fairpricetickets Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 Been pretty stable for a while now but my strawberry shortcake acro hasn't been looking great (less color) and also the Fire and Ice zoas nearby have been losing their orange color - turning into just solid purple. Then this morning half the shortcake frag was bleached completely. The only thing I've done differently in the past 2 weeks is run Phosguard more (I run it more when my colors aren't popping) and using 40% the recommended dose of "Red Sea Reef Energy Plus AB+" a day because I wasn't using an amino product prior to this. I also inject this product pretty close to these corals, but was under the impression this stuff was fairly harmless. System: Calcium 400-440 Alk 10.4-11 Nitrates 10-12 Phosphates unknown (I go by coloration but have already ordered a meter) Ammonia/Nitrite zero Any advice would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairpricetickets Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 Just found out I've been using the Sea Reef Energy Plus AB+ unrefrigerated if that helps. Doing massive water change now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxkenny90xx Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 I wouldn't be using phosgaurd without testing for phosphates. Nothing bleaches sps faster than lowering Po4 too fast... And fwiw I never use more than maybe 75% of the recommended dose of phosgaurd/gfo/ect Also since your not testing yet you could have bottomed out your Po4 which will also hurt sps and zoas 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 I’ve used RE AB+ for months no issues, but I do keep it in the fridge per the directions. It does state that you can leave a weeks worth out for theoretical daily dosing. I would assume the same as kenny that it’s the phosguard. Get a test, if it’s a flat zero that would be a good indicator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 (edited) my guess is that you have crashed your phosphates. In fact, I am willing to bet on it. Fading colors is typically low nutrients, too much light, or both. I live outside of vancvouer and have a milwaukie low range photometer if you want me to test your phos. Reef roids will raise your phos pretty quickly FWI. Edited November 6, 2020 by pdxmonkeyboy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairpricetickets Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the advice, I think you guys are right it was the phosguard since I was running it more and had just changed it. Fed some mysis and used a 2X dose or RR to get the phosphates back up ASAP. Thanks for the offer PDXmonkeyboy I sincerely appreciate it, but I'm in Rogue River, OR and my Hanna tester arrives today anyway. Luckily the strawberry shortcake acro was my only loss so far and all my other sticks are ok ATM. Gonna test from now on, should have been doing that all along 🤦♂️ Edited November 6, 2020 by fairpricetickets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Right on. FWIW, if you want to control phosphates in the future, lanthium chloride is a much more controllably method as you can jsut measure and dose. With GFO or phosban or whatever you are just kind of guess. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairpricetickets Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 (edited) I read your post on lanthium chloride an actually thought that would be worse without a testing kit since it can nuke the phosphates if too much is used. I thought I was better off with phosguard running intermittently since it just reduces phosphates that flow through the media reactor and is more of a "half life" type of application because it's not capturing 100% of the water flow. Without a testing kit I think phosguard is safer but now that I'm going to be testing I'll probably switch so I don't have to use a media reactor. Really I just need space for a proper fuge, but I'm in a rental and can't expand anymore Edited November 6, 2020 by fairpricetickets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairpricetickets Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 Phosphates test came back at .76 and .82 🤔 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The ReefBox Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 On 11/6/2020 at 5:06 PM, fairpricetickets said: Phosphates test came back at .76 and .82 🤔 I’m thinking your corals would brown out at that number Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairpricetickets Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 .85 with the latest test Maybe phosphates were too high for a long time and I lowered them too quickly. I guess time will tell. Moral of the story: Never buy acros 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxkenny90xx Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 That's really high but I have seen some beautiful tanks with similar numbers. Stability is key. Oh ya and not buying acros, duh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Bummer, i wouldn't be dosing anything at this point. Just chill on the AB for now. Now that you have a tester you can knock it down with LC. I have LC on a dosing pump righy now and check phos daily. I am in a weird situation though, i need to exhaust all the phos from my rock. It was a complete yoyo until i hooked up the doser. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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