no growth and pastel color

[honkit]

So now my big question (i may make a new thread) is are there any special requirements for the BLUE colors to come out more on things like a rainbow and superman monti, as well as blue tipped acros? Most colors are better...but blues are still lacking any substance and seem to go brown right after the new blue growth is settled in.

What are your current phosphate levels? Is algae of cyano growing in your tank and if so, what is the growth rate?

This would give an indication of what needs to be done for your blue sps corals as they are amongst the hardest colours to keep alongside yellow and bright purple.

 

[DBSAM]

Dave would you summarize what you believe got you "on track" again?


I have had real good results with Zeos B-Balance and Pohls Xtra Special. I get very blue tips with those. I do not use the zeolites, but like some of their additives.

 

[dan223]

Are your MP10s at 100%? Theres been times when I thought I had more than enough flow, yet when I increased it things looked alot better, color and pe. I would turn em up and see.

 

[daveonbass]

What are your current phosphate levels? Is algae of cyano growing in your tank and if so, what is the growth rate?

This would give an indication of what needs to be done for your blue sps corals as they are amongst the hardest colours to keep alongside yellow and bright purple.

I only have API test kits and we all know how unreliable those are, but they have always read zero since the tank was set up. I want a Hannah tester. I just did a water change and sucked up all the excess cyano so it'll take time to see if its growing back...but so far the tank is staying very clean.

Could you explain what your second statement means? Are you saying I need more or less phosphate?

 

[daveonbass]

Dave would you summarize what you believe got you "on track" again?


I have had real good results with Zeos B-Balance and Pohls Xtra Special. I get very blue tips with those. I do not use the zeolites, but like some of their additives.

I have no idea. Sadly...I was told to try so many things...and i tried most of them...but frankly I couldn't tell you. Getting the specific gravity down...that seemed to help. Lowering my dosage of calcium and alk seemed to finally help (lowered quickly through wc's).

Interestingly...when the lights were too bright I raised them and stopped the bleaching. But them once things started browing I ended up lowering the light to lower than their starting positions...so now they are about 7" off the water. I stopped "over dosing" food and just give a little now and then...thanks goes to frank for the papone'. Also lower mag seemed to be another good change.

The worst time for me was when I turned off the bio pellets...I lost most of the frags frank gave me when I did that. So that was a bad idea for my tank. That change was noticeable within 24 hours...so on the second day as things were clearly dying...I turned it back on.

All that...and water changes...nothing any more fancy than that. So I didn't ever have to go and order a ton of other additives from online or from a non-lfs.

But I'm still working on getting blue colors to come back. My superman monti was blue when I got it and ita getting paler...and my rainbow monti is brown/purple instead if blue. Though the polyps on both are nice and colored.

 

[daveonbass]

Are your MP10s at 100%? Theres been times when I thought I had more than enough flow, yet when I increased it things looked alot better, color and pe. I would turn em up and see.

I could have put this in the last post but I wanted to mention it separatly. I had two mp10s in the tank...but I ended up taking one out. I put it in my anemone tank. Interestingly the tank in question started having much better PE and for the first time in years my Red Planet has come back to life. The ONE MP10 that I do have is on 100% lagoon mode (orange light?). But it seems that I had too much flow in the tank cause the one seems to be doing better than when I had two. So who knows...maybe I have a bizzaro reef. Where the light works backwards and i need less flow and less feeding...

All I know is that the tank looks good again. So now I wanna see some growth.

 

[honkit]

I only have API test kits and we all know how unreliable those are, but they have always read zero since the tank was set up. I want a Hannah tester. I just did a water change and sucked up all the excess cyano so it'll take time to see if its growing back...but so far the tank is staying very clean.

Could you explain what your second statement means? Are you saying I need more or less phosphate?

What I meant is that you can infer the phosphate levels in your tank by observing how fast cyano or algae is growing. For instance, if there is a film of algae growing on your tank walls even with daily cleaning, it's an indication that PO4 levels are higher than they should be. Blues, purples and yellows are the first colours to fade or turn brown when PO4 levels are elevated.

Hence, corrective measures will need to be taken e.g. run GFO in a reactor and/or dose bacteria and accompanying food. I personally use Prodibio to control my tank phosphate levels and it has done wonders in doing just that.

 

[daveonbass]

What I meant is that you can infer the phosphate levels in your tank by observing how fast cyano or algae is growing. For instance, if there is a film of algae growing on your tank walls even with daily cleaning, it's an indication that PO4 levels are higher than they should be. Blues, purples and yellows are the first colours to fade or turn brown when PO4 levels are elevated.

