Loss of colouration, only green SPS

[popsock]

I have a friend who has a superb SPS reef tank, 10x3x3'

It's a great tank with hundreds of SPS colonies, but anything bright green that comes from elsewhere, goes dull green within a week in his tank.

This affects all Acros, Monti plate, and even a recent Hammer coral.

Anyone have any clues to what might cause this?

All blues, purples, pinks etc are good or great. Growth rates are amazing, and it's still one of the best reef tanks in the UK, but this problem is annoying.

Green mushrooms and other green LPS are good colour also.

 

[spsfragger]

What lights is he using?

 

[chrishayes]

have a look at iron after all else is checked and cleared. Might be a salt deficiency in iron level. Is there a fuge attached to the tank? Also, does he do decent sized water changes? If not then iron would be even higher on the list of culprits.

Saying that, it would be unlikely to be but I assume if its one of the nicest tanks in uk then he/she has likely looked into all the things that cause poor color so im throwing it out there.

 

[popsock]

Thanks for taking the time on this. Lights are 16 x T5, identical to my own setup, and definitely not the issue here.

Iron is interesting I'd never have considered that. He's lazy with water changes, but then so am I and greens do amazingly well in my tank. Our systems are almost identical, so it's more confusing why this is happening. We use exactly the same additives too.

There is a fuge, a huge one attached to the tank, it's rock, skimmer and caulerpa/chaeto. Both the corals and fuge algae grow well. Wouldn't a lack of iron inhibit algae growth throughout the system, and therefore coral growth? hmmm maybe not.

I've got some Ferrion around here somewhere, I'll let him have it and see what happens. Pity there's no iron test kit.

 

[allsps40]

Macro algae take up a lot or iron when they grow, this coupled with the lazy water changes could be contributing to low iron. Get a Iron test kit and check iron levels, green is very dependent on iron.