I think seeing this "other direction" is equally important as showing tanks at there best. First, it set's expectations for the community. If they/we only ever see perfect, our unrealistic expectations will be perfection and anything less unacceptable. Which is not a healthy state for the hobby. Second, troubleshooting problems are often the most informative and helpful content in the hobby. I learn a ton from watching a reefer describe how they keep a healthy reef tank. But I learn far more from hearing which problems they've encountered and how they overcame or managed it. Those are the real gems.

Sam, this type of subject I want to see from you, this will really help us to navigate through our reefing journey. Thanks

I love this kind of video cause this helps us learn to get the best color out of our corals.

Hey figuring out an issue like this can certainly be frustrating, especially if you've narrowed down a lot! Hopefully we can help you out :) Here's an experience I had with my tank. - Run another ICP, see if anything is out of whack on the next. Definitely agree that ICP can sometimes be inconsistent. My first icp when I was having issues showed everything being good then eventually would show elevated tin, zinc, aluminium and iron. I was shocked that nothing was initially picked up! - Run a magnet through your sand in the tank and sump see if you pick up any tiny things on them. There's been some reputable brands of sand that have had magnetic pieces in them from the packaging. Just removing the sand won't get tiny metallic pieces out as they're heavy but too small to be scoops so will just sink to the bottom on the glass then covered by more sand if you add it. - The tank getting better after a water change does point to some water quality issue and the source of it sounds like it may be from the tank rather than an introduction of it from an external source such as your RO or Salt but it won't hurt to examine everything that touches or stores water or anything for the tank. This includes mixing containers and utensils such as wavemakers or pumps, hose clamps etc. - When I had elevated metals from an external source, it threw me off as some corals would just be thriving and growing for a long while, many would eventually die off. They may of looked a bit poor for months then died, some looked great and seemed to grow for even longer then die. It was a long hard slog figuring out what was the issue but this inconsistently in coral appearance really threw me off! - once you've checked all equipment and utensils in and out of the tank, try removing the dosage of products (if it won't greatly impact tank health) that you've introduced maybe a month or two before you had these issues. - chuck your red LEDs on at night a few hours after lights off and take a little look at livestock/pest in case - may be worth doing some bacterial program and adding in some fresh live rock into the sump to introduce a little more biodiversity - PAR test won't hurt, although I don't think it would be the issue. - it helped me to log anything in real time of what I was changing on the tank or if I made a new addition of something etc. On an app. It's been so useful going back and seeing how changes may of impacted my tank. Sorry for the essay lol. I didn't get to watch till the end being at work sorry if I've repeated something! Hopefully your problem is fixed soon! All the best

Awesome video, looking forward to a follow-up!

As soon as I saw this I thought of Abe's video (coral euphoria) on missing element ....I could be wrong but it's worth a watch ... I'm sure you have already 😂

I will try carbon dosing, not to reduce nutrients but to increase bacterial population to feed your corals. You might need to dose some nitrates/ammonium to ensure your nitrate does not bottom out. This fixed a similar issue I had. @coraleuphoria on YT has a video on this. Good luck mate

If there is something with heavy metals, Two Little Fishies MetaSorb UHC is supposed to be an excellent tool for taking them out. You'll still need to identify the source of course. Would start with inspecting all magnets in the tank for swelling, and anything else metallic for corrosion signs anywhere else in the stand. Doing a full PAR survey of the tank is absolutely worth doing and should always be done after lights are added or changed anyway. At the worst it tells you what levels are in the different areas of the tank are getting allowing for optimal coral placement.

This is what the hobby is all about! Troubleshooting issues and helping each other! Lighting definitely could be an issue and I always like to borrow a PAR meter from a mate when changing lights or intensity - our eyes are terrible at judging this. Bacterial issue is also a potential issue - wouldn’t it be great to get Aqua Biomics outside of the US?

My thoughts, as someone interested in reefing. By the look of the clam, I believe lighting is to intense for longer than needed! But, I am just studying, before building an aquarium.

