how to get the color out of sps?

[trottman]

besides water changes, running my skimmer full blast and using phos guard is there anything else that will help get the color out of browned out sps?

i am using 2 x 150 watt HQI over my 75 gallon reef. all my sps are in the top half of my tank. i am using the ER 5-3 skimmer

 

[drock59]

There are a TON of threads on this subject.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=881003

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=852587

These were in the forum just today.

From my experience, browned out corals mean there's a lot of nutrients in the water. What is your skimmmer production like? Water changes? Bulbs?

 

[trottman]

skimmer production - good

bulbs are less than 6 months old

i do 15 gallon water changes at least 2 times a week... but max 4 times a week

--fish wise, i have 4 fish 2 clowns, 1 6 line, and one PBT

i am gonna get new bulbs soon, do the 14k hamiltons sound good if i am looking for good color?

i should have said this before, my corals are no where near bleached, and are still growing. they just dont have great colors/or i am buying brown outs cuz they are cheap.
- how do i make them color up?

 

[chadfarmer]

dont forget that it can take some TIME to get them to color up

 

[kpk]

Don't know for sure, but the 15g 2-4x water changes probably keeps eveything pretty stressed out especially at 4x per week! Stress will brown them too I'm sure...

Kyle

 

[drock59]

ya, I dont think i have ever said it before but that might be too many water changes. I do a 25-30% water change about once a month. I would cut that back a little bit and see what happens.

 

[Cody Ray]

If your doing that many water changes I would suggest doing them more frequently but in smaller amounts. If your changing 30 gallons a week maybe consider doing 6 gallons a day instead of 15 gallons twice a week.

Since your doing so many water changes you could probably feed your fish more which from what I have read will help add color to your corals.

 

[DrBDC]

What exactly are your nitrate and phophate levels at? And by what brand test kits?

 

[toastman]

Make sure you are using RO/Di water for your changes...will make a difference

 

[trottman]

i use ro

and my levels according to seachem tests are pretty good. mag could be higher but it aint bad.

so do 30 gallons once a week? or 15 once a week?

 

[spineshank385]

i would only do 7-8 gallons once a week. Thats about 10%, which is more than enough.

 

[drock59]

agreed, 10 percent should be more than enough.

 

[Horace]

There is NO reason to do that many water changes all teh time... in fact its probably making you worse off because every time you do it you throw off your levels. The biggest key to SPS is stability. Get a dosing method down, using either kalk, 2-part, or a Ca Reactor and keep your Alk/Ca STABLE. You can do weekly water changes but no more than 5-10% is needed. Your being VERY excessive with that. I would also note that you dont exactly have a ton of light using 150w HQIs....They dont put out much light at all and IMO are barely enough to keep most SPS corals. If your corals are brown they are that way for a few possible reasons. They are stressed out because of instability, Not enough light, or too many nutrients in the water. My guess is its a combonation of no. 1 and 2. With the amount of water changes you do and the fact that you have a good skimmer, unless you are way overfeeding (which is possible too) you should be good.

 

[flipteg]

with 150w lights, really the only place you can put the corals are directly right under the metal halide no more than 12 inches from the water surface... it's do able, but it's hard especially with a 4 foot tank like yours (assuming standard 75 gallons) and if you like your SPS to be spread out all over the tank...

 

[twon8]

what kind of flow do you have in the tank? how long have they been in there?

 

[einsteins]

Some corals are just Brown....that is their make-up.
Not every coral is going to have award winning colors...
At IMAC this year Borneman made exactely that point...the majority of all SPS corals on a reef are brown......Just a thought before you go crazy thinking that it is you or your system.

 

[jdieck]

By the way Hamiltons will give you good (I would say very good) coloration unfortunately for no more than three months, I have their 400 watt version and they really go down in intensity and color very very fast.

 

[gcarroll]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7763316#post7763316 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by einsteins
Some corals are just Brown....that is their make-up.
Not every coral is going to have award winning colors...
At IMAC this year Borneman made exactely that point...the majority of all SPS corals on a reef are brown......Just a thought before you go crazy thinking that it is you or your system.

Although that is true, that is not the case with the corals being collected. The collectors, in the vast majority of cases, do not collect the brown acros because the importer will not pay the collector for them. Beleive it or not, the collectors don't go into the water blind collecting just a randon sample of the reef.

 

[Jovreefer]

I'd say your lights are a major factor as well. 150W halides are crap over a 75!

I have one over my 20G and I have to keep all my acro's at the very top to keep good color. I wish I had went with a 250 over my 20 gallon. There's no way 2 150's over a 75 is near enough light.

 

[twon8]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7763340#post7763340 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
By the way Hamiltons will give you good (I would say very good) coloration unfortunately for no more than three months, I have their 400 watt version and they really go down in intensity and color very very fast.

agreed, i had the hamilton 14k 400w's, have gone to xm 20k's, they are brighter and i like the color better. you might be able to get by with 10k 150's, but certainly not 14k. what type of ballast?