Jettareefer
New member
I think your tank looks great as others have said. Have you ever thought the addition of some t5 supplements for some pop and extra spectrum ? Btw I dig your niger trigger I had one in my old 75 Sps reef he was model citizen!
I give up trying to get colorful sps
- Thread starter barramundi
- Start date
ksicard
New member
If it were my tank I'd cut feedings back to twice a day and do 20-30% water changes every 7-10 days, that will keep nitrates stable around the 5ppm range. As for PO4 I would just maintain your current GFO amount and add 1/4 cup GFO to your amount and re test every 2-3 days and keep adding 1/4 cup GFO to your amount until PO4 hangs stable at .03-.06ppm. I would try and maintain heavy feedings the best you can, as for your lighting once your corals color back up from the feedings you should be able to increase your light intensity and duration a good bit as long as you maintain heavy feedings, and adjust intensity slowly over time.
ksicard
New member
Didn't mean to give the idea that 10ppm nitrates were un healthy, I was just saying if it were my tank I'd shoot for 5ppm since that's what I aim for. 10ppm is fine but if you were unable to do water changes for an extended period time things could get out of hand, I just like 5ppm since its a nice healthy number and allows quite a bit of lee way.
Ptyochromis
Member
I just noticed you have some sofities in your tank. Those mushrooms in particular seem to be very aggressive as far as allopathic (chemical) warfare goes. I would bet money that if you removed soft corals from your tank, your sps would grow faster and look nicer. In my reading, it seems that most zoanthids/palythoa are the least likely to pump toxins into the water column.
barramundi
New member
Thanks, I have acquired them over the years but some are just frags off the original colonies.
I will be trying to add some new lights with extra spectrum soon but at the present I am changing a couple of things at a time to see what makes the difference. My 11 year old son picked the trigger 1 year ago, out of all the colourful fish in the shop he picked him? but I have to admit he is one of our favourite's now, he is always the talking point.
Will do, I do think I can see a difference in colour, though only slightly.
What are red bugs, I don't think I have any bugs as I have had this tank running a few years and I don't introduce any thing new.
This seems to be the majority of the comments, same as Sahin has been advising. This is what I am trying to aim for at present and see how the colours change, I did a water change of 300 ltrs of NSW to bring down the parameters, they are now at,
No3 5ppm, Po4 0.05.
Cal 430,Kh 8.0 both stable as ever.
Well I never knew that, the mushrooms came on the live rock when I first set up the tank, I also have 1 hammer, 2 red goniopora and 3 torches one which houses a pair of clowns ( the kids in the street love nemo) I think these look great in there as they give the tank a look of movement to some of the corals.
The zoanthids are becoming a pain as some of them are starting to grow over the base of my sps and I'm fed up trying to keep them off.
barramundi
New member
Hi All,
I thought it's about time I gave an update on how my SPS have come on since my last post in November. I have not posted as trying to get some quality photos to show how much they have coloured up but it has been impossible to get some as you see on this forum, I have been trying everyone's cameras and phones.
What a change in colour, some are like when I bought them, some though are still a light brown but I hope they will colour up. The blues have
gone off they are so blue, I also have green and red in my SSC and pink lemonades again. My greens have not really changed but a yellow stag with blue polyps is now yellow again. My pink cauliflower coral is more pink then when I bought it, my red SPS are reddish brown but colouring up slowly.
What I think have been the positive changes, feeding the fish a lot more with 3 times a day feedings which has put more nutrients into the water, keeping No3 around 5ppm and Po4 0.03, fortnightly NSW water changes of 200 litres.
I was also lucky that my wife and a friend got together and purchased for me, 4 LED lights that I featured earlier in this thread, a nice surprise when I opened the box.
The best we could do for photos are these;
A big thank you to all who gave such good advice, it is still a work in progress but I will keep you updated.
I thought it's about time I gave an update on how my SPS have come on since my last post in November. I have not posted as trying to get some quality photos to show how much they have coloured up but it has been impossible to get some as you see on this forum, I have been trying everyone's cameras and phones.
What a change in colour, some are like when I bought them, some though are still a light brown but I hope they will colour up. The blues have
gone off they are so blue, I also have green and red in my SSC and pink lemonades again. My greens have not really changed but a yellow stag with blue polyps is now yellow again. My pink cauliflower coral is more pink then when I bought it, my red SPS are reddish brown but colouring up slowly.
What I think have been the positive changes, feeding the fish a lot more with 3 times a day feedings which has put more nutrients into the water, keeping No3 around 5ppm and Po4 0.03, fortnightly NSW water changes of 200 litres.
I was also lucky that my wife and a friend got together and purchased for me, 4 LED lights that I featured earlier in this thread, a nice surprise when I opened the box.
The best we could do for photos are these;
A big thank you to all who gave such good advice, it is still a work in progress but I will keep you updated.
barramundi
New member
Thanks for the comments,
Here is a few more photos I just can't get them to capture the colours, some just look white and some brown or washed out still.
These are the LED lights I have over the tank now, there are 4 of them.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271255122...84.m1438.l2649
This is the best FTS I can get using my phone,
A couple more,
Here is a few more photos I just can't get them to capture the colours, some just look white and some brown or washed out still.
These are the LED lights I have over the tank now, there are 4 of them.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271255122...84.m1438.l2649
This is the best FTS I can get using my phone,
A couple more,
barramundi
New member
Sorry these are the lights I hope this works.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271255122425?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271255122425?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
Good to hear!
Can you tell us a little more about what you actually did?
For example, did you:
1. carry out more water changes?
2. Increase feeding?
3. Use more/less GFO/GAC etc?
4. what were your PO4 and NO3 readings before and after?
Thanks. It helps others to be a bit more precise about what they practically need to do. And it helps our learning that tiny bit more even if the results are just anecdotal.
I never bothered in the past to test my no3 and po4. I just used to aim for zero algae. Ran large quantities of gfo, carbon and bacteria dosed and fed a small pinch of flake to my 4 small fish. Corals would stn from the base as I starved them. Now I test and maintain my po4 at the desired 0.03 and my no3 between 2 and 5 I added another 8 fish and increased feeding to 3 times a day. Water changes remain at 10% per week. All is well and colours and growth get better every day. Thanks once again for the great advice.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your success. :thumbsup:
blackthunda77
New member
Glad to read all this. I just decided to go with the black box LED units and im glad to see the positive results.
