Getting that color??
- Thread starter allsps40
- Start date
wickedfish
New member
allsps40 nothing but respect...that said let me take a crack at this. I had something similar to this 3 months ago. whitish brown corals, bad pe bad color.
The turning point: I added some hydor koralias for more flow and took out alot of rock that was blocking the flow in my tank. I took rocks out. also used very minimal LR, inserted the inside of the rock with the rods to form my aquascape.
Lost some coraline, a blenny literally MIA. Lost my crab but guess what??? All the color in all of my corals was like the day I bought them in about 2 months.
I also tested my lights with a par meter found out I had 190 par on the high side, not nearly enough. Switched lights and have had issues in bleaching my corals but a bit not major LEds are powerful. Thats on me.
Suggestions:
Invest in a 3 part doser or a 2 chamber calcium/mag reactor. I like the 3 part stuff from brs its real easy to do even manually. Test your water and the you can enter your water volume on the reef calculator on the brs website and voila your dosage appears, spread it out to get to your designated level. ALK, MAG, CAL test often.
Flow, kick it up if you have 3,500 gph of flow in your tank or higher your about right if not fix that you need to chop up the top of the water line a bit I notice this helps the skimmer. My skimmer sucks, this is also important a skimmer that is borderline overskimming for sps. Mine is borderline weak sauce but has its good days. Hope this helps its my experiences only take it lightly. All set ups are different,
Stop dosing stuff. Unless its calcium, magnesium or Alkalinity dont dose anything, your not there yet.
If you have buddies that have sweet tanks ask them "what do you do?" I will testify that all the people I know who have picture worthy tanks I'm talking about real displays!!!!... stuff you dont see too often. Anyway they will tell you "just my calcium and mag and alk." "And feed the fish." Thats it!!! Why cause its consistency!!! Thats what we all like even you and I. So we dont get stressed out, corals are the same. Same today same tomorrow and stop tinkering that upsets everything. No more dosing what tom said cause its not helping. Vodka is tricky it helps somethings but ****es of zoas, and other lps but in moderation will help the nutrient issue if you have one remember if isnt skimmed out your just adding more crap to your already crappy water column.
The turning point: I added some hydor koralias for more flow and took out alot of rock that was blocking the flow in my tank. I took rocks out. also used very minimal LR, inserted the inside of the rock with the rods to form my aquascape.
Lost some coraline, a blenny literally MIA. Lost my crab but guess what??? All the color in all of my corals was like the day I bought them in about 2 months.
I also tested my lights with a par meter found out I had 190 par on the high side, not nearly enough. Switched lights and have had issues in bleaching my corals but a bit not major LEds are powerful. Thats on me.
Suggestions:
Invest in a 3 part doser or a 2 chamber calcium/mag reactor. I like the 3 part stuff from brs its real easy to do even manually. Test your water and the you can enter your water volume on the reef calculator on the brs website and voila your dosage appears, spread it out to get to your designated level. ALK, MAG, CAL test often.
Flow, kick it up if you have 3,500 gph of flow in your tank or higher your about right if not fix that you need to chop up the top of the water line a bit I notice this helps the skimmer. My skimmer sucks, this is also important a skimmer that is borderline overskimming for sps. Mine is borderline weak sauce but has its good days. Hope this helps its my experiences only take it lightly. All set ups are different,
Stop dosing stuff. Unless its calcium, magnesium or Alkalinity dont dose anything, your not there yet.
If you have buddies that have sweet tanks ask them "what do you do?" I will testify that all the people I know who have picture worthy tanks I'm talking about real displays!!!!... stuff you dont see too often. Anyway they will tell you "just my calcium and mag and alk." "And feed the fish." Thats it!!! Why cause its consistency!!! Thats what we all like even you and I. So we dont get stressed out, corals are the same. Same today same tomorrow and stop tinkering that upsets everything. No more dosing what tom said cause its not helping. Vodka is tricky it helps somethings but ****es of zoas, and other lps but in moderation will help the nutrient issue if you have one remember if isnt skimmed out your just adding more crap to your already crappy water column.
allsps40
New member
Thanks wickedfish. I have good flow, 2 K2s and a modded MJ600 around 67 times turn over total flow. So I have plenty of water flow about 2700gph and that really moves the water. I have removed some LR to free up more room in the tank, did that a few weeks ago. My lighting is great 250w Pheonix on Icecap have not had par tested but it should be good. Bulb is about 4-5 months old, getting a new one soon. I dose Kent 2 part when needed, switching to BRS due to cost. My alk ca and mag stay very stable with just going water changes. Like I have said I stopped dosing vodka and trace elements and only dosins ca and alk when needed at this point. Went back to the KISS method. I agree that adding this and adding that only stresses out the corals.