Hence, corrective measures will need to be taken e.g. run GFO in a reactor and/or dose bacteria and accompanying food. I personally use Prodibio to control my tank phosphate levels and it has done wonders in doing just that.

Thanks...that's the kind of info I wanted to hear. So if the blue is not vibrant than i probably have elevated po4...

It's lame though because my po4 is so LOW that my bio pellets are not working to remove no3 fast enough.

Like i said...new growth on the rainbow monti is a beautiful blue...but it doesn't last long. When i bought it it was blue all over with polyps that faded from yellow in the center to Orange then to red on the new growth. The blue is dingy brown/purple and the yellow polyps are not very vibrant and seem more Orange. So maybe if I can lower po4 (i need a Hannah) I may get those colors to POP again.


Thanks again.

 

[honkit]

Thanks...that's the kind of info I wanted to hear. So if the blue is not vibrant than i probably have elevated po4...

It's lame though because my po4 is so LOW that my bio pellets are not working to remove no3 fast enough.

Like i said...new growth on the rainbow monti is a beautiful blue...but it doesn't last long. When i bought it it was blue all over with polyps that faded from yellow in the center to Orange then to red on the new growth. The blue is dingy brown/purple and the yellow polyps are not very vibrant and seem more Orange. So maybe if I can lower po4 (i need a Hannah) I may get those colors to POP again.


Thanks again.

You are welcome.

Keeping phosphates as low as possible and maintaining water clarity with a good protein skimmer and activated carbon will certainly provide you the flexibility to keep blue SPS corals almost anywhere in your tank provided a minimum amount of lighting and water flow is present.

For instance, I kept a royal blue millepora frag since Dec 2011 which was brownish when first obtained and it's light blue today.

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[franklypre]

That milli still looks light to me but I run more nutrients than most. I like the crayola blue. I think you just need to keep heading in the direction you are going. PLEASE don't do anything other than what is currently working, give it atleast a few weeks. You need nutrients to get color like mine, lower nutirents will make for pastel/bleached coral. This thread needs some new pics BTW.

 

[daveonbass]

Everytime I up the nutrients the corals either bleach or brown. Now that I've gone easy on the nutrients the whole tank looks better. So I'm not going to drink the koolaide just yet.

 

[honkit]

That milli still looks light to me but I run more nutrients than most. I like the crayola blue. I think you just need to keep heading in the direction you are going. PLEASE don't do anything other than what is currently working, give it atleast a few weeks. You need nutrients to get color like mine, lower nutirents will make for pastel/bleached coral. This thread needs some new pics BTW.

You are being prescriptive without considering individual tank conditions and parameters.

 

[honkit]

Everytime I up the nutrients the corals either bleach or brown. Now that I've gone easy on the nutrients the whole tank looks better. So I'm not going to drink the koolaide just yet.

That's great to know. Keep us updated with your nutrient control initiatives and pics too.

 

[franklypre]

Drink the koolaid. Need some pics, and are you still gonna bring some coral over? How do the chalice look?

 

[daveonbass]

Yeah on only off on the wekend so maybe tomorrow. (sat)

The chalice is doing ok. My blood red likes more light but your watermelon must be a very low light coral...it only looks better when I have it completely shaded. Any direct light and it bleaches.

 

[franklypre]

My watermelon takes alot of light in my tank but never had it under t5s. I think I have found that I like my LEDs more and more so long as there is a halide to go with them. I'll see ya soon bud.

 

[daveonbass]

Hmmm, I'm kinda depressed. I just did a 20g water change on a 60g tank. (the tank in question on this thread). The no3 was 15ppm (about) before the WC. After the WC the no3 is at least 20ppm.

The corals look better, and the tank in general looks better, also I checked old pics and I can see the new growth on many corals that had seemed to stop growing. But its annoying that the no3 has gone UP...

Any ideas? Should I just do more WC's?

 

[franklypre]

Did you test the RO? I did some reading and it seems like the only thing I can figure is to test the RO and test the WC water. How is the coral responding? My tank looks great along with the RP, now if I can get rid of this algae. Found a fish stick my daughter tried to feed Memo in the 40 and am kinda curious if that was the issue, guessing it was in there for quite a while tucked in behind the overflow. Gotta love kids.

 

[daveonbass]

That's funny.

RODI is clean. I will have to test the salt later. The purple monti is bright blue under my lights...its looking good so far.

 

[franklypre]

I was, and still am ****ed. Not as much at her for doing it but myself for not seeing it. As many blue lights as you got everything should have a nice blue shimmer to it, LOL. Glad to hear it's doing well.