Help with SPS color
- Thread starter kissman
- Start date
brad65ford
New member
Similar boat myself. This is a very common issue it seems and there should be a sticky or something to help SPS reefers increase their N03 and P04 easily whit out causing issues.
Sub'd, I'm pulling for you man. Hope you get your colors back! I did by moving all my pale sps corals from my one tank which was running 0 p04 and 0 no3 to a newly setup up tank with almost cured live rock. I'd be embarrassed if I told you the p04 and no3 levels but guess what... night and day difference in color and polyp extension. Seems SPS's like a dirtier water than I had thought or it seems we need to feed them and then place them back in a ULNS. Still don't know the answer yet.
Sub'd, I'm pulling for you man. Hope you get your colors back! I did by moving all my pale sps corals from my one tank which was running 0 p04 and 0 no3 to a newly setup up tank with almost cured live rock. I'd be embarrassed if I told you the p04 and no3 levels but guess what... night and day difference in color and polyp extension. Seems SPS's like a dirtier water than I had thought or it seems we need to feed them and then place them back in a ULNS. Still don't know the answer yet.
kissman
New member
Lol i bet they are not as high as the nitrates were in my tank when i decided to get my tank under control. 160+ppm looked like i had giving blood when i ran test
kissman
New member
redwingrob40
New member
Kissman, it looks like you are on the right track, love reading the updates on this thread, really hoping that this all works out so others can try the same steps to get their colors back as well.
I am going to try a similar but little different approach than you. Gotta leave my GFO online cause I still have some HA i am battling. But I am going to try and go to 1 water change of 5 gal every 2 weeks. Up until now I have been doing 1 5 gal change a week. to me the hardest thing is finding that balance where the algae doesn't take over...
In my experience so far this is hard to do, as soon as one level seems to start coming up then so do the algae outbreaks.... :debi:
I am going to try a similar but little different approach than you. Gotta leave my GFO online cause I still have some HA i am battling. But I am going to try and go to 1 water change of 5 gal every 2 weeks. Up until now I have been doing 1 5 gal change a week. to me the hardest thing is finding that balance where the algae doesn't take over...
In my experience so far this is hard to do, as soon as one level seems to start coming up then so do the algae outbreaks.... :debi:
kissman
New member
I would think if you have algae that the PO4 is higher than you are reading. Water changes don't do much for lowering PO4 because its levels are usually so low anyway. When I had my algae problem I removed all the algae I could by hand, cut lights off for 3 days, also put black construction paper around tank, and left the top open for oxygen. After 3 days I doubled my amount of GFO and it used up the PO4 before the algae had a chance to grow back. I have had zero algae since. :hammer: knock on wood :hammer:! The PO4 level could be part of your problem. But, please be sure to post updates in this thread so we can see reslults.
redwingrob40
New member
PO4 is 0.0 according to Hanna HI713.... Dunno if the HI713 isn't sensitive enough to pick anything up, but then again margin of error is +/- .04 so...
How did you remove your algae? My HA is like glued to the rocks and it doesn't just come off....
kissman
New member
Yea the HC713 only reads down to a certain level and I can't remember what it is right off. I use the HC736 its more ideal for reef tanks becasue it reads in ppb and also makes it more accurate. 4% in ppm and 4% in ppb is a big difference in accuracy. Hanna offers a chart online to use like my reading was a 9 on my HC, on the chart 10=.03. The reason its reading zero is because the alge is using it up before you can test for it.
great thread! thank you
I have similar issues in my 120 running 4. 48" AT bulbs and 36 RB LED. I thought it was lighting for the longest time unil i got my hands on a par meter. By the book my light level is actually low!
Do you run a filter sock? My attemted solution is that I have increased feeding and removed my filter sock (logic being that detritus will stay in solution longer and serve as "food"). I have built an algae turn scrubber to deal with the potential for run away nutrients. My CUC hopefully will deal with left behind chunks. I am taking my fuge offline and removing the sand in it. Then adding a powerhead to the fuge area to keep the detritus in suspension. already noticed my skimmer collecting better without the sock.
I do add a sock when i do in tank cleaning and rock blow offs to catch the easy stuff.
After reading your questions and replies I will be taking my GFO offline as well and keep an eye on things. Decent SPS growth for me, poor coloration.
Tagging along!
I have similar issues in my 120 running 4. 48" AT bulbs and 36 RB LED. I thought it was lighting for the longest time unil i got my hands on a par meter. By the book my light level is actually low!
