For some reason every stick that goes into my tank will eventually turn green. I run no GFO, no Carbon, no Skimmer, only live rock. 90 cube with rubbermaid sump. We were moving so there were no water changes for about 4 months. Don't have problems with the actual growth of sps, that seems like its not an issue. I keep seeing Iron, but GFO was removed probably 7-8 months ago. I just picked up a pink milli colony and im sure it will eventually turn green. I run two Hydras over the tank.
All my sps turn green
- Thread starter rog2961
- Start date
A1t2o
New member
What color green? Good green or brownish green? It could be your lights, or it could be that you just tend to pick corals that are green when they color up. What are you running the hydras at? I'm not as familiar with those, but if you have your colors imbalanced then it can show off and encourage the growth of one color over others in the corals.
Its the good green. I pick the corals based off the original colors and most of them were not green. My teal and blue tenuis turned green. mostly its my blues that turn green. Purple is ok in my tank. right now its pretty much purple or green. I have my Hydras running at 100% blues 40% whites, UV, and Violet, and the green and reds are at 20%. What color would encourage non green growth?
No water changes for 4months?? No skimmer?? no gfo ? and it was moved??
Im leaning towards excess nutrients is the issue.
Know your nitrate and phosphate levels?
Would also help if you gave us more info like water chemistry, temperature, photo period, fish load etc etc
Im leaning towards excess nutrients is the issue.
Know your nitrate and phosphate levels?
Would also help if you gave us more info like water chemistry, temperature, photo period, fish load etc etc
I took GFO offline because things were starting to look pale. Colors came back after that but then turned green. I haven't tested my tank in 3 years, more of a look and feel kinda guy. I ended up chasing numbers alot. I keep my tank at whatever ambient temperature is at, usually that's 72 or so. I recently added 5-6 fish now that I have everything properly setup, but this was within the last week. The other change was I added about 100lbs of live rock, but that was within the last week as well. Otherwise the only thing done to the tank in the last 4 months were feedings, and filling up the ATO. I experimented with baking soda to keep alk steady but wasn't consistent with it.
Colorful SPS can take some work, monitoring and a little number chasing till you find your systems consumption rate and "personality" then its about finding a solid routine to make things stable as possible.
Surely more will chime in, but if you want colorful sticks, you need to put a bit of effort and time into it IMO.
Its not the lack of effort, I've tried them all, Skimmer, ATS, chemical export, and natural means. Skimmer pulls out too much good stuff, ATS makes the water green. GFO strips phosphates out awfully fast and is hard to gauge how much to use. I may try it again, but after taking it offline, everything brightened up. Going through old threads I keep seeing Iron as the cause of green. Now that I think about it when I setup my tank last week, I found a piece of rusty metal from who knows where. Possible that this iron in the rust caused this?
skp
New member
A lot of successful sps tanks I've seen don't run skimmers but I think that depends on how many corals there are to take up the nutrients. I am currently running a skimmer and chemipure blue as all my corals are 2 inch frags. I found that when I first added the chemipure blue it lightened up my sps. As the media got older the colors came back. I'm having the opposite problem as you. I can't seem to keep green. All of my sps are turning purple and red. One that was fully green has turned yellow.
scrapz
Saturation+100
Just sounds like you don't have the right environment for your inhabitants. Being a "feel" guy is great if your system is stable but you're tinkering worth too many things at once. Everything needs time to stabilize. You could use less gfo if phosphates are being stripped too fast. Use carbon to polish water if your ATS if turning your water green. You even say you're inconsistent with alk dosing. Take it slow, if your coral are alive, stay consistent with whatever method you're currently imploring in your tank and adjust dosage as needed.
A1t2o
New member
I looked it up and UV lighting makes your green color stand out. Maybe raise the red and green slightly. ATS doesn't make your water yellow or green if you take it out of the tank to wash it, its when you do that in tank that it gets in the water and tints it. Do water changes, if you are going to be moving, then you will be replacing a large amount of water in that process. You want there to be as little stress as possible, so making the water in the current tank as close as possible to the water in the moved tank will help prevent losses during the move.
