Coloring Up SPS

[dtum]

I'm really set on colouring up my SPS to their possible max. While some are doing OK, a lot of the other ones are not developing to my liking. Help me get them to their best coloration possible.

My water parameters are:
Calcium: 420
Alk: 8.5 dKH
pH: 8.0-8.2
Temp: 79.0 - 81.0
Phosphates: 0.07
Nitrates: 0
Magnesium: 1350

This 180 gallon aquarium has been up and running for 4 months (everything was transferred from a 100 gallon 2 year old reef). 72 x 26 x 22 dimensions.

I'm running 8 bulb ATI T5, 7.5 hours of 8 bulbs and 12 hours of 2 bulbs (blue+ and KZ Superblue).

Bulb combo:
Blue+
Coral+
KZ Superblue
Purple+
KZ New Generation
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

In the sump I have a frag tank and a decent size ball of chaeto that has been until recently running for 18 hours, but for the past 2 weeks I've had it down to 6 hours and lower light intensity.

Here are some photos of what I'm dealing with:

Red Planet is now showing a lot of white and not as much red

This acro is also showing quite a lot of white

This strawberry milkshake had a much richer colour a few weeks back upon introduction:

This guy is supposed to be blue:

I have been dosing AcroPower for the past couple of months, recently upped the dosage from 10ml to 20ml a day (!!!).

SPS expert opinion is needed.

:wave:

 

[dtum]

And here is another piece of Red Planet mounted slightly higher (also mid-height of the tank).

 

[EnderTurtle]

Too much light bro theyre all bleaching

 

[PaleHorse]

Coral look good,is that a ulns tank? i see you uped your acropower more did you see more film on the glass? do you even get film on the glass? Can you show a tank shot. im going to assume you havent got a par reading at the current light level?

Did you notice anything from the acropower?

 

[PaleHorse]

Acropower suggest on the bottle to do 5ml, per 25 gallons, per week. maybe not enough.

 

[dtum]

Too much light bro theyre all bleaching

You think that 7.5 hours of 8 bulbs on can be too much? I used to run it at 6 hours a couple of months back but can't say things were much different.

 

[dtum]

Acropower suggest on the bottle to do 5ml, per 25 gallons, per week. maybe not enough.

I'm doing 20 ml per day. If my tank is 200 gallons, I should be doing 5 x 8 = 40 ml per week, so I'm way over.

 

[dtum]

Coral look good,is that a ulns tank? i see you uped your acropower more did you see more film on the glass? do you even get film on the glass? Can you show a tank shot. im going to assume you havent got a par reading at the current light level?

Did you notice anything from the acropower?

I can't say that I have noticed anything from the acropower at all.

I don't run a ulns system, but my nutrients seem to be low for some reason. Film on glass shows up every 3 days or so.

Here's an FTS:

 

[animalkingdom]

First of all your tank looks very nice!

I imagine you are skirting on the low side of nutrients which can cause coloration issues. Specifically your nitrates may be a bit low. I find the best way to raise them slightly is to run some kind of mechanical filtration that doesn't get changed often. Whether it be some filter floss stuck between baffles or an old bag of carbon that stays there.

Also you didn't mention your salinity. Make sure that is right because it can lead to coloration issues as well.

Good Luck!

 

[alten78]

Beautiful tank! Would love to see sump/filtration.

 

[Mark 75g]

I don't think it is a light issue. I run 3 250w MH for 7hrs a day with 4 35w t5 for 9 hrs. I have just gone through this issue. First my tank was to clean. I was stripping all nutrients out. Also just discovered my rodi u it was producing 7 tds. Just changed filters and starting doing a few more water changes.

Also I keep light on my cheato 24/7.

Where do you get your rodi water?

How often do you feed your fish?

Do you run gfo? How much an how often do you change?

 

[MHG]

Your nitrates are zero, so technically you are not ULNS since you have some phosphates but you are half way there... Nitrates around 5 will color everything up nicely....

 

[dtum]

First of all your tank looks very nice!

