Getting that color??

LifeAquatic said:
I dont think there are many secrets to getting good color. Managing nutrient import/export, good flow, strong lighting, regular water change schedule. IMO I think a major contributor to good color are mounting the SPS to a fixed location. Dont move them around frequently or leave them on a plug that lets them sway around from current in the tank. Its almost as if the coral knows it hasnt been mounted. Give your SPS stability and they will show you love.
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Big E said:
I agree 100%.............no need for all those additives mentioned in other posts.
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I also agree. All my colors look great. I feed once a day. Spot feed heavy once a week. I have never missed a water change 20% every 2 weeks or 10% every week.
 
^ Its a great theory, one I have been practicing for a long time. It just the real work results dont always work out the way you want or expect.
 
allsps40 said:
While many of my sps have gotten some nice colors back there is still something off, keeping the full potential of the colors from coming out. PO4 is 0, need to have it checked again though on a Hanna. I do run PO4 remover and carbon changed monthly. NO3 last I check a week ago was 10ppm, still higher that I would like it. The pics make the colors look twice as brown as they really are but for example my Scripps is still totally brown no purple at all. So is the coral on the far right on my frag rack, see pics. These 2 Im haveing the hardest time coloring up. I ended up loosing my Marshal Island Blue Bottle Brush, STNed for an unknown reason. I also have a small spot of STN on my Hawkins, but it is a shaded spot at the base so I think that is what is causing that. The rest of the coral is growing well and has good color, nice purple tips and the Hawkins green base. Yeah some about half of my sps look good and all my lps are happy, dont know whats up with the rest of the sps. Upgrading to a 75g soon just waiting on the tank so I hope to have better results with a larger volume of water and better lighting, adding a 2nd 250 and VHOs.
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It's hard to think you have low PO4 with that amount of bubble algae. Just because you can't measure it doesn't mean you don't have a healthy supply of it. That BA is living off it...


A couple of questions;
How long has that live rock been out of the ocean?
One of the corals looks like it has AEFW bites on it, have you tried dipping them? If so, for how long?

I have them and for the longest time couldn't understand why my corals were not coloring up, some of them didn't die they just looked tan....
 
just throwing my .02 into this, what kind of reflector are you using for you 250w halide? brown acros are usually pretty straightforward causes.
1. not enough light
2. too many nutrients
3. flow
4. chemical warfare (leathers etc..)
 
mutateddogbone said:
just throwing my .02 into this, what kind of reflector are you using for you 250w halide? brown acros are usually pretty straightforward causes.
1. not enough light
2. too many nutrients
3. flow
4. chemical warfare (leathers etc..)
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Using a Reef Optics3 pendant.
 
david00061 said:
It is not theory..... I have prof
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I have stable water parameter, good water quality, great flow ,good lighting and I do a 5g water change every Sunday. Yet the my colors are not always there, real world experience. Not saying this is not very important for good color as it is just that there must be something else going on. Still thinking about the leather coral as a possibility.
 
reefkeeps said:
It's hard to think you have low PO4 with that amount of bubble algae. Just because you can't measure it doesn't mean you don't have a healthy supply of it. That BA is living off it...


A couple of questions;
How long has that live rock been out of the ocean?
One of the corals looks like it has AEFW bites on it, have you tried dipping them? If so, for how long?

I have them and for the longest time couldn't understand why my corals were not coloring up, some of them didn't die they just looked tan....
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I have had this rock your around 3 years and has always been in this tank, very healthy rock with lots of pods and sponges. I and 99.9% sure I have no pests, I look every few days at all my sps to check for pests. I had red bugs a while back ever since then I dip every new coral and inspect it before it goes in my tank. Which one are you think has bit marks?
 
do you test and buff the water before a water change? If you use the same salt every time it you can just add the same amount of chemicals every time.
 
david00061 said:
do you test and buff the water before a water change? If you use the same salt every time it you can just add the same amount of chemicals every time.
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I test my new buckets of salt to make sure they are goo. I use reef salts higher in alk, ca and mag so I wont need to add anything to them.

david00061 said:
Small water volumes are tuff to maintain. Being a small tank plus being a mixed reef. You got your hands full
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Well I hope my 75g upgrade will help with that. However my 40B is very stable.
 
i would honestly put my money down on your lighting. That pendant is just a large parabolic reflector, which is fairly inefficient for pushing light into the tank. great spread though. what i would try is getting a lumenmax elite pendant and keep your acros right underneath it, and i bet they start coloring up.

I had this same problem when i had my old parabolics. brown or washed out colors, and within a month of upgrading to better pendants i had awesome color.
 
Just dipped my granulosa, hawkins and miami orchid in interceptor and reef dip, just in case there is a pest. I am having some STN at the base of the hawkins but the rest is growing and colorful.
 
try out biopellets in a small reactor, run maybe 200ml or so i noticed a good increase in my colors when i made the switch about 9 months ago
 
Heard more bad about bio pellets than good, wont be trying them out. I have thought about it though. I was dosing vokda and that stripped the water too clean.
 
Just because something is not problematic in one tank, doesn't mean it won't be in another.

You've pretty much exhausted all the other variables...

It's either the leather or your lighting or maybe a combo of both.
 
Also keep in mind his tank is twice the size of yours. What have you got to lose? U can put it in your friends tank for a month.
 
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