"pastel" colors vs. deep dark coloring

[jpierson77]

I agree that I should have done the ro/di a while ago, however the water around here is very clean. But it will arrive to day and the tank will begin getting it as top off tonight, and the first water change with it this weekend.

I would still like to hear some thoughts on salinity. My water reads 1.24 on my deep six.

 

[Aqua Keepers]

I bet your rocks are loaded with phosphate from useing tap.

Nothing to say about your salinity besides get a refracto.

 

[rigleautomotive]

hydrometers are .003 off at a minium imo and it can be up or down from actual value.i agree with pito the phosphates will hang around in sand and rock and eventually be used when required by nusiance algae.my advice is get a TDS meter,they are cheap,test tap and rodi.rodi should be less than 2 tds and good working system has 0 tds.

 

[Aqua Keepers]

Am I wrong in saying that the average phosphate test kit does'nt read as low as we need them? "I think" that by the time these kits pick up phosphate you're already in trouble.

 

[JB NY]

Getting into the discussion a little late.

IME and from observing many, many tanks. I've always broken it down to two things.

Light and nutrients.

High light, normal level of nutrients. Dark coloration.

High light, very low nutrients more towards the pastel colors.

Really I think that it comes down to that. If you remember back years ago when many people still had to have 400 Watt MH to get any real color out of their corals. Almost all their colors where that deep dark coloration some people strive for. Mostly this was from not as efficient skimmers and water movement equipment that we have now.

In the past, whenever I used to get corals from another tank that were very deep and rich I used to start them in the lowest light levels of my tank or else they would bleach. Most times the coral came from a tank with 400 watt MH and was near the middle or top. It would still bleach in my tank. And when I gave my corals to people they would, most times, darken up in their tanks.

I still think the easiest and best test for organics in your tank is just to pay attention to how long you can go in between cleaning the glass. You should easily be able to go 5-7 days in a low nutrient tank. BB or DSB.

 

[stony_corals]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9122586#post9122586 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pito
Am I wrong in saying that the average phosphate test kit does'nt read as low as we need them? "I think" that by the time these kits pick up phosphate you're already in trouble.

True, true. .2 ppm of PO4 is HIGH, yet unless you go with a deltec, or hanna, other test kits will make it seem like you're at 0PPM since that seem to be their low end. I've not used Hanna, but periodically use the deltec/merck and before 0PPM, the next lowest reading is .024, or nearly 10x lower than the others.

 

[rigleautomotive]

i think weather the nutrients are in solution and able to be detected are also other variations of why test kits read zero but there is still enough to create algae bloom or color variations in coral

 

[stony_corals]

That's also part of the problem, PO4 test kits do not include organic PO4s, only inorganic.

 

[rigleautomotive]

bingo

 

[Vanquish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9122638#post9122638 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JB NY
Getting into the discussion a little late.

IME and from observing many, many tanks. I've always broken it down to two things.

Light and nutrients.

High light, normal level of nutrients. Dark coloration.

High light, very low nutrients more towards the pastel colors.

Really I think that it comes down to that. If you remember back years ago when many people still had to have 400 Watt MH to get any real color out of their corals. Almost all their colors where that deep dark coloration some people strive for. Mostly this was from not as efficient skimmers and water movement equipment that we have now.

In the past, whenever I used to get corals from another tank that were very deep and rich I used to start them in the lowest light levels of my tank or else they would bleach. Most times the coral came from a tank with 400 watt MH and was near the middle or top. It would still bleach in my tank. And when I gave my corals to people they would, most times, darken up in their tanks.

I still think the easiest and best test for organics in your tank is just to pay attention to how long you can go in between cleaning the glass. You should easily be able to go 5-7 days in a low nutrient tank. BB or DSB.

I get a daily patch or two of light algae growth on my glass everyday, it doesn't cover the entire glass but maybe about 10-15%, would you consider that high in nutrients?

Just wanna get an opinion here... I feed about 3-5 small pinches of pellets and 4 cubes of mysis shrimps daily to my fish...

 

[rigleautomotive]

other things can cause that in my opinion like sunlight temp,ect so that alone is not a good indicator

 

[MiddletonMark]

But without the nutrients for it, algae cannot grow.

If he's getting algae, it's got nutrient. How much, I'll defer to Joe.

 

[kirstenk]

Vanquish, you have a lovely tank. Whatever you are doing, keep it up.

 

[JB NY]

You can have a lovely tank with nutrients, in most cases you need a certain amount for everything to grow and do well.

But it depends on where the algae is forming. I find that in patches of the glass that are getting hit hard with really strong flow, algae tends to grow there first.

But in general, If you start seeing algae growing on the glass within a day or two, I would consider that your nutrients are a little higher than they should be. Normally the glass develops patches where you notice it first and then over a day or two you start to notice it on the rest of the glass.

 

[antonsemrad]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9125132#post9125132 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stony_corals
That's also part of the problem, PO4 test kits do not include organic PO4s, only inorganic.

Do organic p04's inhibit growth? Before they break down into inorganic that is.

 

[stony_corals]

Why wouldn't they? They are phosphates none the less.

 

[zuzecawi]

Wow, what a load of info. Thank you all for clearing up my miconceptions about phyto and sps, now you've got me wondering if the gorgonians are truly eating it as well, or if it's just benefiting my rotifer cultures!!! Either way, I don't believe I'll stop culturing it, as I said before, I'm not sure what works, but I'm real sure that what I'm doing now works great!!!
So much to learn, and it always amazes me how salt water hobbyists are so proactive about educating themselves. It is truly a step above what's expected of the usual pet owner. I'm out of town right now and this discussion is leaping ahead, so I'll try to read more carefully through all the thread when I get back home. Cheers and keep rolling the info in!

 

[faddn1]

So what are the name brands of amino acids you people are using. Ive seen the zeo amino acids, anybody here use them?

 

[250G]

Exactly my thoughts!

The algae on the glass correlation is interesting. I get the spotting in high flow areas after 24 hours or so, and the rest of the glass gets a light film after 48 hours at thich time I clean it (I am kind of weird about my starphire glass though). I have those pastels colours we are speaking of, then again I only have 7 fish in a 275 (just added a black tang though - yeah).

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9122638#post9122638 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JB NY
IME and from observing many, many tanks. I've always broken it down to two things.

Light and nutrients.

High light, normal level of nutrients. Dark coloration.

High light, very low nutrients more towards the pastel colors.

 

[Aqua Keepers]

You can use any of the ammino's that are designed for our tanks. Kent, prodibio come to mind but there are others. Just stay away from the stuff for humans untill further studies are done. People are looking into the exact amminos that the corals consume, but until we know, it's safest to go with the reef made product.