Coloring question

[triguy]

I have noticed that some of my sps will "lose" some of their color for a couple of weeks. In other words, they are not as bright and vivid. An example is my sunset montipora will go from this very bright orange to almost brown. Then when it colors back up, my palmer's blue milli goes to a dull looking color. My lights are all within a month new, and I haven't noticed this being related to my water changes. Just wanted to see if anybody had any ideas. This isn't happening with all of my sps just some, so I don't think it is related to my water parameters, but I'll give those just in case I'm wrong. I also run 6 t5s.
Water parameters:
420 Ca
7.8 dKh
8.2 ph
1350Mg
Nitrates 0
haven't tested phosphates, but I did just get in my $40 handheld hanna

 

[Fireworm]

I was going to post a similar question. My acros went through hell over the winter. My ammonia spiked due to a big snail die off, and the my heater took a crap and my temp got down to 70 for I don't know how long. But my acros went from great color to brown. Now My ORA tri color and my ORA Vadiallia are brown with green highlights. How do I get them back to the original color? Why do SPS brown out?

 

[sedor]

Typically SPS brown out due to an abundance of what they consider food, and what we consider nitrates and phosphates. It all has to do with water quality on an almost micro scale. The trick is to hit that sweet spot and keep it there as stable as possible. You don't want to much nitrate and phosphate, but in a tank where there is absolutely NONE, the corals will dull out to a pastel kind of color because they don't have enough food. To much and they brown up because they are getting plenty and what we consider to much food.

Of course there are much more scientific explanations, but I like to try and explain it in lamens terms because that's what I understand best Happy Reefing!

 

[klepto]

triguy- I don't have an answer for you, but it may be helpful to others if you include more information about your tank.
(here comes a long list)
How; big is your tank, long has your tank been up? often are you testing your parameters?
What are you; stocking, dosing (include everything), using for nutrient export?
What/how often are you feeding?
What bulbs are you running? etc...

How long have you been noticing these color changes? How old were your bulbs before you changed them last month? How many bulbs did you replace?

Go ahead and test your phosphate seeing as you have the snazzy new meter. :spin2:

I think that SPS have different 'tolerance levels' (in other words- varying sensitivities to sub-par water quality and stability) so that could be why it isn't uncommon to see some with good coloration and others that look brown or pale in the same tank. Although that is purely speculation

 

[triguy]

triguy- I don't have an answer for you, but it may be helpful to others if you include more information about your tank.
(here comes a long list)
How; big is your tank, long has your tank been up? often are you testing your parameters?
What are you; stocking, dosing (include everything), using for nutrient export?
What/how often are you feeding?
What bulbs are you running? etc...

How long have you been noticing these color changes? How old were your bulbs before you changed them last month? How many bulbs did you replace?

Go ahead and test your phosphate seeing as you have the snazzy new meter. :spin2:

I think that SPS have different 'tolerance levels' (in other words- varying sensitivities to sub-par water quality and stability) so that could be why it isn't uncommon to see some with good coloration and others that look brown or pale in the same tank. Although that is purely speculation

Let's see if I can answers all of these questions.
Tank is 90g plus 30g sump/fuge (been up for 2.5 yrs.), testing usually 1/week
Stocking: zoas/palys, some lps, mostly sps (5 fish-Chevron, Purple Tang, 2 perculas, Fairy Wrasse
Dosing: BRS 2 part recipe 1, was dosing vodka for awhile, also was dosing vitamin c (sodium ascorbate)
Nutrient Export: Running gfo and carbon in a single BRS reactor, fuge has grape caulpera, halmedia, and chaeto
feeding: 1/day usually mysis and nori, occassionaly pellets, recently started feeding oyster feast :thumbsup: corals love this stuff
Lights 4 Blue Plus, Fiji Purple, KZ Coralight Red on for 11 hrs. Replace 4 bulbs month ago and the other 2 about 3 months.

I should tell you that I recently (3 months) started acquiring more sps. Since then, I have started running the BRS reactor and 2 part dosing. I also added 2 more bulbs to give me a total of 6. So a lot has changed in the 3 months.

I should also let you know that I get my water from Scripps Pier here in San Diego and use a 3 stage RO/DI for my topoff.

 

[CleveYank]

Typically SPS brown out due to an abundance of what they consider food, and what we consider nitrates and phosphates. It all has to do with water quality on an almost micro scale. The trick is to hit that sweet spot and keep it there as stable as possible. You don't want to much nitrate and phosphate, but in a tank where there is absolutely NONE, the corals will dull out to a pastel kind of color because they don't have enough food. To much and they brown up because they are getting plenty and what we consider to much food.

Of course there are much more scientific explanations, but I like to try and explain it in lamens terms because that's what I understand best Happy Reefing!

Sweet spot.