getting the best color

[dunk373]

I have many corals that the color is there just not strong or vivid. Some look very good some seem washed out. I have a 150g with 6 48" super actinic vho's and 2 48" actinic whites there are a total of 33 royal blue led's 3 watt cree at 80% most are concentrated on the right 2' of the tank. the corals are less than 10" from the surface. Also have 2 coral tanks that are plumbed with the dt and these are lit by four super actinic 48" ho and 2 75.25 along with 28 leds 14rb, 7uv, and 7cw. Its 2 tanks tied together 48"x40" I have sps in half and lps in the other half on the sps side theres more light. I moved a few corals and frags from the dt, a few colored better but most are seeming to wash out polyp extension is great but color is not. It has been about 6 weeks that the corals have been in here. Any suggestions for getting the color?
the lights are on from 11am- 9pm but are staged the leds are first and last. from 11-9

ph 8.0-8.3
sg 1.026
trates are nothing
p04 .01-.06
temp 78-80
alk 8.5 dkh
calcium 430
mg 1400

 

[Jeff000]

So almost all you light is blue?
Am I reading this right, you have an 8 tube fixture and you filled it with mostly atinic and then a couple of atinic whites?

I'd say read the T5HO thread in the lighting section and get some ideas on tube combinations.

 

[dunk373]

blue led's at 460 and actinic tubes at 420 then the two actinic whites, any more whites and it looks too white this is probably a 14k look. i like the 20 k look more but wanted whites to catch some of the upper spectrum.

 

[t4zalews]

I'd say you need more higher spectrum light. This is a very blue setup. With these spectrums of light you are probably lacking PAR as well. Blue is good to enhance color, but you need strong white light as well to make the colors come out.

 

[acanlover]

K is great for reef tanks

 

[dunk373]

K is great for reef tanks

What k? Do you mean high k?

My whites are 2 75.25s and 7 3w cw LEDs. I thought high k gives better color

 

[westreef]

I think he meant Potassium!?

 

[dunk373]

i was thinking and maybe its water quality specifically low in trace minerals when i added a bigger sump and coral tanks to the system the water smelled a little fishy so i added about 6 cups of rox8 carbon and haven't removed it this carbon was on top of the reactor full of lignite, maybe this dropped some trace elements.

 

[Randy15]

Carbon can remove trace elements. It doesn't need to be ran all the time. I had some color loss when I started running GFO.

 

[dunk373]

I am hoping its the carbon. I had a total of 9 cups in there 6 rox and 3 lignite. I know it was too much and forgot to remove it. I built an eggcrate enclosure around the return pump intake to put the carbon in there so all water being supplied to the dt was running through all that rox and it was right up against the intake.

 

[Randy15]

Lol that's pretty intense. I'm sure ur water is crystal clear though. Try doin a nice water change to replenish those trace elements (I use reef crystals) and only use the carbon when u see your water looking or smelling "not so fresh". It's not a necessity to run 24/7

 

[dunk373]

yeah when i added all the carbon i didn't think and was busy getting all the lighting hooked up on the frag tanks. You all know how a ten minute job turns out to be hours of frustrating work. I have heard both sides that carbon will remove some trace elements and that it won't but again i hope that its the issue

 

[dunk373]

So I removed the carbon added som iodine some trace elements and a dose of strontium I had this Laying around, and I don't know if it's possible but corals seem more colorful today. It's fast
But maybe? What do you think?