Could use a hand..have pictures..losing color

[davidgnome]

Ok so my zoas and most corals are losing color..Im fairly sure its due to lights, but im a beginner but have put alot of thought into this tank..so if anyone knows anything about t5's, reefbrite leds, zoas, or even new tanks and water paramaters i would appreciate the help.

90 gal, 29 gal sump, Display is 22.5 inch from sand bed high. lights are 6 bulb tek elite with all ati bulbs. outter two bulbs come on first which are blue plus, and atinic. inner four are blue plus, aquablue special, purple plus, aquablue special..any spectrum im missing or what ever yall have seen give better color i will prolly try at this point..so ya what bulbs would be better? also have 2 reefbrite leds attached one all blue, one 50/50. The reefbrites im currently not running till i figure things out, and they hang 4 inches from surface, where as t5's are 6 inches high. Paramaters that i test are nitrate 5, phos 0, amonia 0, ph is 7.8 to 8.2 my kit seems a bit bouncy. alk is around 10-11 is this high??, and calcium is 400-440. So first things I ordered a ton of stuff from zoanthids.com which is an awesome place to get zoas. They came in a week ago and were super awesome color. One week in my tank and they dulling out and even looking rough. So...this is where yall come in..heres some pics of what i could capture.

First attached is Nuke greens, Blue armor of Gods, and a single scar face. Which all seem to be losing a slight coloration of brigthness.

Second is captian america zoa's. Which the right polpy has turned a bit black on top instead of the cool green it was, and the left polpy has some white spots on it?? is that bleaching possibly

third is my tank. where my lights are and what it looks like basically..Not to mention ive never posted pics of my tank thus far. and it was a ton of work to get it the way i thought id like.So feedback on it would be good..heh

4th is another shot of some of the frags..which the far right one is reverse space monsters which where a good color in the begin now are looking brownish..not so cool..
5th is a close up of tank..doesnt show much just that its still growing.. a few signs of corline..looks good to me..

So any input that could help me get color in my corals please..how long to run lights..issues at all that are helpful..dosing that produce zoa coloration.. anything i would consider trying. thanks again!

 

[ct_vol]

I would check your phosphates too. What kind of filtration are you using??? How long have you had your system set up??? It may still need to mature a bit...

 

[Leena2674]

If your system is still new, or relatively new, try frequent small water changes and see if that improves things. When I first set up my system, everything tested ok on my Elos test kits, but a few of my corals were still looking sad. I proceeded with water changes and everything has since stabilized. I find that if I change 4-5 gallons a week on my 85 gallon system, all the residents seem happy as can be with great color.

 

[davidgnome]

ya I put my first water in November. So its pretty new still..If i try to change out 5 gallons a week will i still need to do a larger change every two weeks of 25gallonish? So my bulbs arent the issue most likely? And i havent had a light timer up till this past week, could a light schedule or lack thereof one cause color issues? i just kinda was turning them on when around the same time but sometimes leaving them on longer one day, and another shorter by about a few hours..just kinda randoming my lights..problem?

 

[davidgnome]

Ah yes Ct vol, Filtration is a bubble magus skimmer designed for 180 to 210 gallons i believe. I have some macro algae in my sump with live rock and some sand a few mesh bags of carbon, as well as some blue padded stuff to get debris out..I would love to know with everything thats out there for filtration methods what i should add to my sump..bio balls etc.. even any new machines..i will get a calcium reactor at some point when needed..but really thats it..phos levels have never picked up anything over 0. Any additives you might recommend or feeding i would consider for sure. 5 month old tank...so ya i may be expecting too much for coloration..will these corals that lost some color get it that same color back once my tank is all good? or is it gone for good