1. Maybe to much sulphur/sulphate release from sand removal 2. Check water for leaking volts. ( multi meter) 3. ORP levels drastically change when bacteria drops or rises suddenly. Good luck

I had a similar experience. Placed a couple of Poly filters pads in Sump. Improvements were noticed. Exxcessive Metals play a big part.

I'm with you about the sand, to much removed disturbing the good bacteria, like you said adding some may do the trick. I don't know if he got UV if he does maybe turn it off for a few days or weeks. But the tank is looking good maybe just be patient and things will turn around. Thanks Sam!

Definitely would be looking into getting more flow to all those colony’s.

And also look at the other most common causes of coral blanching/bleaching. Excessive UV/high PAR as Sam said, temperature and salinity. Do you ever check salinity immediately before you do a water change? Is your ATO working properly? Low salinity will cause bleaching.

Oh and one more suggestion. Consider rewiring the power strip for the small tank on the left side. ⚡️🔌for safety 😊don’t wanna learn safety the hard way 😮

I’m in a similar boat with my Cade 1200. I recovered from Dino’s in Nov. Icp comes back good. Acro and anacapora aren’t good but Monti and poci etc are growing out of control. I’ve put it down the lag from Dino treatment, as Abe says and Acro problems look back at least a month. If Jason wants some halides I have some brand new ones in 250 and 300w multiple reef colors. I’m over the other side of town but we can work something out.

The colours look good tank looks good... maybe too much fiddling with things just leave it. If anything put a bag of carbon. The other thing i noticed when you did the top view i didnt notice much white edging on the clam shell

i watched about 17 mins in… i’m gonna say get the apex recalibrated again. if the trident is malfunctioning even at the slightest, because he did say he’s alk jumped around a little… i would re-check that newer equipment. browning & stn i associate to phosphates & alkalinity. i wished he would’ve mentioned his parameters, even the basic ones

One thing that really stands out to me, is your water change routine and how things get better. I strongly suspect some kind of imbalance in trace elements. It also seems that rock/sand to livestock ratio is quite low. These media really help stabilize the the tank. It’s one of those invisible unknowns. Three: stop changing stuff. 4. Skimmer going crazy. U might have an oversized skimmer. The bio load is going up and down and the sudden surge causes over flow. Been there before.

I had the same problem with my sps did a icp test found out low potassium and fluoride

Taking sand out stopped all growth for almost 6 months for me. I took it out over 4 weeks during waterchanges.

Hi :) I think that the occasional dinos are expelled zooxanthellae due to stress. I'd verify the phosphate level with a different kit - said .1, but def worth checking if it's not closer to 0 or high. Other than that would go the suggested way and check what has changed since probs started - lighting. Would also be interesting to compare ICPs from then and now. Thanks for the interesting video!

Have had similar dramas when messing with sand bed and lighting, you did both in a small time frame, wouldn,t mind betting on one or both of them.

I might be wrong, but once i read a paper (cant remember the journal) which showed that chromoproteins and fluorescent proteins have their peak expression at different PAR. If i remember right, too much par favors chromoprotein rather than flourescent protein expression.

Awesome Video Guys! Lately I've been focusing on pH. I might have missed it's mention, but I am leaning toward a higher pH being a great tool for limiting many of the nuisance bacterio-algaes. I have noticed that if I can keep pH above 8.25/8.3, conditions are more favourable to coral growth than cyano/dino growth. When the pH gets closer to or below 8.1/8.0 then the nuisances are better able to out-complete the corals for available nutrients (which also feed zooxanthellae.). Where is your pH sitting at??? For example, If the nightly pH drops to lower than ideal; then Cyano/Dino blooms can out-complete coral zooxanthellae for available fertilizers such as PO4/NO3.... the larger population of nuisance alga; the bigger the impact on nightly pH swings (when all living things respirate: i.e. consume O2 and expel CO2); and the more skewed the competition is in the nuisances' favour when photosynthesis resumes...??? In fact, I've had a small theory over the last several years that events like cyanobacteria and dinoflagellate blooms are actually natures last ditch effort to avoid environmental crashes... low pH leads to more photosynthetic power by the uglies..... again the focus for me is always on pH; as our reefs mature, and biodiversity rises, there is more pressure on the pH (O2/CO2) Dynamic.....

