Bleaching ACRO?

I have had my tank up since February and things have been great except for a little cyno problem on the sand bed.....mostly under control now......my tank is 65g with a 55g sump and 29g fuge.....

What are the exact parameters? Alk, Ca, Mag, pH, etc.

Where is the placement of the acros in the tank? High, med, low? What kind of flow do you have in the tank.

Darkening of SPS means low light, or excess nutrients in water.

What's your lighting and what's your feeding regimen?

Sorry it took so long to get back on here!!!

Sorry pics are bad I used my cell phone and they shrunk when I posted them???  What is your e-mail I will send it over.....I didn't think about testing for copper didn't realize you could do that....

The tank is practically all stony coral, and a lot of it too.
You are adding Alk and Ca currently, right?
I would suggest installing a Ca Reactor to save the trouble of almost daily Alk and Ca additions.


Edited by Mark Peterson - September 23 2011 at 3:33pm

Any Ca Reactor will do. I don't have a favorite.

If the Alkalinity has been below 8 and Alk dosing was not sufficient for a while, the Calcium was just building up because without a minimum level of Alk, coral cannot use Ca. Water changes with Oceanic or another high Ca salt mix replace Ca but not Alk. Because of many different variables in tank conditions and setup, the minimum level of Alkalinity for healthy Ca utilization is different for every tank. Alk of 9-10 has always seemed to be a good general target.

Coral need Alk and Ca just like food. Any coral can get really sensitive to this lack of food and start to decline. The difficulty with low Alk is that it can take weeks or months for the coral to start showing signs and then, even though the parameters are brought back into line, it can take weeks for the coral to recover and start growing again. Ca usage will show a delay. Patience is a virtue.

All of this may explain why I am always stressing that knowing the Alk and Ca of our tanks is as important as Temp and Salinity, even more important than testing N compounds. For example, a rise in Nitrates is easily and quickly seen visually in declining coral condition, polyps not extending, coral not expanding, and in extreme situations flesh receding, etc.
One the other hand, Alk and Ca deprivation is slow to show in coral so we must be vigilant in testing and adjusting with Alk and Ca supplements or tuning in the Ca Reactor.


Edited by Mark Peterson - October 07 2011 at 10:32pm

THANKS,  SO after increasing my ALK I have been getting a TON of BUBBLES......no water outlets are splashing into the tanks I have a bubble trap in sump filter sock....both display and frag tank, Connected system different pump and piping to both fed from the sump, ANY SUGGESTION  This is a picture of the over flow box COVERED in bubbles!!!

For anyone interested I thought I might add that, while Cu does not cause breakouts of cyanobacteria, cyanobacteria has an effect on Cu levels where it will absorb it out of the water column, and so it is a nice thing to have in your sump or somewhere in your water where it isn't too annoying as it will remove any amounts of many harmful chemicals that could be dangerous to your tank inhabitants.  You might call it nature's super filter.