I have trouble coloring up pinks!!

I'm confused. Your posting history shows lots of tank issues, tank swaps for ich, and changes to the lighting. Are you talking about another tank here? Stability is key, it can take literally months to see good colors. I would not worry about dosing anything except 2 part until you are stable. IMO of course.
 
Wondering if you are lacking nutrients. With your Nitrate at 0 and your PO4 at 0 I would say you are starving your coral.
 
markalot said:
I'm confused. Your posting history shows lots of tank issues, tank swaps for ich, and changes to the lighting. Are you talking about another tank here? Stability is key, it can take literally months to see good colors. I would not worry about dosing anything except 2 part until you are stable. IMO of course.
Click to expand...

I've had several tanks.... Any ich tank swaps are in quarantine? Its called tank transfer method. This tank has been up for 4 months..... Sooo

Moving on.... I should not be having trouble with pink sps..... My tank is fine.... Something specific to pink corals is out of whack because my other 20 sps are encrusting, growing and doing fine
 
markalot said:
So how do you feed the corals when the fish are out of the display? I'll move on but IMO this is a nutrient issue.
Click to expand...

What? I don't feed my coral (except my open brain).... Are you sure you want to move on? Seems like you want to argue about things your ignorant in (since you've never been to my house) or do you want to figure out what's going on so we can help out others.

No nussance algae right now
 
Do you know the PAR level of your lighting at the location of these two corals? I have a 'Red Planet' Acro (not ORA) that needs 350 - 500 PAR to turn red (per the aquaculturer). Under 250 PAR in my system it has a nice green base coloration and a bit of light pink at the highest branch tips. At 200 PAR it was all green without any pink. I wouldn't doubt that if I increased intensity I'd have a more 'pink/red' coral, but I'd fry my other corals if I were to go any higher in my small mixed-reef tank.

Pink/Red pigments in Acropora are often more strongly expressed at higher light levels. The red pigment in Millepora has been shown to be at it's strongest at ~400 PAR (MH).

An excellent article that goes into great depth on fluorescent and non-flurorescent pigments, which has Red millepora photos at lower and higher PAR levels, is this one:

Feature Article: Light in the Reef Aquaria (Advanced Aquarist) (scroll down to 'Fig 9')
 
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Nano sapiens said:
Do you know the PAR level of your lighting at the location of these two corals? I have a 'Red Planet' Acro (not ORA) that needs 350 - 500 PAR to turn red (per the aquaculturer). Under 250 PAR in my system it has a nice green base coloration and a bit of light pink at the highest branch tips. At 200 PAR it was all green without any pink. I wouldn't doubt that if I increased intensity I'd have a more 'pink/red' coral, but I'd fry my other corals if I were to go any higher in my small mixed-reef tank.

Pink/Red pigments in Acropora are often more strongly expressed at higher light levels. The red pigment in Millepora has been shown to be at it's strongest at ~400 PAR (MH).

An excellent article that goes into great depth on fluorescent and non-flurorescent pigments, which has Red millepora photos at lower and higher PAR levels, is this one:

Feature Article: Light in the Reef Aquaria (Advanced Aquarist) (scroll down to 'Fig 9')
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Interesting. I'll see if someone has a par Meter I can borrow
 
If it was me I'd do this-----

The coral+ bulbs will pull out more pink/red. I'd swap a coral+ for the purple+ and turn your LEDs down.

Run the blues at 60% and the white at 20%........... red 10% or less. Use the LEDs more for supplementation.

Whatever change you make you have to give a good 6 weeks or so for feedback to see if your changes are working.

Having the blue LEDs up too high/long is what causes your corals to turn green. Also some chalices and acans will show dominate orange & green and lose other colors.

I agree with the comments above concerning par..........millis color better higher up. I use a 300-450 range.

Red Dragon will be pinkish higher up and lower it will be more red.
 