Acromaniac
Member
How many SPS do you have?
You say the growth is good but you don't do any water changes and don't even dose alk.... how is that possible? Where are your corals getting their alk and calcium from?
For colour stability is always the main thing, especially alk. if I didnt dose for 2 days my alk swings would be huge and cause a lot of damage, i'm not sure how you can go 4 months? I'm surprised they are even alive....
You say the growth is good but you don't do any water changes and don't even dose alk.... how is that possible? Where are your corals getting their alk and calcium from?
For colour stability is always the main thing, especially alk. if I didnt dose for 2 days my alk swings would be huge and cause a lot of damage, i'm not sure how you can go 4 months? I'm surprised they are even alive....
Well I think the first thing is to get a good test kit and get your alk, cal and mag stable. It's pretty easy to get them in line. Test, dose recommended, test again to make sure it's correct and then test for consumption over the next few days and dose as needed each time. Now you know what your tank is using. There's no chasing numbers when it comes to the big 3, it just has to be or they will die. No water change for 4 months and no dosing? Either your trolling or really lucky. The next thing is get your skimmer back on, you can't have a nice sps tank without a skimmer imo. When it comes to gfo, it can be a fine line between having enough phosphates and having too much so I run gfo and make sure to feed the tank. Having the right amount of fish in your system can help as well. I don't buy the whole led lighting thing and think that sps needs to be grown under t5's or mh but there are some guys that are doing it successfully so who am I to say. I think people make the whole sps thing harder than it has to be. Personally I change out 10 gallons every 4 days in a 75 gallon system. Good luck.:wave:
The reason for neglect was because of moving houses. The tank was pretty much a rubbermaid container with live rock in it. I started off having GFO, carbon, and skimmer, but over time ended up taking them all offline. Everything looked great, growth was good, but most acros would turn green. No trolling with the 4 months of no water changes. Between living at a different house and the new baby, just didn't have time. Now that were settled in, I have gotten kalk back online in my ATO, and have now added chaeto to my fuge. The original 100g rubbermaid is now a fuge. I have about 15 or so sps. The tank as it sits now. Have two normal hydras over it and recently added a kessil as the par on hydras are quite low.
Lack of effort
Lack of effort
I to once ran a tank like this i had limited success for a couple years i did inconsistent squirts of this or that for two years before it finaaly crashed lost everything in the tank overnight. I then educated myself with the help of these forums and now put in an effort to keep my livestock alive your eyeing it success is on borrowed time it just isnt possible to stay in a parameter by eyeing it. You have to test on occasion you have to change water. Id say you can go quite a length of time with no water changes but you have to test and dose calcium alkalinity trace elements remove detritus ect. Weekly or daily m. I use a bottle of red sea alkalinity titrant a month i test daily before and after dosing each element i test mix water i test my tap water i test phosphates to determine po4 level and adjust gfo accordingly. Just my opinion but dont expect to have success when you dont put in any effort and than ask why when you have a problem its because your not doing the things generally excepted as the rule with sps. Start there then come back when your corals arent colored again we dont do these things because we enjoy testing or changing water we do it becuase we see long term success with it
Lack of effort
I to once ran a tank like this i had limited success for a couple years i did inconsistent squirts of this or that for two years before it finaaly crashed lost everything in the tank overnight. I then educated myself with the help of these forums and now put in an effort to keep my livestock alive your eyeing it success is on borrowed time it just isnt possible to stay in a parameter by eyeing it. You have to test on occasion you have to change water. Id say you can go quite a length of time with no water changes but you have to test and dose calcium alkalinity trace elements remove detritus ect. Weekly or daily m. I use a bottle of red sea alkalinity titrant a month i test daily before and after dosing each element i test mix water i test my tap water i test phosphates to determine po4 level and adjust gfo accordingly. Just my opinion but dont expect to have success when you dont put in any effort and than ask why when you have a problem its because your not doing the things generally excepted as the rule with sps. Start there then come back when your corals arent colored again we dont do these things because we enjoy testing or changing water we do it becuase we see long term success with it
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