allsps40
New member
I will be shooting for a stable alk and ca levels as well. I will do this by adding kalk to my top off. Right now my ca is at 440 and alk is at 9. I want to keep ca at 440-450 and alk at 10. I am adding super buff to increase the alk right now. Then I will play with the kalk mix to keep things stable. How does alk at 10 and ca at 440-450 sound?
allsps40
New member
Ok got another up date, found some interesting stuff out. For those of you that have read threw all this know I had bleaching bad a while back. I found out that the Coralife clamp ons I was using for so long dont have UV shielded glass, Coralife bulbs are shielded. This only applies to the clamp ons none of the other Coralife MHs. When I switched to Phoenix bulbs my corals got exposed to UV rays from the unshielded lights. This is why when I put my old Coralife 20ks or my Coralife 14ks back in the sps got better. And why when I got new Odyssea 20ks my sps bleached. The whole time I thought that either the Phoenix bulbs or 2 150s with new bulbs was just to much light and par. I even changed my lighting strangely to a 250w Phoenix of all bulbs. My sps are doing great under the same bulb, only now it is uv shielded. Makes sense to because I had only used Coralife bulbs with no problems for 3 years, then a change to 2 different brand bulbs lead to bleaching and burning. Coralife states nothing about the clamp on not having uv shielded glass and it is common knowledge that DE bulbs need a uv glass cover. So that was very interesting to have found out. Now to the good. Corals are continuing to do much better. I can see some major improvements in many. My camera cant realy capture the colors they get washed out. So I gave up on trying to photo the little changes. I will get some pics of all my sps when there is some real change and it is coming. I was on new salt hunt but after much self debating and research I am staying with Reef Crystals. I am still playing with my kalk top off to get the dose right. Since things are looking much better and I mean so much better that corals that started to stn and die are showing some fast new growth, I decided to get some new frags. Here is some eye candy for you just added to the tank today. :thumbsup:
Again true colors dont show, has nice light purple tips
Thought this was a cool smooth acro
Again true colors dont show, has nice light purple tips
Thought this was a cool smooth acro
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Jeffie
New member
That's really interesting. Did your light come with the curved piece of glass that covers the bulb? If not, that is definitely the reason your corals bleached.
reeftanker3295
New member
Interesting thread... Would love to know how to get the best colors out of my SPS.
allsps40
New member
Yes it did. I bought both of the lights new and it had and I used the glass. The curved glass is not UV shielded enough for other bulbs. This is why I had no problem running Coralife bulbs I had 14k and 20ks neither of them burned my sps. Every time I put Phoenix 14ks or Odyssea 20ks in burn and bleach city. I confirmed this with testing. A chat with a Coralife rep confirmed that Coralife DE bulbs are UV shielded just like a SE bulb. I have heard many other people had bleaching issues with Phoenix bulbs in the clamp on fixture. Oh and another thing that may have been part of the Uv problem. The curved glass really does not cover the bulb that well. So I like it lets even more UV in than it should. I good fix for this would be to remove the fin cover and replace it with a piece of UV glass. I would have just done that if I would have known. But I do like my new lights, much cleaner looking.
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allsps40
New member
Good lighting and flow. A good population of fish to supply food to sps. Supply the sps with a zoaplankton food source, there are many great sps food out there. Keep water parameters stable this is the biggest thing I feel. Ca alk and mag all need to be at the correct levels and held as stable as possible. Kalk or 2 part dosing and and ATO along with regular water changes with a good salt. remember KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Stick to the basics. Of coarse good water quality is a must, no3 below 5, 0-3ppm is best and po4 no higher than .3ppm 0ppm is best.
allsps40
New member
Here are some new sps I just pick up last night. I think I got the color balance on the camera better now.
ORA Hawkins, FINALLY!!
ORA Bottle Brush
FHI Granulosa I really like this one
Unkown
Pics taken right after intro to the tank so no PE yet. Ley me know what you think. Now to see if I can keep the colors.
ORA Hawkins, FINALLY!!
ORA Bottle Brush
FHI Granulosa I really like this one
Unkown
Pics taken right after intro to the tank so no PE yet. Ley me know what you think. Now to see if I can keep the colors.
allsps40
New member
Been a few weeks since I have updated. Sps are really starting to look good, color is nice and always improving and growth is very good. I get a new bulb, Oddysea 20k and it is helping with colors and maintaining growth. I feel most of it is the ATO and kalk keeping things stable. I will get an updated pic when the lights come on.
