Most zoas colors fading

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've been slowly adjusting my LEDs over my 40 gallon tank from more blues and less whites, to more whites and less blues in an attempt to get some more full spectrum light in the tank to color up my coral. I've been slowly doing this for about a week or two now, and I noticed in the last day or two that almost all of my zoas seem to have fading color. I got half a dozen frags a month ago and since then a realy nice deep red frag of zoas I got have been fadding in color. they went from blood red like a fire shrimp to the now magenta color. They are still growing, and have about doubled their polyps, but I'm not liking the colors fading like they are. Only a couple of my zoas seem to be retaining their color.

I've tried looking it up, but can't find a good answer as to what to do. Should I keep the light where it is and wait to see if they color back up? how long should I wait? Should I start going back to more blue lights? brighter or dimmer overall? I checked my water perameters and everything is stable at the same levels they always are. I have noticed a slight fadding of color from some of my other coral as well, so I'm thinking that maybe I need to dim the lights a bit.


Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:undetectable on API kit, but have some film algea growth.
KH:8
pH:8.0

I have a 40g tall tank, most of the zoas are at the bottom level, with one being mid level. I use the chineese LED lights, drip kalk for my SPS, have a good skimmer, carbon dose with vinegar, add a small amount of seachem iodide (1ml every other day), spot feed coral every other day, water changes every other week, I'd say medium flow the the zoas. Not sure what else would be relevent.

Any advice would be apriciated. Thanks. I'll see if I can get some pictures this evening. I don''t know how helpful they will be though because I didn't get before pictures of most of the zoa frags I picked up a month ago.

 

[stscream4187]

It sounds like they do not like the increase in the white light or are still adjusting to it. I would raise the intensity slower than you have been and monitor.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Thank you, I will drop the lighting back by 5-10% and increase more slowly going forward. I know there are alot of factors involved, but how long should it take for the colors to start comming back? couple days? couple weeks? For anyone with LEDs and good zoa colors, do you think they have long term deeper colors with a more blue light or more white light? I know more blue makes them look better short term, but I felt like that may have been contributing to the slow fading of their color.

 

[BeanMachine]

I've been slowly adjusting my LEDs over my 40 gallon tank from more blues and less whites, to more whites and less blues in an attempt to get some more full spectrum light in the tank to color up my coral. I've been slowly doing this for about a week or two now, and I noticed in the last day or two that almost all of my zoas seem to have fading color. I got half a dozen frags a month ago and since then a realy nice deep red frag of zoas I got have been fadding in color. they went from blood red like a fire shrimp to the now magenta color. They are still growing, and have about doubled their polyps, but I'm not liking the colors fading like they are. Only a couple of my zoas seem to be retaining their color.

I've tried looking it up, but can't find a good answer as to what to do. Should I keep the light where it is and wait to see if they color back up? how long should I wait? Should I start going back to more blue lights? brighter or dimmer overall? I checked my water perameters and everything is stable at the same levels they always are. I have noticed a slight fadding of color from some of my other coral as well, so I'm thinking that maybe I need to dim the lights a bit.


Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:undetectable on API kit, but have some film algea growth.
KH:8
pH:8.0

I have a 40g tall tank, most of the zoas are at the bottom level, with one being mid level. I use the chineese LED lights, drip kalk for my SPS, have a good skimmer, carbon dose with vinegar, add a small amount of seachem iodide (1ml every other day), spot feed coral every other day, water changes every other week, I'd say medium flow the the zoas. Not sure what else would be relevent.

Any advice would be apriciated. Thanks. I'll see if I can get some pictures this evening. I don''t know how helpful they will be though because I didn't get before pictures of most of the zoa frags I picked up a month ago.

Do you use a phosphate removing media, maybe GFO and have changed it recently?

LEDS can be tricky though. I always go back to the most recent change and often times that is likely the cause... so you ramping up the lighting might have stressed them.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I don't use any phosphate remover other than what I remove from carbon dosing. carbon dosing has been the same for a long time so no change there.

I was originaly ramping up the whites because the coral seemed to be having a very slow loss in color from when I got them at the LFS. I figured they needed some more full spectrum light to get back to about where they were when I bought them. I don't know if they might be losing color while they adjust to the new lighting or what. I've heard that while adjusting lighting coral can lose their color temperaraly then get it back after the new bacteria grow back that are more suited for the given light spectrum/intensity. I don't know how long I should let them go to see if they color up before going back to previous settings. I don't want to go back too soon and miss out on potentialy good results.

 

[organism]

You've got it backwards, the blue LED's are what color up your corals for the most part, especially non-Acros, and your white LED's are generally what fade the colors, especially on zoanthids. If your colors are browning out from the LFS then high phosphates or (way more likely) insufficient PAR coming from the Chinese LED fixture are the most likely cause. Also, wild corals can change colors a lot either way.

There are several vendors who only run blue LED's over their farm tanks and have amazing colors. Personally I usually run my blues at 100% for 9 hours and my whites at about 10-20% for 4, but I've had my whites completely off for the last four months with pretty much the same results. If you want better colors keep your blues at 100% and knock your whites down to 20%, see how it goes for a few weeks.

 

[reefwars]

Cut back on the vinegar until you start to find a rise in nitrates , we dose vinegar in all our zoanthid beds with over 200 types of zoanthids under very strong lighting and we have been dosing vinegar for a couple of years now and have noticed if you push it a bit to much and strip the system the corals will bleach or pale out , dark colors now become very pale while others certainly look cool the system over all is bleaching.

Once you get a rise in nitrates you can slowly increase but no need going beyond your maintenance dose it's a beautiful tool but most people Pushtheir system to far before they realize not as much is needed , can take a long time to get color back fwiw.

Po4 being low is another culprit and same for corals gig into bright light but they often adjust and get color back.