Thanks for sharing the footage. I would bring light intensity down at least by 30% overall and dose neo nitro and AF liquid Rotifers. I get very good result by keeping my Philips CC at 30 to 35 % white and 100% intensity for 8 hrs boosting white makes my sps upset . But not all tanks are same 😊

With regards to the bristletooth, I'm guessing it was sourced from Africa? They have that really cool yellow appearance as juveniles but like so many others, transition for the uglier pretty quickly.... as far as its behavior, imo, all bristletooths are very cryptic and it's nothing to be concerned about.... just watch his belly to make sure he appears nourished as they can be bullied / out muscled come feesing time. They are irreplacable grazers tho... My 2 cents. Thx for the great content Sam! Regards from Canada!

On the skimmer, if Dino’s are still around some types will enter the water column at night and can have the effect Jason noted. I would have thought kh instability based on the observations. If you are confident to rule out alk (not sure I would just yet) I would look to the salt. Not sure how many buckets have been used (or more I importantly different manuf batches). ICP has limitations. Run carbon and make sure you start a fresh batch of salt that is well mixed before use. Components of the mix will settle during transport. check your RO system if you make it.

Had almost identical symptoms, heavy metal issue in the end. Check power heads.

can't stop monti cap from growing

I’m going through the exact same thing at the moment sps losing colour and funnily enough my vivid confetti is looking beautiful while other corals like my fruity pebbles has lost a lot of colour and is pretty much white but has really good polyp extension

I had similar issues and started dosing all the bright well aquatics line and the colors are getting really nice. replenish , coral color, vitamins, restore, aminos, snow, vm. I highly recommend their line oh and the benepets coral powder is insane.

This is definitely a bacterium. You would have to do a sensitivity test to figure out which one is the culprit.

Could be a chemical/contaminant issue that ICP wont pickup on. If this was the case, use a polyfilter to see if the issues clear up. The system could also be carbon limited, unlikely but heard of carbon dosing bringing some systems back to life @CoralEuphoria has a video on this. I doubt a PAR change would be the issue however if it was, the corals will adapt within a couple months of the change. Even if ICP is in the clear for metals, some rusting magnets can release metals/toxins that ICP wont pickup. metals like iron released from rust will be consumed by algae's/bacteria in the tank leading to a seemingly clean ICP, however some metals and toxins not detectable through ICP could accumulate. Since a 20% water change shows some improvement it is likely a contaminant issue such as this, in which case a polyfilter will help but finding the source is best. Dont forget pump impellers. hard to spot corrosion as the rust cant accumulate on the constantly spinning impeller but you will see signs when cleaned if corrosion is taking place. Hope this helps and aids as advice for anyone interested.

Simple things first. PAR test and see what it's at. Lighting was one of the only significant changes mentioned during the period the tank declined so its an obvious place to start. Some colonies might be fine with the increased light and others can struggle. Easy way to test the theory would be backing them down 15-20% for a couple weeks and see if those problem colonies improve.

I'd be looking really closely at potential environmental problem as well. Quite a lot of dust on your equipment board. Is the window behind that blind open? Looks like it by the way the blind is flapping. Do you tend to only open the window at night? What's outside that window? Nearby road or railway track? Any renovations going on nearby?

Does he have a Fudge???or using a GFO?? Could it be sucking elements out of the water and the water change adding them back before they go again ???

Sand removal can really affect some corals I cleaned out my sump and wiped out my tenuis but didn't affect any other acro bacteria change can be a problem

Could be anything. Lack of food, too little light, too much light, changing food routine, coral warfare. Everyone can guess but get a PAR meter in there. Too much PAR can cause fading. And an ICP test takes any guesswork out of water chemistry.

