Red planet and strawberry shortcake pink

[Hockeynut120]

I have a 90 gallon about 2.5 years old and run a hybrid led t5 light fixture two AI Vegas and 4 ATI 39w blue plus and over the past month my shortcake and red planet have lost there green and have really pinked out. My Alk has been stable at 7.8 to 8 and cal is around 460 can't figure out why the pink color. Mag is 1260

 

[Guygettnby]

My red planet colonies lose most of the green color if I have them too high in my tank. When they are partly shaded or not getting as much light, all the color comes back. The more light I give them, the more growth and less green. That's just my experience with mine.

 

[Hockeynut120]

I have found the same with the green color more light less green but it also lost the deep red and have become a pastel pink color.
While other corals still have good coloration

 

[Kaman8]

My ssc is 1/3 bottom of the tank and has the bright green and dark pink color . My tank is 20" tall. Try lower it and the green will come back.

 

[sahin]

My Red Planet is the same. Though I've upped the nutrient level and it has become darker (used to be pale pink). However the green colour hasnt returned. I will try mounting a frag in the lowest light area and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Hockeynut120]

What gets me is that both have been in the same location for over a year and the red planet was deep red with a green base and now it dosent and its so incrusted that moving is not really an option

 

[sahin]

What gets me is that both have been in the same location for over a year and the red planet was deep red with a green base and now it dosent and its so incrusted that moving is not really an option

People blame too much light...but I think there is more to it... If the green pigment was showing for a long time and then disappeared, that tells me its not the light and something to do with the water - otherwise the green would would disappeared within a week or two if it was due to too much light...

How often do you feed the fishes and with what kinds of food? Did you stop dosing any additives? What brand of salt do you use? Have you reduced the amount of water changes?

 

[Hockeynut120]

No changes over the past Couple months alk is up slightly from 7.6 to 8 I agree I did not believe it to be a light issue. I feed fairly heavy 2 to 3 times a day. I have about 17 fish in my 90. My cal is 460 I already said what the alk is mag is 1280, salinity 1026, phosphate .02 I use IO salt,
the only thing I have done differently is I ran a batch of carbon in that time. I did some re scaping and kicked up some junk and used the carbon. But parameters stayed pretty stable.
Nitrate steady at 10

 

[Hockeynut120]

I change 12 gallons a week. Total volume around 120 gallons

 

[sahin]

No changes over the past Couple months alk is up slightly from 7.6 to 8 I agree I did not believe it to be a light issue. I feed fairly heavy 2 to 3 times a day. I have about 17 fish in my 90. My cal is 460 I already said what the alk is mag is 1280, salinity 1026, phosphate .02 I use IO salt,
the only thing I have done differently is I ran a batch of carbon in that time. I did some re scaping and kicked up some junk and used the carbon. But parameters stayed pretty stable.
Nitrate steady at 10

Its possible that maybe the GAC took out some trace elements?...I am just guessing here. Or the rescaping caused a surge in nutrients/organics...?
We cannot measure total phosphate in our tanks; our kits measure inorganic phosphate only, so it is quite possible there has been a surge of phosphate or other organics that we cannot measure.

Can you remove the GAC after a week, continue feeding and doing the water changes etc.

Please report back in a few weeks if the green colour returns, and possible what you did that made the colour come up. Thanks.

 

[Keng_v]

Carbon will clear up your water and help the light penetrate. I highly doubt it's the carbon.

 

[Hockeynut120]

Well I have been feeding more since my last post and took carbon offline and seems the green in the base of both corals are starting to come back. I really don't know why but maybe the extra nutrients were what they were looking for ill try to snap a picture but my pic taking skills aren't to good

 

[Oldude]

In my experience low nutrients & bright light make them pink. I have pieces of both those in my prop tank which is starving for nutrients and they are quite light red/pink but in the display they are very red.

 

[bogg]

Try adding iron in small amounts
Maybe feed more and reduce the photo period
Might want to bring the mag up around 1350

 

[sahin]

Try adding iron in small amounts

I've been wondering about adding some but havent done so because of potential algae issues. I am feeding more and may add iron if things dont improve in the next few months.

 

[Hockeynut120]

What would be the Benefit of he iron? Does it have to do with the absorption of nutrients?

 

[JammyBirch]

My red cap lost it's color for the longest time. Finally got it figured out. Got it to bounce back quickly by running the tank with detectable nitrates. I used to water change 20% every other week now I change 20% every three weeks to a month. The other big game changer was getting mag levels up from 1100 to 1350... Ya 1100...

 

[sahin]

What would be the Benefit of he iron? Does it have to do with the absorption of nutrients?

Zeovit and other guys say Iron is responsible for an improvement of the green colouration.

 

[horseplay]

Iron worked for me even though I don't use it anymore because tank is no longer iron deficient. If your macro algae is not dark green then probably the tank needs some iron. Also, more fish helps with the color of SPS tremendously.

 

[Wazzel]

Can I get a pic of the proper color of these? I picked up both local and the RP is green and the SSC is brown. I got a terra del fegueo also, that looks mis-colored. It looks like they just need to get more light, he was running his radions really low on the power (40% on a 24" deep tank)