Blown76mav

simply put yes.

but it is odd that some coral are doing amazing while others are not doing so well, they could have different nutrient requirements but it should be pretty equal, this would leave me to believe it may be a trace element deficiency but with such frequent small water changes you would have steady supply, then im thinking perhaps an overdose of an element that was being used slowly therefore reducing the concentration, now that the supply is more steady it can no longer drop over time?...my brain hurts

what salt brand are you using? How often did you use to do water changes, i assume RODI 0RDS?</SPAN>

Instant Oceans, use to do 40 gallons every 3 weeks. RO/DI 0 TDS. This is only a 16g increase from previous WC's. I haven't changed any feeding habits or food either. I can see the zoa's needing a little dirtier water so the loss there is understandable, it may be I'm just not use to seeing the corals in 100% true color. Normally my Nitrates would be 10 ppm or less, like stated earlier they've been 0 for at least 6 weeks and holding.

well you can always try raising your nitrates over the next couple weeks if you want, once you rule that out you can go back to your daily waterchanges. but thats just my thought

I agree an aquarium can be nutrient deficient. Kudo's to you for having the persistence to do a 3 gallon water change every day.

Perhaps you can try to increase feeding, which would add some nutrients to the tank.... or change to an every other day schedule for your 3 gallon water change. As you know, it will take some time to see any results, but it seems to me that you are tuned-in to your reef and will notice minor changes over time.

That would be one of the difficulties of the "coral garden" one thing may like something where as everything else hates it you know the old saying "you can make some people happy some of the time but you can never make all of the people happy all of the time." personally I think you may try switching back to weekly water changes vs smaller daily water changes. You may be replenishing supplements faster than they can be used initially and in doing so perhaps actually adding too many trace elements and minerals that some corals just dont care for. thats my two cents anyway, also consider if you dose anything what may be over dosed and are you target feeding or dosing any dt's? it may be that your water changes have eliminated some of the things your corals used to eat?

I don't dose anything, I've thought about adding another feeding to the tank to add nutrients but at the same time I don't really want to have any nitrates as I feel this is what was stunting growth and color. I guess even after 4 years I'm still learning and trying to figure out this tank.

I guess it won't hurt to cut back on the water changes to every other day and increase the feedings while watching the nitrates.

Thanks for the help and input, glad to have someone to bounce ideas off of.

It's tough. I have a lot of happy corals and a few that just don't look good all of a sudden. I tend to think it is something in my water. Heck, maybe a reaction to the "Prime" addition that I've dosed since our source water was affected by the summer drought.

Ok, so I think I've figured out the problem.... After 3 months of 3g/day water changes I quit testing at about the two month mark as it was always the same results, no need to keep testing right? Well apparently as I got to the bottom of the salt bucket the mix must have been lacking in the Alk department..... I checked it as I have a few more SPS starting to look a little light in color and polyps on those haven't been out at night, I found Alk at 5. I guess I need to check each batch of fresh salt water I mix from now on. Nothing like getting to complacent and getting bit in the butt.

Thanks for following up with the solution to your problem. I'm very lax about testing new batches of water as well. Glad it looks like you figured it out.

Now, will you continue 3 gallon per day changes when you get your alkalinity back up?