Keeping blue millis blue......

[ChrisOzment]

All my SPS is bright with very full PE but for some reason I can't keep blue milli's blue. They fade and sometimes brown out but still stay very shaggy and grow well.

I see the same thing under 20k helios 1000's in the display and under a 400w Radium 20k in the frag tank, same system. pink, freen, red, etc millis are bright and in perfect condition.

Other blue SPS is bright blue, only the milli's fade or brown out.

Any ideas?

 

[ChrisOzment]

Adding....

800 gallon system / 400 gallon display. Vortech MP60's in the display and Vortech MP40's in the 60 gallon frag tank.

 

[JT3069]

that is very odd i have had similiar problems with rose millis

so id like to see what the proffessors say about this one

 

[Logzor]

Beautiful tank. I would suggestion dosing a lugols solution or another potassium supplement just as Tech-I. People tend to agree that blues can become more vibrant when dosing potassium.

 

[dvanacker]

Are these wild mille's or proven captive raised ?

If they are maricultured or wild....try a tried, tested and true palmers millepora and I'm sure you will have no problem.

 

[MammothReefer]

All my millis ect 1 blue milli (tongs spharrie) turned green. Doesn't matter captive, mari, or wild.. all hairy.. all growing.. all green. >_<

 

[UTCReefer]

Ive read that potassium helps bring out the blues.

 

[polywise]

what do you keep your mag level at?

 

[Der ABT]

Very nice tank and it looks like there are some blue's/purples in there, can you post any close ups of the corals your referring to (and more tank shots haha)

I had a problem with blue's fading (not turning green) and potassium helped a bit as did strontium(which was low) but i started adding a little of each at the same time so not sure which did the trick or if something else helped.

can you tell us what you dose/CaRx, etc. really just some more info...the corals all look like they are doing great so i dont know for sure
big fan of the radiums and i have some great blue's

 

[ganjero]

Beautiful tank. I would suggestion dosing a lugols solution or another potassium supplement just as Tech-I. People tend to agree that blues can become more vibrant when dosing potassium.

Lugols is not useful to raise potassium, and also is an iodine supplement that can go wrong easily. Lugols is to be used very carefully. Just my .02

 

[firsttank]

When my blues started to turn green , I increased feeding and that helped. Also lowered my nitrates to 0 at the same time. So I am not sure if its was a combined effect or just the feeding helped.

 

[ChrisOzment]

Thanks for the compliments and feedback. I may look into potassium as everything else is in check.

The display gets fed 2x a day and I have ~35 fish so there are plenty of nutrients. Then the frag tank is fed from the main return pump after 16' of filtration so pretty low nutrients there.

I have bright blue acros and such no problem, just the blue milli's aren't blue. I have palmers, blueberry, and a couple other blue milli's - all look the same.

 

[Jon_Hewett_85]

Just wanted to reitterate do NOT dose lugols (Potasium Iodide) to raise your potassium levels. You will OD you're tank on iodine before your appreciably raise your potassium levels. Randy-Holmes has written on this in the past. Secondly, I do not recomend dosing anything you cannot reliably test for. If you decide to start dosing for potassium, the first theing to get would be a reliable test kit.

 

[Ralph ATL]

phates/trates that are high can cause this, too!

 

[pimp2daizzo]

how long have you had them?

 

[sweet ride]

wow very nice tank!

 

[timdanger]

interesting choice to put the mp60 on the back wall on the one side. what was your reasoning there? do you have flow issues on the side away from the mp60 (right side as you look at it)?

 

[REEF SMAC]

High light, high flow, seems to keep my Palmers blue for me.

 

[ChrisOzment]

interesting choice to put the mp60 on the back wall on the one side. what was your reasoning there? do you have flow issues on the side away from the mp60 (right side as you look at it)?

Tank is 8' long and 36" deep and built into a corner of a room. There are actually 2 MP60's on the right wall. I put the other MP60 on the back left to add more flow to the left of the tank. the left side of the tank is exposed and I didn't want to hang a powerhead motor on it. I like this clean side look.....