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Author Topic: corals browned out!!!! I need help.  (Read 1005 times)

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Offline Warhawk937

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corals browned out!!!! I need help.
« on: April 29, 2020, 18:35:24 »
So My hands off approach backfired!!! I  had a period of great growth and color while dosing reef energy a and b.  alc was stable and consumption was climbing. I noticed the a couple by corals were darkening. I mixed up a fresh batch of salt water for a water change that next day.    I woke up to 3 completely browned out colonies and a couple dead cyphastria.    I tested nutrients and nitrates was a 10ppm and phosphate was crazy high. 1.5 ppm .25 ppm. so a large water change has been performed with another one on deck. I have brought the skimmer back on line and am running gfo. perimeters are back in check.

I need advice.
how long does it take for a coral to recover from a phosphate spike.
should I drop the par levels while they recover.

What has been your experience with this.

Offline CoralBeauties

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Re: corals browned out!!!! I need help.
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2020, 22:04:57 »
 I have no experience with your problem but I wouldnt do anything more then maintain your levels and let things settle.  I like to keep my phos below .1  If you can keep those levels things will come around but will take some time.  If I have learned anything in this hobby is things go south overnight but takes a whole lot more time for good things to happen.
Jeff

Offline erky

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Re: corals browned out!!!! I need help.
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2020, 08:41:53 »
great looking corals can brown overnight but to get them to recolor will take months, its how the reef game is played.

your levels dont seem crazy to me, im running hands off right now and have elevated po4/no3 and my tank is looking good, maybe 8 out of 10, it has been a 9.5 before when i was constantly testing and maintaining levels, but going hands off is pretty nice!

Offline Warhawk937

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Re: corals browned out!!!! I need help.
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2020, 12:22:17 »
hand out and hands off was great for me But i became lazy. failed to test as frequently for po4 while dosing po4.  it happened over night.   the tank was looking better and better right before it fell off a cliff.  silver lining here is that I now know how far i can push the nutrients before it becomes problematic.  Just a shame I had to learn the hard way.

Offline Heinbaughb

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Re: corals browned out!!!! I need help.
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2020, 14:51:42 »
Are you sure it wasn’t something else like temperature? I’m surprised to hear dramatic decline overnight from excessive phosphate.

Offline Warhawk937

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Re: corals browned out!!!! I need help.
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2020, 15:00:32 »
im running an apex with a trident everything but the nutrient levels are monitored and with nothing funky showing up on the readings. Ill double check my temp probe this evening. 

 

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