Paramecium
One man wolf pack
I am looking for some ideas and or advice on how to get better color out of my sps.
Parameters.
Salinity 1.024
PH 8.1 day - 7.9 night
Alk 9
Cal 420
Mag- 1320
Trate, trite and amm always 0.
Tank is a 70 gallon display with sump and frag tank about 120 gallons total volume.
I know the common culprit is lighting. I have 2x250w Phoenix with 4 t5s on the main display and another 250w 14k over the 10" deep frag tank. Bulbs are about 6 months old so I'm all but ruling out lack of light. The lights are about 10" off the water and the sps are in the upper half of a 24" deep tank.
The other thing I seem to read about is nutrients. As I said I have never had any measurable trite, trate or amm and I have no algae issues. I run a fuge and don't get much growth out of my Chaeto either.
I have 6 fish, 4 in the main and two in the frag tank, all fairly small so a light bioload. a pair of percs, a blue spot jaw, mystery wrasse, starry blenny and yellow coris wrasse. I feed the fish every other day with rods fish only blend along with some new life spectrum pellets.
I also run Carbon and phosban in a pair of 2 little fishies reactors in series. I also run a calcium reactor and chiller so temp and cal/alk swings are not an issue.
I few months agoI started dosing rotifeast and oysterfeast which seemed to stimulate coral growth but did not help with coloration.
About 2 weeks ago I started dosing Amino Acids 3 times a week and it seems that I may be getting some blues and purples back but very slowly if at all. Some greens and reds have never been an issue, my red planet has looked great for months. My green Milli however looks tan. My ORA tricolor Nana however has just barely visible purple tips and tan polyps and body. My Pearlberry also has a brown body with light blue tips.
So my question is with a light bioload and good lighting what would be causing the problem? I have not used a Hanna meter yet but I am assuming that phosphates would cause algae blooms and I would have good growth on my Chaeto, the lack of both makes me think the opposite, that i have low nutrients. The lack of Nitrates also supports this. Can a lack of nutrients cause a lack of color. I did a water change today and have decided to stop running the Phosban and carbon for a week or so to see if that helps, that I may be stripping too much out of the water. I also don't get very dark skimmate and my skimmer performs well, it just seems there isn't anything to skim.
Parameters.
Salinity 1.024
PH 8.1 day - 7.9 night
Alk 9
Cal 420
Mag- 1320
Trate, trite and amm always 0.
Tank is a 70 gallon display with sump and frag tank about 120 gallons total volume.
I know the common culprit is lighting. I have 2x250w Phoenix with 4 t5s on the main display and another 250w 14k over the 10" deep frag tank. Bulbs are about 6 months old so I'm all but ruling out lack of light. The lights are about 10" off the water and the sps are in the upper half of a 24" deep tank.
The other thing I seem to read about is nutrients. As I said I have never had any measurable trite, trate or amm and I have no algae issues. I run a fuge and don't get much growth out of my Chaeto either.
I have 6 fish, 4 in the main and two in the frag tank, all fairly small so a light bioload. a pair of percs, a blue spot jaw, mystery wrasse, starry blenny and yellow coris wrasse. I feed the fish every other day with rods fish only blend along with some new life spectrum pellets.
I also run Carbon and phosban in a pair of 2 little fishies reactors in series. I also run a calcium reactor and chiller so temp and cal/alk swings are not an issue.
I few months agoI started dosing rotifeast and oysterfeast which seemed to stimulate coral growth but did not help with coloration.
About 2 weeks ago I started dosing Amino Acids 3 times a week and it seems that I may be getting some blues and purples back but very slowly if at all. Some greens and reds have never been an issue, my red planet has looked great for months. My green Milli however looks tan. My ORA tricolor Nana however has just barely visible purple tips and tan polyps and body. My Pearlberry also has a brown body with light blue tips.
So my question is with a light bioload and good lighting what would be causing the problem? I have not used a Hanna meter yet but I am assuming that phosphates would cause algae blooms and I would have good growth on my Chaeto, the lack of both makes me think the opposite, that i have low nutrients. The lack of Nitrates also supports this. Can a lack of nutrients cause a lack of color. I did a water change today and have decided to stop running the Phosban and carbon for a week or so to see if that helps, that I may be stripping too much out of the water. I also don't get very dark skimmate and my skimmer performs well, it just seems there isn't anything to skim.
