Help with SPS color

[Bandos reefer]

Very informational thread, I could have missed out somewhere that said sps turning brown with a green tinge is due to low light?
Can someone reconfirm this?

 

[Bandos reefer]

Very informational thread, I could have missed out somewhere that said sps turning brown with a green tinge is due to low light?
Can someone reconfirm this?

 

[kissman]

Very informational thread, I could have missed out somewhere that said sps turning brown with a green tinge is due to low light?
Can someone reconfirm this?

I do have a 6x54w T5HO on a 55g. I have seen the same fixture on a 75g with great colors and growth. I have read that before about corals with low light having a green tinge. I do have some with no green ting, all red, and garf bonsai is starting to turn back towards purple

 

[echopiece]

Great to hear things are coloring up for you. What are your PO3 and PO4 numbers right now?

 

[kissman]

PO4 was .04 Sunday and NO3 was .25

 

[kissman]

something I just thought of, the three birdsnests, frog spawns and monti all came out of a 55g that had the same 48" 6x54w NEP fixture the only difference is he has factory Current Bulbs and I have ATI

 

[potterjon]

Nice to hear things are showing some more color!

 

[kissman]

So i tested Nitrates and Phospahtes tonight. NO3 is back down to zero and PO4 is at 23 ppb or .06ppm on Hanna ULR 736. I am going to start running the skimmer dryer and see if that helps to raise NO3 to 1-2ppm. I am feeding 2 cubes a day and adding Energy A&B

 

[artkwan]

So i tested Nitrates and Phospahtes tonight. NO3 is back down to zero and PO4 is at 23 ppb or .06ppm on Hanna ULR 736. I am going to start running the skimmer dryer and see if that helps to raise NO3 to 1-2ppm. I am feeding 2 cubes a day and adding Energy A&B

I run my skimmer fairly dry, yet my nitrates are pretty much zero. What gives? I actually increased my feeding an additional time a day to three times. You would think that would change things, but in my case. Increased feedings have been in effect for a full week now....

 

[kissman]

You have an alternative option by dosing Pottasium Nitrate and not to load the system with so much foods, plus the skimmer cannot remove the dosing.

Do you know of any good reads on this? I was thinking about it

 

[rbp 4 135]

Iv'e been tagging along on this. I have poor color on my sps, they started colorful but faded over 1-2 months. I have a duncan that has done well and thrown up many new heads, and my RBTA split once and both were fine until one of the clones found the mp10. My tank was started with cooked macro rock and I was running biopellets until about 15 minutes ago. My P04 and N03 have always read 0 on Hanna and API respectively. I have started feeding some rods coral blend about daily, my fish also like to eat it. We will see if shutting down the BPs helps raise up my nutrients to measurable levels.

 

[kissman]

Iv'e been tagging along on this. I have poor color on my sps, they started colorful but faded over 1-2 months. I have a duncan that has done well and thrown up many new heads, and my RBTA split once and both were fine until one of the clones found the mp10. My tank was started with cooked macro rock and I was running biopellets until about 15 minutes ago. My P04 and N03 have always read 0 on Hanna and API respectively. I have started feeding some rods coral blend about daily, my fish also like to eat it. We will see if shutting down the BPs helps raise up my nutrients to measurable levels.

Please post your results. I am having good luck with Red Sea Energy A&B. I am using a turkey baster to form a cloud around each coral with powerheads and skimmer off

 

[rbp 4 135]

Everything was still alive this AM. I would say im moderatly stocked. I have 1 clown 1 blue reef chromis and 2 bangaii cardinals in a 30 cube. I also added 2 new frags yesterday, a purple pocillopora and and additional green cap, as a bench mark for my bleached ones.

 

[Laddy]

Are you using an RODI maker?

 

[MHG]

I have had this issue for 15 months. some corals color back up but a little less than half do not. Growth is p!ss poor. like 1/32nd of an inch a month...

PO4 and NO3 are zero.

PAR is 500 at the top of the rock...

I agreed with and took the suggestion to raise my nitrates. I set my autofeeder to feed 5 times a day (up from 3) and I feed rods food (my own mix of different rods food and cyclopees) every night and several times a day on weekends. I target feed every other night.

So when I was feeding pellets 3 times a day and had low nutrients, I would get RTN if my alk went over 9... I also stopped water changes.


Now with two months of heavy feeding my colors are inproving and so is my growth.

Nitrates are .25 and I need to change my GFO more often to keep up with the.

Sure zeovite systems get good growth and bright colors but the trick with those if to get the perfect balance between the dosing rate and growth. Otherwise you will get dino or some other plague...

I will continue the heavy feeding and keep you posted...

 

[rbp 4 135]

Are you using an RODI maker?

Yep, 5 stage rodi. 0 phos per hannah out of the rodi, and .03 out of the ATO jug after a few weeks of sitting.

 

[kissman]

from what I am learning is if you want to have good growth you need to have some nutrients, then you can raise the alk and calcium and get growth. In the research I have been doing and some advice I was giving was to raise NO3 to 1-2ppm, PO4 to .06-.08 at that point you can think of Alkalinity as energy for growth. The higher the Alk the faster the growth. Now ofcourse you have to raise calcium aswell. We will see I am going to tests this if I can ever get my nitrates to 1-2ppm.

 

[barjam]

from what I am learning is if you want to have good growth you need to have some nutrients, then you can raise the alk and calcium and get growth. In the research I have been doing and some advice I was giving was to raise NO3 to 1-2ppm, PO4 to .06-.08 at that point you can think of Alkalinity as energy for growth. The higher the Alk the faster the growth. Now ofcourse you have to raise calcium aswell. We will see I am going to tests this if I can ever get my nitrates to 1-2ppm.

Raising .06-.08 nitrate and 1-2 PO4 via feeding more would increase my colors but the hair algae I am fighting would explode. I suspect nutrients are trapped in the rocks or something as algae of any type refuses to grow on the glass. I can go two weeks without cleaning the glass.

 

[kissman]

Yes if you have hair algae yours is already higher you just don't see it in the test becasue the algae is consuming the PO4 & NO3. You def need to get that out first. Are you running a HC GFO to get rid of the heair algae? Are you using RO/DI water?

 

[danil]

You have an alternative option by dosing Pottasium Nitrate and not to load the system with so much foods, plus the skimmer cannot remove the dosing.

There is no conclusive evidence that Potassium Nitrate is what corals need as food. We do measure Nitrates in our system and want them to be detectable at few ppm level but Its a test for nutrients in our system. I think by itself Nitrates has little or no value hance dosing Potassium Nitrate or other type of Nitrates will just fule algae growth. Another evidance is nature. There are very low nitrate levels in oceans. Same thing ULNS systems working without having detectable nitrates. Corals feed on what we put in and what fish poop out.. but doubt its nitrates.