I dont know if its realy true but . I watched a vid once where coral warfare was a issue . Not the direct contact but some corals can release hormones feromone or what ever there called . Goniopora and leather corals seem to do that and you cant see it or test it . A friend of mine had lots of acro and some leather coral toadstool and sinularia . When he took them out the acros growd exploded . Even though the parameters didnt change . I heard you tank is 1year 1.5 years old now so its mature Maybe some corals are at there best now and start to try to take out the competition . Its just a thinking . Sorry if my english is not correct . Greetings from holland

First and foremost, I'd run an ICP on his source water. Then, while waiting for the results, I'd swap out the membrane and all filters (assuming he is running his own RODI). TDS meters have been known to be quite inaccurate at times. The corals in question look like they have been overdosed with aminos or possibly iron, but I would want to be sure that the source water is clean as possible. You just can't get ahead of the curve if your auto top off is continually adding bad water. Is he dosing anything to keep the refugium happy? I too would run a second ICP on the tank water. I'd also put in some good ol elbow grease by doing daily 5-10% water changes for a week to see if I could gently reset the tank. While doing that reset, I'd check for the more rarer issues as well - rusty magnet, stray voltage, etc. Wouldn't hurt to also double check his temp probe against a lab grade mercury therm since ICP can't help with temperature validation. I hope he hangs in there, this is all part of the journey, unfortunately. I am sure the tank will get back on track soon enough!

I would be checking for AEFW, specially seeing as the lps is all happy and it’s individual pieces that are unhappy

What were the silicate results from the rodi? Had a similar issue with icp test but rodi level of silicates were super high .

Curious as to the accuracy of the test you did there Sam, with a spintouch was it? Phos showing high at 0.3 (he said he normally sits around 0.1) and Mag low at 1241. I do hope you figure out the issue!

Be good to see when you do the videos on tanks is the par that some tanks are getting with light settings. Specially with the new radions. Maybe with some wavemakers the flow settings people are using etc. Go a little deeper into the equipment side of things.

I’m thinking some sort of parameter has changed leading to excessive slowdown of growth and stn. Lack of growth leads to less consumption of major and minor elements and less demand for nutrients (NO3 and PO4) leading to a cascading effect on other tank parameters. STN usually indicates a parameter swing or even suddenly change in lighting (PAR and spectrum).

I have 90% sps and my lps grow really slow, they used to grow very fast before I sold most of them and the sps took over. I have a theory that corals realease some sort of toxin that that sps are immune to but lps don't like and probably vice versa. But there is no way of testing that stuff.

I had similar awhile back, ended up low level metals from a cracked return pump !!

They can loose color if they’re not feeding. What causes polyps to retract and corals to underfeed? Too much flow, getting bitten, organic contaminants, sudden change in lighting, disruption to nutrient supply, so many possibilities. 😮

What r u dosing ? Are you using activated carbon? What r u doing for nutrient control? Carbon dosing or biopellets etc?

Funny comment about MHs being like an ex… you do forget about the noise, making sure your ballast is rated for the right bulb like radium on a M81(?) ballast vs HQI, etc., and chucking it $80-90 ever year for every fixture.

Skimmer producing more at night is bothering me. Can you throw an outlet watt meter on the skimmer and check the power draw at night vs the day? I wonder if additional lights is drawing too much power and limiting the wattage to other items during the day.

100 procent the dwarf angel And the change in light

Suprised salinity wasnt mentioned. How is jason testing that, via the trident? Has it been calibrated recently? Icp give a result for that? Might also be an idea to try an ICP from a different company, second opinion and all that.

My bet is still weak or unhealthy biome/bacterial instabilty, regarding bare bottom, light rockscape + almost all glass cleaned. I suffered same, unrecorded on icp issues below 2 years mark in 15g nano. Above 2 years everything suddenly exploded in growth and stunning coloration (GHA also due 0.2 phos - without tangs and urchin). I moved to 50g,same light, flow, dosing etc., also bare bottom + all mature biology form old tank (didnt help). 3 months better than ever, than disaster after disaster. Now, after 1 year i stopped every form of carbon dosing (aminos, witamins, powders, etc) because brown bad guys are ovegrowing from damaged parts of acros and acans. Started only "one of miracle ocean mud" product and DIY coral snow for acidic neutral env./ Stable pH day-night around 8.0. Hope this is the case. Still considering more bio-media and mby some large wild sponges colony with my chaeto in sump.

