Corals fading...trace elements?

[Shoreliner11]

Hi everyone,
I've had my tank setup for about 4 months now with corals in it for about 2. Anyhow, my corals have faded a bit which I thought was due to a bad temp and salinity swing a month or so back. The only thing is they haven't really been recovering their color. Here are the tanks specs (all with salifert test kits):
pH: 8.2-8.4 ( I don't really like this pH test kit actually, kinda hard to tell for me)
Nitrate: 0
Alkalinty: 8.6-9.6 dKH (been fluctuating a little as I'm getting dosing for the tank just right)
Calcium: 420-430ppm
Salinity: 34ppt

I've been dosing with a 2 part system at night. Now, not thinking that running carbon would remove trace elements, I've been running it almost nonstop for a couple months now (been changing it out as well every week or so). A brain fart there, but, do you think the carbon could pull out enough trace elements to cause the corals to fade? A couple of them are still encrusting but the growth margin is very thin (skeleton growing, but no new polyps present). So what is everyone thinking? Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Aaron

 

[DonW]

Coral coloration can be a tough one to figure out but its probably not the the carbon. A good carbon regimen is a good thing.

Don

 

[fairlan]

my corals have improved dramaticly since i started useing carbon i also dose sechem reef plus twice a week carbon doesnt remove much trace elements as most people think. i would try the reef plus for a month or so and seewhat happens

 

[Shoreliner11]

Hmmm... I'm just trying to find the missing factor here. I've kept SPS corals in a nano before with little to no issues. I'm just running into some situations I haven't had before and trying to see what is out of wack. As I'm not testing for trace elements and everything else seems ok, I was thinking this might be the culprit. A plus side to the heavy carbon use is my water is crystal clear

Aaron

 

[fairlan]

corals may be still adjusting to the more intense light since water is clearer

 

[Shoreliner11]

my corals have improved dramaticly since i started useing carbon i also dose sechem reef plus twice a week carbon doesnt remove much trace elements as most people think. i would try the reef plus for a month or so and seewhat happens

Good to know. I'm dosing a 2 part system (similar to C-balance) which has trace elements and whatnot in it, so I should be ok there. My tank is a 10gal with a 10gal sump/refugium. Is it possible for a tank this small constant carbon usage could reduce trace elements a significant amount?

corals may be still adjusting to the more intense light since water is clearer

This may be a possibility. The funny thing is I have 2x34w PC compacts (w/ a great reflector) but I've noticed because my tank is so shallow, the tank is brighter than many tanks using mh. I'm getting decent polyp extension on most of my corals as well. Thanks again

Aaron

 

[fairlan]

you also need amino acids reef plus has it all i used c ballance for a while didn't do my tank much good i only dose calcium chloride magnesium and reef plus occasionaly will need to adjust alk with baking soda

 

[DonW]

The best trace element dosing you can do is balanced water changes. If your doing those then no other additions are needed besides the common consumables like ca, alk and mg.

Don

 

[Shoreliner11]

The best trace element dosing you can do is balanced water changes. If your doing those then no other additions are needed besides the common consumables like ca, alk and mg.

Don

I do a 1-1.5gal water change every week or so. This is probably a little over 5% total water volume of the system, so I should be good. Again, I was thinking I was ok on trace elements, especially in a small system such as mine, but I was just checking everyone's thoughts. Thanks again for the input.

Aaron

 

[DonW]

I would think about bumping those up especially on a tank that small. If you have any fish 10 to 20% would make a healthier enviroment.

Don

 

[Shoreliner11]

One thing I hadn't thought of before now was phosphates. I take for granted that I have a refugium which on past tanks has led to little to no algae growth and untraceable nitrates and phosphates. Currently I have a little bit of black algae (probably cyano) that grows in addition to the normal diatom growth on the sand and glass. I don't see it all that much but the hermit and snail poop is all black. High phosphates could also be causing the issue I would think. I guess like you said I'll increase water changes and get the phosphates tested as well to see if they're an issue.