Coloring Up SPS

[MHG]

My back wall is covered in coralline. My 10 turbos, and kole tang keep it free from algae

 

[moray23]

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

This may be part of your problem. If you dropped your phosphates to quickly, it would wash out your sps and they may need to ajust.

Also, you may want to try mixing some pohls extra in to your amino acid dosing schedule. Its a bit more potent that the acropower imo.

 

[reefmutt]

You could try adding a good ol' fashion wet/dry filter to the system to pull up the n..
A simple canister filled with bioballs and a pump trickling water over them would probably do it...
However, you have a GREAT looking tank, with time, the n will probably creep up on its own- especially if you plan to add more fish.
Maybe simple patience is the key...
I really don't think excess light is an issue at all..
Nice job!

 

[gdemos]

no offense but from the FTS it looks like the powder blue may be a bit 'boney'. may want to give consideration to less pellet feeding and more frozen/strained feeding. fatter fish, more activity, respiration, fish waste and your NO3 should happen very easily very naturally, if anything keeping NO3 low I imagine would be more of a challenge than raising it slightly.

I'm in a similar boat trying to obtain deep/rich colors.

honestly i'd say your system looks healthy aside (you take nice pictures). perhaps your choice of bulbs is less common than the B+, P+, C+ route which gives an appropriate spectrum according to most.

in my SPS Frag Tank w/3 fish i've been dosing lugols (iodine, iodate, iodide, potassium) and brightwells aminos' daily to my SPS frag tank (broadcast feed not target). approx 30 days in routine and some improvements. my parameters are fairly stable, 440 Ca, 11.2 dKH, 2ppm NO3, 1250 Mg, 0 ppb (Hannah ULR Phosphorous) I will also on occaision CoralRx pieces that look a little off - but for me this is still a frag grow out so pulling a piece on a plug is simple, whereas in your DT dipping is a bit more involved. some respond well to the CoralRx, others i won't dip.

keep good flow in tank and in sump.

i might suggest getting your colors more brown, then hope in time the deep/rich color you are after emerge.

either way i don't think you can find a "Here's the solution" response, but more likely ideas to help. i might suggest avoiding suggestions telling you you are doing it all wrong.

what 'coral specific' foods are you using?

will subscribe, keep posting.

 

[ctmgardea]

beautiful tank! tagging along, in the same boat.
180 gl. 3 Kessil A360We's 2 80 watt T5's and a 4 foot led bar.
I'm getting good encrusting on frags but color is fading and not a lot of height growth.

 

[dtum]

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...

Thank you. In my case the tank can't be considered as a very young one, since it was a transfer of all of the rocks (and water) from a smaller tank. Plus all of the corals were moved as well. I did not see any of the algae cycles that are typical with a new tank.

Having said that, I do think that you are right - it is all about patience and trying not to make too many rush decisions.

 

[dtum]

Here are a few more shots of my poor corals:

This kole tang is not happy with the coral coloration either.

 

[dtum]

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

Elbow grease, plus it does not get dirty too often. I use a Kent Pro scraper for the back wall.

 

[dtum]

This may be part of your problem. If you dropped your phosphates to quickly, it would wash out your sps and they may need to ajust.

Also, you may want to try mixing some pohls extra in to your amino acid dosing schedule. Its a bit more potent that the acropower imo.

Thanks. I'm toying with an idea of switching from acropower to Aquavitro Fuel, it should be more potent as far as I know.

 

[dtum]

You could try adding a good ol' fashion wet/dry filter to the system to pull up the n..
A simple canister filled with bioballs and a pump trickling water over them would probably do it...
However, you have a GREAT looking tank, with time, the n will probably creep up on its own- especially if you plan to add more fish.
Maybe simple patience is the key...
I really don't think excess light is an issue at all..
Nice job!

Thanks, I will probably rather wait. Don't want to add another piece of equipment on this reef - too many moving parts as it is.

 

[dtum]

no offense but from the FTS it looks like the powder blue may be a bit 'boney'. may want to give consideration to less pellet feeding and more frozen/strained feeding. fatter fish, more activity, respiration, fish waste and your NO3 should happen very easily very naturally, if anything keeping NO3 low I imagine would be more of a challenge than raising it slightly.