It’s probably nothing, but what’s the silver colored bead @33:30 ? There appears to be a colony of aptasia just after the 33 min mark. I think I saw a couple vermetid snails. Overall nothing obvious or unusual. I’d think some months since the Dino treatment would be enough to stabilize. We never got to see the filtration, so who knows what’s there. My guess is there was a shock to the biome and more fundamental processes could be to blame…but I did have my eyes on that dwarf angel when you mentioned it. LoL!

Also, if nutrients are low, adding new lights could cause sps to lose color.

On your friend's tank]1,the fish look stressed (one of the tangs was darker) and to my far away eyes,as well.{2,the pH,what was that dooing?I missed hearing that.Does he have a rrefurium?Bacteria is more populated in a healthy sump.And his lighting schedule?Does he run that as bright .All the time.Halide liight I love it as well but you can cook corals and I belive higher temps and light bleach out colors,far easier thna lower light starves corals. my 2 cents,Doc BC

what about another brand of ICP test, and doing something like the Moonshiner's Method to boost up depleted trace elements?

My guess would be low nutrients, corals losing color plus Dinos strive in low nutrient environments. I would possibly feed your fish more. This is my guess

I’d love to know is flow schedule on the MP40s and the Nero

Where is the coraline algae? This tank looks new to me

Any high silicates in the water?

Speculative theory and making some assumptions here (I’ve never been to Australia and I’m not too familiar with the climate). I didn’t hear you guys talk about pH and am wondering if that could be what has changed. It’s possible windows were open more often earlier last year and they are closed more now to keep the air conditioning inside during this time of year. More carbon dioxide in the air could be suppressing the pH. Red Sea salt produces a mix of 8.2 - 8.5 pH salt so that could temporarily bring up the suppressed pH. If he tests pH and it’s atleast 8.2, I would say that pretty much rules out pH as the issue.

Did you used a filter while recording the entire time?

Sps dont have a good mechanism for taking nutrients from the water column, unlike lps corals do have a good mechanism. Thusfore your lps are not showing signs of srress.

What kind if clean up crew. And does he add copepods?

I wonder if it's flow. The browned out corals seems to be on the back left where there is no powerhead.

I’ve had some issues over the past month or so and couldn’t put my finger on it. Turns out I found one of the magnets in my mp40 wet side had split and seemed to have been corroding for some time

Send a aquabiomic dna test. Could be a pathogen . I had problems with my reef tank and done absolutely everything under the sun and replaced everything posssible but couldn’t solve my issues with my reef. Then sent a dna test to aquabiomic. Turns out i had some coral pathogen called stony coral tissue loss disease.

You dont need to add bacteria, tank is a year and half old, you have plenty of surface area for bacteria.

The color loose is the different lighting change. I have changed out lighting and had my coral start bleaching a few weeks after the change. Especially if the spectrum and par are different from the other fixture. Green gobblen is definitely a sign of more light. I had the same thing happen to my green Gobblen.

Could the fish nipping the corals cause a release in toxins. Coral warfare caused by the nipping fish. I'd recommend a carbon dose and some low volume but more frequent water changes. Uv sterilizer in the return.😮

Tht looks like very low iodine levels to me

Jason, i posted a youyube link to a video that i think might help but this channel deleted the post sorry .

pleese,,,fix this camera,,,

Funny when you go visit a friend regarding his issue and he can hardly say a word because you're talking all the time. Let the guy speak, we want to hear from him. Your channel is great but this video is about his tank and his issues, not your opinions like in other videos. There's not a single sentence of his in this whole 40 minute video where you didn't interrupt him 😃

Check for magnets 🧲 Corrosion leaching into tank