Getting that color??

[d3hree]

I have just read this thread from the start, a very interesting read.
I commend you on your openess and honesty regarding the issues you have had, they have contributed to a great thread that will surely help many hobbyists.

FWIW I am a great believer in getting the basics right. A good salt, ZERO tds going in and regular water changes. Add to this correct lighting and good flow and 99% of your issues will be gone.

Whilst using test kits is a vital aspect of our hobby if they are read too literally they can lead us down the wrong path. Visual signs of algae growth can still be accompanied by zero p04 readings. If you have nuisance algae it is being fed, and will be sucking the p04 out of the water column resulting in a reading of zero.

As was said on an earlier post, we are but water keepers.

Good luck with the progress and thankyou for an interesting thread. Maybe instead of dosing the tank with vodka you could take a swig before taking some photos, it may stop the jitters! Sorry, a joke I couldnt resist.

 

[allsps40]

Thanks it also turns out a while back I was adding in water with a tds of over 100, not good at all. Bad water from LFS that I got when I needed to change my RO membrane. This was 5-6 months ago. I was using a reactor with gfo but still had the CCA and bubble algae. I am not running it right now. I did add a MJ600 to my fuge and new chaeto, got the fuge up and running again. This time BB with power head to tumble the chaeto, and man it tumbles. No more vodka, go off the sauce about 2 months ago or so. I feel it does work though just kept my tank to clean. Thanks for the comment on the thread I hope it helps other. It has gotten very big and a lot of people and shared great advise.

 

[roberto_lopes]

You think that my colony bellow is a valida well collored or a purple bonsai ?

Plus a picture of a rare (at least here in Brazil) bali tricolor acro.

It is a purple bonsai or a valida ?

The tricolor acro.

You think the purples are okay or need to be darker ?

 

[allsps40]

Looks to me like a garf bonsai. I dont think you could get any more purple if you tried.

 

[allsps40]

Ok I am really excited. I was giving my corals a good look over and I can see a nice dark blue tip on one of my acros that had been green since I got it. I can also really start to see my granulosa starting color back up. I know this is not already from the DI must be something I did earlier on. I cant get the new blue tips in any pics the camera is not good enough to capture . I can see 1 blue tip coming back in my ORA Bottle Brush and a few more with some faint blue! I wonder if the Lugol's I know is not the 1 day of DI. Trying to hone my photo skills.
Here are some more random pics I took.
Macros

some LPS

through view box, unknown acro had it for about 2 weeks and it is holding its colors very well

I really feel like things are about to turn around big time. Now if I can just keep doing what I am doing.

 

[allsps40]

I just figured out how to use PhotoImpact to edit my pics. I can get the colors much closer to how they really look. Testing photo shopped pics. Edited to show colors better.

 

[allsps40]

Stopped by one of my LFS that I got to regularly. They had some really nice maricultured sps mini colonies in. I really wanted to pick up this nice milli, it has yellow tips and an orange base. But I held off for a few reasons 1 being the state of my tank I want to see more improvement before I add any more sps. 2 whenever they get one of these shippments in 1-2 always seem to die for whatever reason and some will change colors. So I am waiting and keeping an eye on this one for the next week or 2 to see how it does. If is still there and is doing well (not brown) I will pick it up. But I did not walk out empty handed. I got 2 peppermint shrimp to eat my glass anemones, 4 hermit crabs to restock some of my CUC and another six line wrasse. My last one ended up in my sump and fell victim to my skimmer pump. Oh and both of the shrimp are egg carrying females, coral food! I need to get 1-2 more so I can get a male.

 

[chrisv]

Give your SPS stability and they will show you love.

Well said. pH/alk/ca/temp control will set you free.

 

[chrisv]

plot your ph over a 24 hour period. look for dips in your pH at nihght. this is enough to brown things out....

 

[jc-reef]

Stopped by one of my LFS that I got to regularly.......I got 2 peppermint shrimp to eat my glass anemones, 4 hermit crabs to restock some of my CUC and another six line wrasse. My last one ended up in my sump and fell victim to my skimmer pump. Oh and both of the shrimp are egg carrying females, coral food! I need to get 1-2 more so I can get a male.

Beware of them peppermint shrimp and your corals...especially any LPS. They are creatures of opportunity and if hungry will devour your corals. Once they get a taste of corals...time to get them out cause no matter how much you feed them, they will return to your corals. This happened in my tank when I got a few for my tank to rid of glass anemones like yourself....they now live in the sump.

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[allsps40]

Well said. pH/alk/ca/temp control will set you free.

I have a controller, ATO and dose kalk. Everything is very stable, I was very happy when I finally got my tank this stable. It makes running a reef much easier.

plot your ph over a 24 hour period. look for dips in your pH at nihght. this is enough to brown things out....

I was having a problem with low ph. Only getting to about 8.07 in the day and as low as 7.77 at night. Turns out a slight increase in kalk top off concentration did the trick. My RKL now reports a low of 7.89 and a high of 8.20 with an average of 7.93. I just put my fuge back online so ph should be even more stable.

Beware of them peppermint shrimp and your corals...especially any LPS. They are creatures of opportunity and if hungry will devour your corals. Once they get a taste of corals...time to get them out cause no matter how much you feed them, they will return to your corals. This happened in my tank when I got a few for my tank to rid of glass anemones like yourself....they now live in the sump.
----

.
Yeah I know thanks. I got the peppermint shrimp from a LFS that a few other local reefers reported to be reef safe and do well at eating glass anemones. If they live that long, they are kind of small and my clowns may eat they when they notice them. I also keep my tank well fed. Fingers crossed.

 

[smtank]

Noticeable improvement especially if you have not looked at this thread in awhile. Nice.

 

[allsps40]

Thanks. If you go back and look at earlier pics I am sure that is a huge improvement.

 

[allsps40]

The new hermit crabs I got are eating what is left of the CCA! SPS looking good, getting better day by day. I will post new pics in a few days.

 

[clowndude]

Just checking in to see how things are going? I've started to notice a difference since I start using my own RO/DI unit and quit using the biopellets. My millis are still pale as can be though. Hopefully everything is coloring up nicely for you?

 

[allsps40]

My sps are starting to color back up for sure. I can see it in a few of them. Look for pics in the nest few days.

 

[allsps40]

So it has been a week since new pics so time for an update.

Can you see the blue tip at the base? there is more on the other side, sorry for the blurry pic. I cant get a good one of this.

Still keeping color nicely

 

[allsps40]

STS

New clam

 

[JG1]

Looking a lot better then my tank is!!

 

[allsps40]

Funny I think your tank is looking better than mine lol. Your RP looks nice, they look like that in higher light.