Brown/Pale SPS WTFFFF

[Greyson]

So i'll start by giving some tank params. because i know i will be asked this question anyway....

SG - 1.025
alk - 8.0
calcium - 420
ph -8.0
nitrate - undetectable
phos - ?????

Lighting kessil a150 10k + truelumen 453 nm strip.


almost all my sps except for the last one i got are a pale beige color ...my nutrients in my tank are really low i only feed my dendros and my wrasse with mysis. tank is VERY clean. I feel like i may either be having a problem wit my lighting or a problem with nutrients. It may be too little ? Can some one please help ? i'm getting depressed seeing them this color ...the growth however is great .. they are growing at a great rate.


color


height of light..

1

 

[Eric Boerner]

Your pH is a little on the low side. You should be at least 8.2, shooting for 8.4. I'm curious what your temp sits around too? Lots of light, high temp and low pH is a perfect storm for coral bleaching. That's where it looks like your heading right now.

 

[hongl227]

your nitrate is too slow...feed you coral or use AA

 

[markalot]

Too much light, not enough food. When you increase food you'll get better colors but you have to make sure your exports are good otherwise you'll build phosphates and eventually be dealing with browning.

Try a product like Reef Roids or BRS Reef Chili to increase the color, RR worked well for me.

^^^ in my opinion anyway.

 

[Greyson]

Your pH is a little on the low side. You should be at least 8.2, shooting for 8.4. I'm curious what your temp sits around too? Lots of light, high temp and low pH is a perfect storm for coral bleaching. That's where it looks like your heading right now.

temp is always 8.2 ...now that winter is close its 80-81

 

[Greyson]

Too much light, not enough food. When you increase food you'll get better colors but you have to make sure your exports are good otherwise you'll build phosphates and eventually be dealing with browning.

Try a product like Reef Roids or BRS Reef Chili to increase the color, RR worked well for me.

^^^ in my opinion anyway.

Should i try to raise my light higher up from the tank ? also is the coloring due to the spectrum ? i was considering changing my light with something that is more blue. i was considering getting some rr or coral frenzy. it there any other thing that i need to change? i don't think my other parameters are a problem.

 

[Fishmommy]

I am struggling with the same thing. I also have LEDs and have cut them back to 50% and have been feeding my corals heavily. Very slowly colors are returning but it will take a long time.

 

[Greyson]

I am struggling with the same thing. I also have LEDs and have cut them back to 50% and have been feeding my corals heavily. Very slowly colors are returning but it will take a long time.

Unfortunately i have a kessil a150 and cant dim it .. but i will start feeding a bit.

 

[markalot]

Should i try to raise my light higher up from the tank ? also is the coloring due to the spectrum ? i was considering changing my light with something that is more blue. i was considering getting some rr or coral frenzy. it there any other thing that i need to change? i don't think my other parameters are a problem.

The parameters look ok but for SPS it's stability not just a single parameter. KH needs to stay locked at 8, for example, and not swinging from 8 to 8.5 and back to 8. You should also be testing with good kits, like Salifert, to get accurate numbers.

Ignore PH, it's not important right now. Lots of tanks, including TOTM tanks, swing from 7.8 to 8.3.

I'm not sure about Coral Frenzy. A lot of the more popular foods are more sized to LPS instead of SPS.

IMO

 

[Greyson]

The parameters look ok but for SPS it's stability not just a single parameter. KH needs to stay locked at 8, for example, and not swinging from 8 to 8.5 and back to 8. You should also be testing with good kits, like Salifert, to get accurate numbers.

Ignore PH, it's not important right now. Lots of tanks, including TOTM tanks, swing from 7.8 to 8.3.

I'm not sure about Coral Frenzy. A lot of the more popular foods are more sized to LPS instead of SPS.

IMO

i use salifert kits ...i also "dose" manually.. i will be doising kalk soon once i buy my ato. would reef roids be a good option ? i also don't skim by the way and my levels are Really low..not sure about phos but assuming its very low. i am considering getting a skimmer, i think if i get a skimmer i can feed more. how often should i feed and how many times

 

[Fishmommy]

Putting egg crat or something over the tank will dim the light .... Can you just put the light on a dimmer?

 

[Greyson]

Putting egg crat or something over the tank will dim the light .... Can you just put the light on a dimmer?

i can, but i think i would rather just get a new light to begin with, im not happy with the 10k spectrum too yellow looking.

 

[markalot]

Ah, 10K. In halide lights this is known for great growth but poor colors.

