Should I lower my Alk?

[chadfish]

I’m having a hard time keeping nutrients up, I’m dosing 10ml of Red Sea AB+ every day. My corals are mostly fine but I’m having color issues: my Leng Sy is pale and the flesh of my red digi is white instead of red.. etc.

I’m thinking instead of raising nutrients, maybe I could try lowering my alkalinity. It’s sitting right at 8.6 but ranges up to 9. If I lower the Alk to 7.6-8 maybe growth slows and nutrients naturally rise and my color issues resolve themselves?

Would this work?

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I’m having a hard time keeping nutrients up, I’m dosing 10ml of Red Sea AB+ every day. My corals are mostly fine but I’m having color issues: my Leng Sy is pale and the flesh of my red digi is white instead of red.. etc.

I’m thinking instead of raising nutrients, maybe I could try lowering my alkalinity. It’s sitting right at 8.6 but ranges up to 9. If I lower the Alk to 7.6-8 maybe growth slows and nutrients naturally rise and my color issues resolve themselves?

Would this work?

Check for nudibranchs on the bases and underside of the cap. What's the no3 and Po4 measurements?

 

[ChrisV]

Honestly I doubt it would substantially impact growth. Plenty of folks keep reefs at 7.5-8dkh with a lot of sps growth. I'd love to hear how it goes if you try it.

Any chance these guys are just taking a while to adapt?

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I run my alk at 7.9 to 8.1 and things grow decently. No3 is in the 50's and po4 is .05ish, mag 1400 and calcium is 485

 

[chadfish]

Check for nudibranchs on the bases and underside of the cap. What's the no3 and Po4 measurements?

I’ll do that. My NO3 is at like 2ppm. I can get some pink shade when I read Salifert from the side. Before I started dosing AB+ daily it was 0.5… really hard to read, but not totally 0.0.

Phosphate I check less frequently, but it’s undetectable. I’m between 0.00 and 0.03 on Hannah.

 

[chadfish]

Honestly I doubt it would substantially impact growth. Plenty of folks keep reefs at 7.5-8dkh with a lot of sps growth. I'd love to hear how it goes if you try it.

Any chance these guys are just taking a while to adapt?

I don’t think it’s adaptation. They aren’t new by any means and the Leng Sy used to be bright green

 

[chadfish]

Check for nudibranchs on the bases and underside of the cap. What's the no3 and Po4 measurements?

No nudis seen, just a couple vermatid snails

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I’m having a hard time keeping nutrients up, I’m dosing 10ml of Red Sea AB+ every day. My corals are mostly fine but I’m having color issues: my Leng Sy is pale and the flesh of my red digi is white instead of red.. etc.

I’m thinking instead of raising nutrients, maybe I could try lowering my alkalinity. It’s sitting right at 8.6 but ranges up to 9. If I lower the Alk to 7.6-8 maybe growth slows and nutrients naturally rise and my color issues resolve themselves?

Would this work?

I’m running 9DKH. No issues. I would really think hard on changing/lowering your ALK. Lower will give you less room for error. A few corals not coloring up isn’t in my opinion a reason to make changes. It could be something else like flow. Maybe there’s not enough. Your tank has started filling in. Have you looked at this? Your system has gone through a lot recently. Could just need more time to come back. As far as nutrients go buy the girls some more fish or just feed more, no socks, only do water changes when needed. Ohh I wish I had this problem lol. Hope this helps.

 

[chadfish]

I’m running 9DKH. No issues. I would really think hard on changing/lowering your ALK. Lower will give you less room for error. A few corals not coloring up isn’t in my opinion a reason to make changes. It could be something else like flow. Maybe there’s not enough. Your tank has started filling in. Have you looked at this? Your system has gone through a lot recently. Could just need more time to come back. As far as nutrients go buy the girls some more fish or just feed more, no socks, only do water changes when needed. Ohh I wish I had this problem lol. Hope this helps.

Yes. This helps. You’re right. Too many changes recently. Needs a few months to settle. I’ll take your advice and do nothing. Keep dosing AB+ and a bit of phyto every morning and watch it do it’s thing. I’ll get a flasher wrasse and or a bi-color blenny too.

 

[ChrisV]

Yes. This helps. You’re right. Too many changes recently. Needs a few months to settle. I’ll take your advice and do nothing. Keep dosing AB+ and a bit of phyto every morning and watch it do it’s thing. I’ll get a flasher wrasse and or a bi-color blenny too.

Doing nothing is ALMOST always the right answer. Even if corals have been in the tank for a while, they do need to adapt to changes, which can take time.

 

[dz6t]

to increase nitrate, you can dose potassium nitrate, which is available on Amazon pretty inexpensive.

For phosphate, just drop some home made frozen food in.

Lower alkalinity will not reduce sps growth significantly if alkalinity is higher than 7 dkh. If alkalinity lower than 7, that can cause trouble for sps, due to alkalinity is the buffering capacity of the water, when alkalinity is too low, stability is affected.

As a side note, from the current published studies of alkalinity, the major components of alkalinity is carbonate and bicarbonate. Coral takes in Bicarbonate for two purposes: carbonate source for calcification and carbon sources for biological activity including building tissues. That may explain an observation that tanks with heavy coral load seem to consume significantly more alkalinity than calcium. Besides the inaccuracy of calcium test kits, magnesium incorporates into coral skeleton, coral does take in more alkalinity than calcium, contradicting the 1:1 ratio of the dosing theory.

 

[dz6t]

Think of coral as any other animal, tissue growth first then skeleton growth next. Just like modulate calcium pills intake of a malnutrition animal won’t affect its bone growth.

 

[chadfish]

to increase nitrate, you can dose potassium nitrate, which is available on Amazon pretty inexpensive.

For phosphate, just drop some home made frozen food in.

Lower alkalinity will not reduce sps growth significantly if alkalinity is higher than 7 dkh. If alkalinity lower than 7, that can cause trouble for sps, due to alkalinity is the buffering capacity of the water, when alkalinity is too low, stability is affected.

As a side note, from the current published studies of alkalinity, the major components of alkalinity is carbonate and bicarbonate. Coral takes in Bicarbonate for two purposes: carbonate source for calcification and carbon sources for biological activity including building tissues. That may explain an observation that tanks with heavy coral load seem to consume significantly more alkalinity than calcium. Besides the inaccuracy of calcium test kits, magnesium incorporates into coral skeleton, coral does take in more alkalinity than calcium, contradicting the 1:1 ratio of the dosing theory.

Thanks Dong,

I have some potassium nitrate I can add. I’ve been holding off to see if the aminos would be sufficient. Maybe it’s worth another look.

 

[dz6t]

Amino is definitely feeding your coral.
Amino alone may not satisfy all the nitrogen needs in the tank and dosing nitrate, which is a direct fertilizer for the symbiont algae, may needed.
Also amino does not contain P, if P is bottom out, dosing may be needed.