3 ( working on getting it to 11.5)
Cal: 450
Mag: 1300
Temp: 78

What is phosphate?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[hzheng33]

If it’s small, it can benefit from some feeding. Just don’t over do it otherwise it will spit it out.

 

[Steve Burton]

What kind of light? I put one in @ a two month old tank, immediately split into two and both stayed very pale, practically white until about month 11 when they really colored up beautifully. Only change was I added 2 T5 lamps with blue bulbs to the Radion LEDS @ about month 9. Not sure if it was the T5s or just tank maturity.

 

[lmm1967]

Nitrates & Phosphates? Are you running carbon? Mine seem to get annoyed when my NO3 gets over about 15ppm - but they are all kinda crazy and just do what they do most of the time.

FYI - you'll be walking a very fine line with alk that high - stay very diligent with your chemistry - especially Nitrates / Phosphates.

Regarding the anemone - as long as it's staying attached and not floating around it'll likely be fine with good stable water, light & flow.

 

[Sun1914]

What is phosphate?

Testing using Red Sea Kit - pO3 = 0.02

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[ActiveAngel]

I personally find your Alk to be too high. I’m not arguing corals can potentially do fine at that level, but I have seen many species start reacting very negatively over 10-10.5.... running high (but not too high) nutrients often helps combat some negative effects of high alk. @lmm1967 said it well “you’ll be walking a fine line with Alk that high”. You’d make things easier on yourself by trying to keep Alk around 8-9 dkH.

But for losing color: that shouldn’t be Alk. And I highly doubt it’s a nutrient issue either, especially as it’s being hosted. Most likely, I would suspect your issue is related to lighting: either spectrum or intensity.

 

[Adam]

Knowing the age of the tank and where your organics are at would be a big help.

Why are you pushing your Alk so high?

 

[Sun1914]

What kind of light? I put one in @ a two month old tank, immediately split into two and both stayed very pale, practically white until about month 11 when they really colored up beautifully. Only change was I added 2 T5 lamps with blue bulbs to the Radion LEDS @ about month 9. Not sure if it was the T5s or just tank maturity.

Red Sea LED 90 with 2 added Reefbrite XHO blues

 

[Adam]

I'm not familiar with the RS LED 90's. From the quick search I just did it seems to have a narrow band. It with the XHO should be plenty of light if the intensity is right. I'm not sure but it's possible that maybe your intensity is too high for the nem, this would also be a factor if your tank isn't very deep and/or the nem is closer to the surface.

 

[Sun1914]

I personally find your Alk to be too high. I’m not arguing corals can potentially do fine at that level, but I have seen many species start reacting very negatively over 10-10.5.... running high (but not too high) nutrients often helps combat some negative effects of high alk. @lmm1967 said it well “you’ll be walking a fine line with Alk that high”. You’d make things easier on yourself by trying to keep Alk around 8-9 dkH.

But for losing color: that shouldn’t be Alk. And I highly doubt it’s a nutrient issue either, especially as it’s being hosted. Most likely, I would suspect your issue is related to lighting: either spectrum or intensity.

Knowing the age of the tank and where your organics are at would be a big help.

Why are you pushing your Alk so high?

I was following Red Sea parameters for a mixed reef but i noticed its more LPS and Softie related
Not SPS. So the plan is to stop dosing alk and do my weekly 10g water change today. Then test Alk tomorrow and see where Im at. I will bring it down in the 8s.

 

[Adam]

I was following Red Sea parameters for a mixed reef but i noticed its more LPS and Softie related
Not SPS. So the plan is to stop dosing alk and do my weekly 10g water change today. Then test Alk tomorrow and see where Im at. I will bring it down in the 8s.

If your nitrates get low and the alk is 10+ your SPS will get real unhappy. Also Mag at 1300 can be a little low when you're pushing Alk that far up. Better to do what your doing and lower it. 8.5-9.5 is a good target. Anything over 9 needs to have some measurable NO3, you'll know real quick if the NO3 is low because the tips will start burning.

How old is the tank?

 

[ActiveAngel]

If your nitrates get low and the alk is 10+ your SPS will get real unhappy. Also Mag at 1300 can be a little low when you're pushing Alk that far up. Better to do what your doing and lower it. 8.5-9.5 is a good target. Anything over 9 needs to have some measurable NO3, you'll know real quick if the NO3 is low because the tips will start burning.

How old is the tank?

Exactly this! Copy/paste

 

[Sun1914]

[/QUOTE="Adam, post: 1266940, member: 2763"]
If your nitrates get low and the alk is 10+ your SPS will get real unhappy. Also Mag at 1300 can be a little low when you're pushing Alk that far up. Better to do what your doing and lower it. 8.5-9.5 is a good target. Anything over 9 needs to have some measurable NO3, you'll know real quick if the NO3 is low because the tips will start burning.

How old is the tank?
[/QUOTE]

Thank is about a year old now. My nitrates are pretty low. They stay between 2 and 5 .
Im working on raising Mag now. Didnt want to dose too much at once. Im slowly getting it up.

 

[Adam]

Thank is about a year old now. My nitrates are pretty low. They stay between 2 and 5 .
Im working on raising Mag now. Didnt want to dose too much at once. Im slowly getting it up.

I'd say your numbers actually all look pretty damn good except the alk being a bit high and the mag a little low.

 

[Sun1914]

Nitrates & Phosphates? Are you running carbon? Mine seem to get annoyed when my NO3 gets over about 15ppm - but they are all kinda crazy and just do what they do most of the time.

FYI - you'll be walking a very fine line with alk that high - stay very diligent with your chemistry - especially Nitrates / Phosphates.

Regarding the anemone - as long as it's staying attached and not floating around it'll likely be fine with good stable water, light & flow.

Its attached and hasnt moved for some time now and is being hosted by the clowns.
I dont want it to split so ive avoid feeding it. I figured the fish would bring move than enough food to it to keep it happy. Not to mention im feeding frozen food which it can grab on its own.

 

[lmm1967]

Its attached and hasnt moved for some time now and is being hosted by the clowns.
I dont want it to split so ive avoid feeding it. I figured the fish would bring move than enough food to it to keep it happy. Not to mention im feeding frozen food which it can grab on its own.

If it is hosting your clowns I for sure would not feed it. The 2 I have that host clowns get plenty of food from the clowns themselves.

One of our clowns can't seem to figure out that anemones don't want a 1" square piece of nori.