Relationship between nutrients, lighting, and colorful SPS?

[greengeco82]

It appears there is a relationship between light and nutrients. I seem to notice the general advice for coloring up your sps, is to reduce your lighting and/or increase your nutrients (if your no3 and po4 are low). In other words, intense lighting requires traceable amounts of nutrients. Can any of the "Big Dogs" confirm?

 

[bif24701]

I can confirm that increasing intensity and low nutrients will bless out your corals, lol. I now shot for a middle ground, once nutrients build up a little in my tank I will again increase the intensity for accelerated growth.


Aaron

 

[Piper27]

In my experience it's more about the amount of nutrients going in and going out. Not really what your nutrients are testing at. A very well fed tank with not much measurable nitrate or phosphate can run a lot of intense light. So a tank with no measurable nutrients and not much food going in will have a limit to how much light it gets. To much light in a tank like this will cause problems. Also some acropora are much more capable of being acclimated to intense light and some are not as able. In each tank there is definatly a balance that needs to be found between nutrients and how you light your tank. Finding the balance is needed to get your acros colored correctly, or colored up.

 

[greengeco82]

Im trying to find that balance. I've cut my lighting from 8 hours to 5.5 on my twin 250w halides about 2 months ago. I noticed slight color improvement. I then quadrupled my feeding on the auto feeder for the last month. I've also shut off my skimmer for the last 5 days. Phosphates still are 0. I have no tests for NO3. SPS colors went from bleached and light brown to dark brown with colored tips. I am considering an increase on light hours again since I've been feeding so much.

 

[reefmutt]

I'd get me a nitrate test kit, if I were you..
It'll certainly help you make the decision to increase lighting..
At 0 p, your n could be anywhere from 0 to 25..

 

[Piper27]

For what it's worth, cutting photoperiod time back isn't as effective as raising your lights if your corals are suffering from too much light. The intensity is what causes corals problems when nutrients are low enough. The durstion plays a role too but isn't as important. I can cut my lights back from 8 or 9 hour photoperiod to 5.5 and not see much difference in anything. I am pretty sure corals get most of what they need in 6 hours of daylight. I forget where I read it....
I would find good test kits for everything before you make any big changes, what test kits do you have and what brand? The nitrates are a very important test kit especially concerning this topic. If you need help I am sure people will chip in but you will have to post a lot of info about your tank.

 

[greengeco82]

So, I plugged my skimmer back in SRO3000, and bought a nitrate test kit and tested my phosphates. Figured that I would take advise first and test my parameters before any drastic changes. My feeding has been increased for the last 2 months. I use 1mm sinking pellets on an ehiem auto feeder 4 times a day. I'm considering doubling my feeding, to try and get my nitrates up, but first the skimmer.

Nitrate- 0 red sea nitrate pro
Phosphate- 0 hanna checker
Salinity 1.026
Ca 400
Alk 8

Seems I did get some good color changes while having my skimmer unplugged for a week, so I'll try unplugging again for a week and re-testing. I'll post an update.