I guess now I'm not really sure if there is a problem other than the light, and even that I'm not sure of. Too many variables. I do like reef roids, but it's a bit pricey. In a coral farming study available somewhere via google both Reef Roids and Reef Chili improved coral growth and health, but no mention of color. I know Reef Roids works good for me.

 

[Greyson]

i was considering trying zeovit products such as pohl's concentrate. I think my system has very low nutrients + lighting issue.

 

[BrentH]

There's a lot of diff things u can add to bring up the nutrient levels you'll be surprised in how fast the colors come back as u start to dose stuff they will come back I personally still like metal halides I tried led and couldn't get my sps to look good but a lot of people find that sweet spot with them

 

[swhobbie1]

That tank looks really clean but I would still check the phos. How long has this tank been setup?

 

[Greyson]

That tank looks really clean but I would still check the phos. How long has this tank been setup?

Since the first week of sept i would say ...indeed its fairly new, but i can assure you that it is pristine. i don't use a skimmer, i use purigen,phosguard,and chemipure elite and that keeps everthing super low. I will try to get a phos test. done this week just out of curiosity.

i actually just modded my light to be higher up with a shelf ...its now 24 inches from sandbed.. i hope this fixes some issues.


24

 

[Reefvet]

Since the first week of sept i would say ...indeed its fairly new, but i can assure you that it is pristine. i don't use a skimmer, i use purigen,phosguard,and chemipure elite and that keeps everthing super low. I will try to get a phos test. done this week just out of curiosity.

i actually just modded my light to be higher up with a shelf ...its now 24 inches from sandbed.. i hope this fixes some issues.

You have a new tank with low nutrients and you're running GFO in the Chemipure Elite plus Phosguard. You haven't got any phosphates and the truth is you could use some. The Purigen is taking out any organics that the carbon in the Chemipure isn't grabbing.

That's a pretty damned steril environment for SPS. Pohls would probably be a good place to start but it's going to be pulled out by the Chemipure and Purigen. Pull those for a week and dose the Pohls. You could run the Chemipure for a day once a week just to keep things from building up, though you're not adding anything to build up.

If you measured the pH with a hobbyist test kit then that number is irrelevant. The other numbers have a variable of 5%-20% depending on the test kit. But given that you've got growth with no color it's a nutrient issue and Alkalinity, Mg and CA are clearly sufficient.

The colony on the left looks like Acropora nasuta. An easily bleached coral. That fact that it has any color at all would indicate it's just in need of a little more of everything. Nitrates, phosphates and even more light, not less.

If the LED strip is producing anything near the color range it's supposed to then it's helping. You could use more of that 'actinic' range.

Photo below is of a 4 month old Frag tank with 3 Kessil A150s at 24" from the sand. They're 6 inches apart, tanks is 24" wide.

No measurable Nitrates or Phosphates, pH drops to 7.7 according to the calibrated Apex probe. Alk 7, CA 380, Mag 1300.

Aquamax HOB-1, dosing pump adding 3 part. No carbon or GFO. Fish are fed 2-3 times a day.

Photo is over exposed so colors look weaker than they are.

 

[Reefvet]

...indeed its fairly new, but i can assure you that it is pristine. i don't use a skimmer, i use purigen,phosguard,and chemipure elite and that keeps everthing super low.

That's why there's no color.

 

[Greyson]

thanks for all the replys i really appreciate them..

I think first i am going to try the less expensive stuff before i jump to pohls. i just ordered some reef roids and im going to feed the tank daily but i will keep the media in there to keep algae away. If that doesn't work im going to try slightly less feedings and maybe pull out the purigen. My original reason for having the media is because i am skimmerless at the moment. If i was to keep any of the 3 which should i keep and which should i ditch ?

My kessil is also 24 inches from the sandbed right now with the tweak i just did. My pocillipora is actually not doing too bad, it keeps growing and the polyps are green, it is on the light side though. the millie is pinkish , its supposed to have blue tips but they are really faint. The echinata in the back i honestly don't even know the true color, i believe its teal but the guy i got it from browned it out as well, it is starting to encrust though.

The sad part is that i was always told to have super pristine water quality and even though i did that it only caused me problems esp with the sps. But now that i have all these great answers i will be trying another method. I read that sps seem to like "fish poop" however i only have 1 fish and its a six line and he doesnt poop like tangs, sps seem to like tang poop. is there another nano fish i can get that can aid with this ?