I imagine you are skirting on the low side of nutrients which can cause coloration issues. Specifically your nitrates may be a bit low. I find the best way to raise them slightly is to run some kind of mechanical filtration that doesn't get changed often. Whether it be some filter floss stuck between baffles or an old bag of carbon that stays there.

Also you didn't mention your salinity. Make sure that is right because it can lead to coloration issues as well.

Good Luck!

Thanks! My salinity is at 35 ppt.

Yeah, my nitrates have always been zero, I'm trying to get them up but they seem to be consumed too fast. I will try and stick a piece of foam in the baffles to catch the detritus, but am slightly worried about the flow.

 

[jackson6745]

The tank is 4 months old. I think you're off too a good start. Keep adding more fish. If you want deep rich colors, you will need some more organics in the water column as MHG already suggested. Don't underestimate the amount of waste that a properly setup reef can process. Some of the best rich colored reefs have way more fish that you could imagine. PS cyano is inevitable when going this route. It will eventually dissipate and you'll be left with the balance that you're looking for.

 

[dtum]

Beautiful tank! Would love to see sump/filtration.

Thanks, you will be able to see some of it here:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jexq7B3qTzs?list=UUpOOkw6SmsYqg722u9-2XvA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[dtum]

I don't think it is a light issue. I run 3 250w MH for 7hrs a day with 4 35w t5 for 9 hrs. I have just gone through this issue. First my tank was to clean. I was stripping all nutrients out. Also just discovered my rodi u it was producing 7 tds. Just changed filters and starting doing a few more water changes.

Also I keep light on my cheato 24/7.

Where do you get your rodi water?

How often do you feed your fish?

Do you run gfo? How much an how often do you change?

I think that my tank is too clean as well. My theory was that chaeto was taking a lot of them out, but even now with it running at 1/10th of where it was I'm still not getting the nitrates.

I produce RODI water using SpectraPure system.

Fish are fed 6 times a day via Apex Feeder, plus some frozen food once a day.
I also feed my corals a fair bit - at least 4 times a week with a mix of different types of coral specific foods.

I've started to use GFO fairly recently, primarily because my phosphates were climbing past 0.2, but even then my nitrates were zero.

I use Fauna Marin brand GFO, use 200ml every 4 weeks.

 

[dtum]

Your nitrates are zero, so technically you are not ULNS since you have some phosphates but you are half way there... Nitrates around 5 will color everything up nicely....

Thanks, the trick is to get them up there, so far I've not been able to do that.

 

[dtum]

The tank is 4 months old. I think you're off too a good start. Keep adding more fish. If you want deep rich colors, you will need some more organics in the water column as MHG already suggested. Don't underestimate the amount of waste that a properly setup reef can precess. Some of the best rich colored reefs have way more fish that you could imagine. PS cyano is inevitable when going this route. It will eventually dissipate and you'll be left with the balance that you're looking for.

Thank you Richard, I intend to add more fish once properly quarantined, but this will take a bit

 

[MHG]

Thanks, the trick is to get them up there, so far I've not been able to do that.

it took me 2.5 years to get my nitrates in the reliably detectable range. So take it slow. An autofeeder really helps. And yes, this route will lead to cyano and with the proper flow and clean up crew it will balance out.

I am in the process of adjusting my feeding now because as the fish get bigger so does their nitrate output. I can finally have cheato. It always died when I had no nitrates. I am hoping that adjusting my feeding, adding cheato, turning up the skimmer will all balance it out. I can always step up my carbon dosing. But my tank looks good now and getting better. So as long as my nitrates are not climbing, and there are no algae issues I will just keep doing what I am doing...

Be mindful of dosing off the shelf products in an effort to color up. Amino acids and Pohls (Zeovite) extra are great but in young tanks overdosing is easy and then potential algae problems. Good feeding, good husbandry and don't underestimate your need for a good diverse clean up crew and everything will color up well. Takes MONTHS...

 

[KritikaL]

cool tank dude! how the hell do you keep your back wall that clean?!