Do you run a filter sock? My attemted solution is that I have increased feeding and removed my filter sock (logic being that detritus will stay in solution longer and serve as "food"). I have built an algae turn scrubber to deal with the potential for run away nutrients. My CUC hopefully will deal with left behind chunks. I am taking my fuge offline and removing the sand in it. Then adding a powerhead to the fuge area to keep the detritus in suspension. already noticed my skimmer collecting better without the sock.
I do add a sock when i do in tank cleaning and rock blow offs to catch the easy stuff.
After reading your questions and replies I will be taking my GFO offline as well and keep an eye on things. Decent SPS growth for me, poor coloration.
Tagging along!
kissman
New member
I have never ran filter socks, I wish I could find a par meter. I have talked to a few LFS and they don't know of anybody that has one. There is a reef club about 2 hours from me in Richmond
redwingrob40
New member
Ha I wish I had known when I ordered mine..... Oh well :fun5:
redwingrob40
New member
Been doing some research on this and may have to pick some up. How long have you been dosing this now? Was this your first time?
I was just researching the red sea product Energy A&B. Looks interesting, it has a lot elements of what i consider important to be to the health of corals. For those looking to research it here is a link http://www.redseafish.com/index.aspx?id=4354
It would be nice to see someone try this product without a lot of adjustment ie. light, chem.,filtration. Just to see what the affects are. This is where a chemist needs to chime in and break down its components and really see if they are being added elsewhere such as food for example. interesting
Happy New Year!
It would be nice to see someone try this product without a lot of adjustment ie. light, chem.,filtration. Just to see what the affects are. This is where a chemist needs to chime in and break down its components and really see if they are being added elsewhere such as food for example. interesting
Happy New Year!
kissman
New member
I have actually emailed Steve at Red Sea and asked him to chime in on this thread since some of us are either using or thinking of using Energy A&B and give us his two cents worth. Hopefully he does. I did read a thread where he suggested dosing 6-8mL of each in a 50g because there levels were so low. I am thinking of dosing 3mL of each twice a day and see. I also have some Prodibio Reef Booster to play with. If I stay home this weekend I might add a vial and leave skimmer off over night and see what the tank looks like in the morning. Products that say leave skimmer off over night worry me. I would hate to wake up to a crash!
kissman,
depending on how your skimmer is set up, you might not turn it off, but rather dial back the foam level or remove the collection cup and let it overflow back into the sump. skimmers provide a great deal of oxygen exchange and shutting one down on a tank can have a huge impact. Most of the products that recommend turning off skimming do such for one of two reasons: Skimming removes the product or the product changes surface tension to a degree you will have an over skim event. By allowing the skim to re-enter the tank/sump you don't remove the product and you don't allow the overskim to occur.....and you keep the gas exchange that the skimmer provides.
-Shawn
depending on how your skimmer is set up, you might not turn it off, but rather dial back the foam level or remove the collection cup and let it overflow back into the sump. skimmers provide a great deal of oxygen exchange and shutting one down on a tank can have a huge impact. Most of the products that recommend turning off skimming do such for one of two reasons: Skimming removes the product or the product changes surface tension to a degree you will have an over skim event. By allowing the skim to re-enter the tank/sump you don't remove the product and you don't allow the overskim to occur.....and you keep the gas exchange that the skimmer provides.
-Shawn
kissman
New member
I was thinking that to. The skimmer does provide a lot of oxygen exchange. I like what I see when I add the Energy A&B its amazing the PE i get on my 3 birdsnest, the rest of the corals not so much difference.
kissman
New member
Hey Brian,
Please, please forgive me if I disagree. I'm not wanting to step on any toes, but the absolute fact is that 6 T5 bulbs if placed right on the surface are producing 1000 to 1500 PAR. Mother nature provides more light than that on reefs at midday and I personally have run 1000 watt MH that did more than 2000 PAR at the surface. There is NO WAY possible that 6 T5s are providing too much light for the corals that were shown in the pictures at the beginning of the thread. My tank has 16 T5s plus 4 150 watt MH's that run 100% power for 10 hours per day. My daughters 38 gallon Innovative Marine tank has 6 T5s that run 100% 12 hours a day and a total of 16 hours illumination.
And here's my tank under 2500 watts of lighting a while back.
These corals are not pale from too much light. That is called bleaching and results in death very quickly where as the corals shown are languishing a slow death.
Again, please, please, please believe me when I say I am not wanting to be mean, but just disagreeing in a very collegiate and fellow hobbyist discussion way!
Joe
I never thought you were stepping on toes. Your tank is the most beautiful tank I have ever seen. Its obvious you know what you are talking about. I keep finding myself going back to the pic to look at and dream that mine looked that good. So please feel free to add make suggestions what ever you feel. Thank you
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