Didn't you guys do a bulk amino acid order a while back?

[miatawnt2b]

So I am trying to figure out why my SPS have really deepened in color (almost brown) since I bought the frags from Ray. They are growing fine, but the colors are not pastel anymore as they were in Ray's tank. I do VSV dosing to keep my params way down and my skimmer pulls all kinds of junk. I also replaced the bulbs (2x175 halides 14k) thinking it might be the 6 month old bulbs. My lighting cycle is around 6-7 hours of halide.

So I was doing some reading and thought maybe adding AA's might assist in coloring up these SPS. What did you guys order a few months back and what are you dosing?

-J

 

[Tswifty]

How long have you been dosing the VSV? From what I have read, Amino Acids supplements are supposed to be used when coral's color goes too light (pastel), and helps darken them up. If your getting brown, I would suspect lighting or PO4 numbers. What size tank do you have, and how high off the tank are your lights?

FWIW... I ordered the Brightwell Aquatics CoralAmino from www.saltycritter.com and am also dosing Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter 7.

 

[raynist]

Yeah, my guess is the nutrient level is higher than what I was running in my tank.

When did you get them from me?

 

[miatawnt2b]

Well, since vodka dosing I've gone to 0 on N&P. I've been dosing since Jan 2008, about 18ml per day of my VSV mixture in my 90. My lights are about 3 inches from the surface.

-J

 

[miatawnt2b]

That's a good question ray, It was whenever I brought over that blue 15gal plastic drum.

-J

 

[raynist]

Ok, that was quite a while ago. At that time I was running a very nutrient poor system with little fish and little feedings. I have since reversed course and added lots of fish and feed heavily. Some corals suffered and lost some color, but most have a deeper color now, especially the purples and greens.

What corals browned out?

 

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15569972#post15569972 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by miatawnt2b
Well, since vodka dosing I've gone to 0 on N&P. I've been dosing since Jan 2008, about 18ml per day of my VSV mixture in my 90. My lights are about 3 inches from the surface.

-J

I would ask around and borrow a PAR meter. I think 175w halides on a 90g tank is asking a lot of them. I'm using 2-250w halides on my 16" deep tank, and am considering a reflector upgrade, because my readings are sufficient, but not ideal IMO. I may even end up going to 1 - 400w.

That's just my .02 though.

 

[cloakerpoked]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15570141#post15570141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty
I would ask around and borrow a PAR meter. I think 175w halides on a 90g tank is asking a lot of them. I'm using 2-250w halides on my 16" deep tank, and am considering a reflector upgrade, because my readings are sufficient, but not ideal IMO. I may even end up going to 1 - 400w.

That's just my .02 though.

I second the lighting. If it's a standard 90 gallon tank, then it's a pretty deep tank for 175w to begin with, and with the lights so close to the water, without the right reflector, the light may actually not be diffusing your light enough to get a good dispersal to all parts of the tank, giving you more of a pinpoint area. My first step would be to get a PAR meeter and take readings throughout the tank, that could make the rest of this make sense. I'm also a firm believer that nutrient poor systems don't necessarily make for good reefs. This is in line with what one of the talks was on earlier this year at our meeting when we learned that a lot of coral gets more of it's energy from nutrient uptake than from photosynthesis. Maybe your vodka dosing is too effective in scrubbing the nutrients from your water?

 

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15570516#post15570516 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cloakerpoked
Maybe your vodka dosing is too effective in scrubbing the nutrients from your water?

That can definitely be a problem when running a UNLS. Which is why people dose Amino Acids, usually have higher than normal fish loads, and feed the tank more often (also offering some type of coral based food once or twice a week at night).

The goal is basically to attempt to create a reef top environment in our aquariums, where nutrients aren't necessarily scare, but are in such high demand that they are used up quickly (via corals, bacteria, or exported via filtration) before they can break down and create problems.

However, as I mentioned in my previous post... in most cases I've seen, corals start going pastel in nutrient poor environments before brown. Browning IMO is more indicative of high phosphates or some type of lighting issue.