I'm in a similar boat trying to obtain deep/rich colors.

honestly i'd say your system looks healthy aside (you take nice pictures). perhaps your choice of bulbs is less common than the B+, P+, C+ route which gives an appropriate spectrum according to most.

in my SPS Frag Tank w/3 fish i've been dosing lugols (iodine, iodate, iodide, potassium) and brightwells aminos' daily to my SPS frag tank (broadcast feed not target). approx 30 days in routine and some improvements. my parameters are fairly stable, 440 Ca, 11.2 dKH, 2ppm NO3, 1250 Mg, 0 ppb (Hannah ULR Phosphorous) I will also on occaision CoralRx pieces that look a little off - but for me this is still a frag grow out so pulling a piece on a plug is simple, whereas in your DT dipping is a bit more involved. some respond well to the CoralRx, others i won't dip.

keep good flow in tank and in sump.

i might suggest getting your colors more brown, then hope in time the deep/rich color you are after emerge.

either way i don't think you can find a "Here's the solution" response, but more likely ideas to help. i might suggest avoiding suggestions telling you you are doing it all wrong.

what 'coral specific' foods are you using?

will subscribe, keep posting.

You are (were) right on the money about the powder blue - the poor guy was on his last breath and died because of ich. Other fish seem to be doing alright and are all pretty healthy. Powder Blue was boney because he was sick.

As for the bulbs... oh I have gone through quite a few variations - I've researched the bulb combos of most of the RC famous tanks and have tried them all on my tank, but at the end I've picked this combo because it was not overly blue or pink, yet giving me the pop I wanted.

I'm dosing Ocean Nutrition Phyto, Oyster Eggs. Reef Roids. Polyp Lab Polyp Booster as well.

 

[gdemos]

I caught that later when I viewed your video, sounds like you've played musical chairs with the bulb combo so now that you found the look you like let it ride for a good six months

Sorry to hear about the PBT. one of my favorites. And hope the kole shakes it off. Running UV?

Well back to sps. I'm surprised with no NO3 bases on your feeding. You must have a honking skimmer.

I saw your alk good at 8dkh but maybe a tad low. What's your daily alk consumption?

As another pointed out - patience. If any if those frags are wild pieces they can be more mysterious in how they shake out.

 

[Av8bluewater]

Willing to bet nitrates are too low. I recently set out on a campaign to get my nitrates off of the zero mark.
1. If you don't already have a nitrate kit that reads in the low range get one. Not absolutely necessary but good to see where you are. I use the red sea. Best colors are in the .25ppm range.
2. Various things I've done to get nitrate up. Stopped adding prodibio. Slowed my biopellet reactor way down to a drip. Didn't want to turn it off as that would then need a full recycle. I unplugged skimmer for days initially. (Will probably take your PH down some.) I got some sodium nitrate but ended up not needing it as my nitrates came up after a month or so of this.
I feed 3 times a day so didn't really change any thing there.
I may turn skimmer off here and there as one coral is getting a little white again . .

Depending on how hardcore serious you are, a potassium and iodine kit may help with appropriate dosing.
I got an iodine kit and found my idodine to be pretty much zero. Yet to be determined if that really makes a difference.

According to Red Sea best colors are at .25ppm NO3 and .02 PO4. Your Big 3 params look about right.
Basically I've been trying to dirty up the water and things have gotten a lot better.

 

[Albert184445]

I would consider removing the gfo. You said you added it because your phosphates climbed over 0.02? People spend to much time chasing numbers when in comes to phosphate IMO.

 

[dtum]

I would consider removing the gfo. You said you added it because your phosphates climbed over 0.02? People spend to much time chasing numbers when in comes to phosphate IMO.

No, phosphates climbed to 0.2.

I did try to run without GFO for a few weeks, but other than increased algae and phosphates I did not see any improvement in coral colours.

 

[dtum]

You know what's funny? I took a peek today at the tank and have noticed a slight improvement in coloration. No idea what caused it - I have changed so many variables lately. will keep you posted

 

[gdemos]

Well you take nice photos and they are real photos ie not shopped so keep pic progress coming and hope you obtain cruise control soon. I'd say your frags will be the ones to watch for improvements more so than the colonies since the colonies have likely endured more changes overtime. And I'd add that there is a difference between less GFO and abandoning GFO. Less GFO (prudent) can still accomplish phosphate reduction. Monitoring tumble rate and changing on a regiment schedule (say every 3 weeks) may be more wise than changing by way of your phosphate parameter. Aging GFO can build up bacteria.

 

[Av8bluewater]

Are you doing any type of carbon dosing?
What skimmer do you have?

 

[markalot]

Howdy, can you get a closer picture of this coral?

I see what appears to be AEFW bite marks, and the other pale corals may be showing this as well. The closer you can get the better. What I see above could be image artifacts or darn near anything, so no need to be alarmed yet.

 

[gdemos]

Curious are you referring to the blotch/tissue blotch sections top right? Do you have the ability to circle the area you may perceive to be aefw bites?