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Big E said:
If it was me I'd do this-----

The coral+ bulbs will pull out more pink/red. I'd swap a coral+ for the purple+ and turn your LEDs down.

Run the blues at 60% and the white at 20%........... red 10% or less. Use the LEDs more for supplementation.

Whatever change you make you have to give a good 6 weeks or so for feedback to see if your changes are working.

Having the blue LEDs up too high/long is what causes your corals to turn green. Also some chalices and acans will show dominate orange & green and lose other colors.

I agree with the comments above concerning par..........millis color better higher up. I use a 300-450 range.

Red Dragon will be pinkish higher up and lower it will be more red.
Click to expand...

Why take out a coral plus for a purple plus? Coral plus is (purple+, blue+, and aqua blue special)
 
Read what I just said above--------Coral+ will pull more pink/red out of acros.

It doesn't matter what the mix of the bulb is..........I'm basing this off my own personal experiences with T5 bulbs and getting max out of reds & pinks.

If you want examples you can see here in my thread. There are plenty of pics of pink & red corals.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2197142&page=6

What I'm stating above are personal experiences of my tank and other tanks around here locally that I've worked with that have LED/T5 combos as well as Powermodule hybrid units.

You're a bit limited due to only four bulbs so to get the most out of them for acro colors 2 blue+ & 2 coral+ will work best and then the LEDs act as supplementation or tweeking for visual appearance.
 
Big E said:
Read what I just said above--------Coral+ will pull more pink/red out of acros.

It doesn't matter what the mix of the bulb is..........I'm basing this off my own personal experiences with T5 bulbs and getting max out of reds & pinks.

If you want examples you can see here in my thread. There are plenty of pics of pink & red corals.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2197142&page=6

What I'm stating above are personal experiences of my tank and other tanks around here locally that I've worked with that have LED/T5 combos as well as Powermodule hybrid units.

You're a bit limited due to only four bulbs so to get the most out of them for acro colors 2 blue+ & 2 coral+ will work best and then the LEDs act as supplementation or tweeking for visual appearance.
Click to expand...

Noted. I'll switch out the bulb and see what I get.
 
I'm not sure that a tank 4 months old can be considered "stable."

My tank took about a year to stabilize to the point where I've had any success with SPS.
 
Zacktosterone said:
Big e..... How long of alight cycle? For LEDs and how long for T5
Click to expand...

I run 8 hours a day with the T5s.

I would suggest following sahins thread or another powermodule thread for more specific settings/times with the LEDs.

My suggestions on the settings are a starting point to get you in the ballpark. You'll want to adjust for your visual preference for ambient colors.
 
Well I stumble along this thread because I too have been seeking information about my red planet and my potassium problems. first off i have my red planet about 15 inches from my light fixture and its green and most of my other sps look good but not stunning like they should, so below are all my test from saturday and was taken back a little.
ALK 9.2
CALCIUM 450
SALINITY 1.0255
TEMP 78
NITRATE 0
PO4 0.01
IODIDE 0.01
IODATE 0.2
POTASSIUM 360
magnisium 1470

So I think I want to fix the potassium first and let you know if this was the problem with my colors. I guess my question is what brand should i use? what is everyone using or what is recommended?
I will let you know if this works.
 
trueblackpercula said:
Well I stumble along this thread because I too have been seeking information about my red planet and my potassium problems. first off i have my red planet about 15 inches from my light fixture and its green and most of my other sps look good but not stunning like they should, so below are all my test from saturday and was taken back a little.
ALK 9.2
CALCIUM 450
SALINITY 1.0255
TEMP 78
NITRATE 0
PO4 0.01
IODIDE 0.01
IODATE 0.2
POTASSIUM 360
magnisium 1470

So I think I want to fix the potassium first and let you know if this was the problem with my colors. I guess my question is what brand should i use? what is everyone using or what is recommended?
I will let you know if this works.
Click to expand...

Keep us posted
 
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