SPS coloration question

[DrBDC]

You are adding lime, which gives ca AND alk in a balanced amount, and then adding additional calcium. What are you doing for the alk to match that additional calcium. Your calcium will either drift too high or the alk will drop too low when adding unbalanced additives.

What are your ca/alk/magnesium levels at?

 

[reef_dude76]

I add more lime than I do calcium alone. I am doing limewater topoffs daily to every other day depending on evaporation. The other calcium is added as part of a two part ionic mixture called C-Balance.

As for the the other levels, I have no idea what my magnesium level is, I wasn't aware that was a crutial trace element to test for. The calcium level was 470 when I checked day before yesterday.

 

[reef_dude76]

Just realized I didn't include my alk measurement. At last check it was 12.

 

[synlapse]

I'd blame lighting. I had 2 Coralife 175W SE pendants. They just didn't cut it on my 55. I moved to a 40 gallon with 2 250W SE bulbs mounted horizontally. Much better! Better PE, better growth, etc, etc. I'm NOT saying "move to a smaller tank." I'm saying check your lighting.

 

[marine_freak]

250 minimum 400 watt preferred for any acro, just my opinion ..... I suppose you could get away with 175's if the corals were close to the water surface and halides low to water but growth still may be nominal and coloration will be moderate at best.

 

[alazo1]

Maybe I missed it but will you be getting the lights for your 180 soon?. You can just sub one 250 for a 175. In the meantime it just seems like it needs a little more time. I probably would'nt do much for now. Also you may be going through another small breakin period with your new rock.

Albert

 

[Mariner]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7039117#post7039117 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reef_dude76
Ok, I will get somemore rock and set the acros up higher in the tank. Given ideal water conditions, how long does it normally take for acros to "color up". And yes I now you can't give an exact time, but can someone give me a ballpark estimate from their past experience?

My experience has been that an SPS will change color in response to higher/lower light within a month -- your mileage may vary.

As for the the other levels, I have no idea what my magnesium level is, I wasn't aware that was a crutial trace element to test for. The calcium level was 470 when I checked day before yesterday.

If your calcium is 470, chances are your magnesium is pretty good too. Low mag allows for calcium and alkalinity to precipitate/deplete much quicker. It (mag) often is a key factor when people are having trouble keeping calcium and alk levels high enough. It's worth testing occasionally.
HTH,
Mariner

 

[reef_dude76]

The lights for my 180 are sitting in my garage at the moment. I purchased a retrofit from Hamilton Tech. The 58 I have now is a hold over from my first "serious" attempt at reefkeeping 8 years ago. In a nutshell, the design pretty much blew. I really had no idea what I was doing, despite doing alot of reading and research before buying the equipment when I set it up. Looking back I don't think any amount of reading then has been as valauble as actually setting it up and probelm solving for specific questions that came up, like "why can't I keep sps alive for any length of time.

This last iteration of my 58 has really been more experiment than anything else. I have been planning and researching my 180 for over a year now. From the lighting setup and requirements of sps and clams to plumbing design and circulation. The 58 is serving as a guinea pig for plumbing and lighting design setup as well as perameter monitoring and overall equipment function.

The first time I set this tank up, I couldn't get my nitrates to zero to save my life, and forget about phopahate readings less than one. The refugium never worked for "nutrient export" like everyone kept telling me it was supposed to do, I I could never get this crappy skimmer I have to tune at all.

At the moment, the fact these acros are living at all, to say nothing about actually growing given my past history with sps, is a sucess worthy of a parade as far as I am concerned. But now that I have decided to seriously dive into keeping sps, I want to make sure that I have the best system I can with this 180. The goal is an sps jewel garden that I can use to finally show my wife why this hobby becomes such an obsession.

 

[reef_dude76]

All the advice thus far has been very helpful and thank you all for it. For the time being, I'm going to let things settle back down after the addition of the new LR, which I am glad I did, the tank looks less bare. I will post some new pics in the days and weeks to come so you all can help me progress with these acros.

I mentioned my equipment list briefly for my 180 in an eairler post, any comments on the adequacy of the choices would be helpful as well.

 

[DrBDC]

I wouldn't switch mh's. If you want more par/ppfd go for the aqua2 by Iwasaki.

 

[reef_dude76]

The bulbs I have now are 14K and two 10K 250W MH from Hamilton Tech. How do these bulbs rate. I guess at the moment it is a moot point since I have them already and can't return them. But when it comes time to change them, are there MH bulbs out there that are better then what Hamilton provides?

 

[mm949]

acros color for UV protection...the higher kelvin the more color....lower k's will produce faster growth because more phyto is available but colors of corals tend to be brownish/green...higher k get blues/reds/overall better colors...many people run a variety of different k's to get the best of both worlds...your current set-up(58) does not have enough .03 intensity...feeding your acros variety of foods does help them color and PE...are u cooking your rock beacuse of algae issues...??

 

[reef_dude76]

Since sps live in nutrient starved areas of the reef, what foods do they need to be "fed" and how often?

Like I said in a previus post, I thought I was being smart when I put the lighting scheme together for this tank, but have never really liked the 55W PC's. I wish I had gone with 96W apiece or with VHO's instead. I don't think there is much I can do about the 03's now except add more.

As for "cooking" my rock, since I don't know what that means exactly, I'll have to say that no I am not doing that. I haven't had any algae issues with this tank anyway, except for needing to scrape green film algae off the sides occasionally.

 

[DrBDC]

I thought I had read you had a 175 over it that's why I recommended the Aqua2. That particular recommendation won't work until late this fall or early 07 for a 250watt.

Here's a link you can use for overall par/ppfd. It will give you general kelvin rating but just look at the pics at the beginning and you'll see there is no consistency in the color. And don't go by the pics either because that's never right. Just use the stats and then see if you can find someone local who is running them, preferably with your ballast as well to get a good judgement of color. http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

 

[reef_dude76]

Oh, I misunderstood which bulb you were referring to. I will look into the Aqua2 as a potential replacement for my current 175W. It will be due to be changed in another 6 months.

This my be an overly optamistic question at this point, but if the acros are growing, eventually they will likely run out of room in the tank. I have heard of pruning corals, can you do that with sps and if so, how do you go about doing it. Is it just like pruning a bush? You just cut the ends of the acro back until it is the size you want and then try and attach the pieces to something in an attempt to "frag" them? What exactly do you use to "prune" the coral?

 

[Mariner]

I use a pair of wire cutters on my thicker sps. Some of the thinner, less dense species like montipora you can break by hand.
You can use superglue gel to glue them into holes in small pieces of live rock rubble and soon you'll have a whole new coral colony.
HTH,
Mariner

 

[GatorReefman]

I believe those 175 watt metal halides are probably ok for some sps but other sps( especially blue and purple ) seem to require more intensity. I had a purple montipora that was basically tan/brown with little polyp extension under 175's. Once I switched to 250's, they colored up to purple and with good polyp extension.

 

[reef_dude76]

If you buy an sps of a certian color, say a purple montipora or a pink acro. And you put it under inadequate lighting, say as GatorReefman suggested, and it turns from purple or pink to brown. If you up your intensity and MH wattage, can you recover the original pink or purple color from the now brown sps? Or are you now stuck with brown?

 

[reef_dude76]

If it does "color up" will it have its original intensity?

 

[masterswimmer]

reef_dude, they will color back up, however, they not only need the intensity to regain their color, they need the same bulb temp that you originally saw them. With different bulb temps they will color up differently.

At least with the increased PAR, you'll give the sps the opportunity to regain color.