SPS colors

[cloakerpoked]

Alright, my colors of some of my SPS just aren't coming around the way I'd like, so I figured I'd ask for some opinions from you guys. Growth is great from everything in the tank right now, and levels are all acceptable and normal from what they used to be. Some pieces have noticeably browned out, like my Aquadelight, some bird's nests, blue tip stag, and Tricolor Valida. I have a few things I'm trying to figure out what is the most likely contributor and looking for some input/guesses.

1.) Lighting. This is my first guess. I have a bulb that I bought second-hand from a guy who said it was a new Ushio. I know for a fact it is not, but is instead one that was purchased on Ebay from somebody claiming it was a Ushio. The color looks pretty close to what I'd expect from a 10-14k bulb...probably closer to 10 than 14k.

2.) Low Nutrients. I only have 4 fish in the tank, so nutrients are kinda low. The problem with this argument is that I have kept my feeding regiment the same as the 72 bowfront with the same fish, and colors have definitely worsened to some degree.

3.) New Tank, just not broken in. I've noticed with a lot of my tanks, my colors and growth don't hit their peak until the coraline has stopped spreading over whatever surfaces it will inevitably cover. Since the tank is new, and coraline has not yet spread over the tank, my thoughts are maybe the tank just needs broken in.

4.) Variance from the old tank to the new one. Just in moving the stuff from one tank to the next, it's possible that it stressed out some of the corals and has impacted some more than others.

5.) Position. In the old tank, I ran 2x250w MH lighting, but with the new tank's footprint only being 2'x2', I made the decision to go with 1x250 instead of 2. The light intensity looks good, and some SPS more toward the bottom and front of the tank is still growing well, and I'm sure a PAR meter would solve this question instantly, but since i don't have one on hand, that's not an option immediately available to me. My thought is, however, that with a 2' deep tank, that maybe some of the corals that are 16" deep are just too far down or shaded for the light to penetrate. The bulb is probably another 12" off the surface to ensure a good spread, but to also keep it reasonably close to the surface.

Flow is definitely not a problem.
Phosphates/Nitrates are definitely not a problem.

Any input, or suggestions that maybe I haven't thought of are welcome. Thanks guys.

 

[vr697getta]

i started dosing vodka to get me nitrates down and help with some hair algae. the vodka did a good job with that one other thing is it helped most of my corals with there color. vodka didn't seem to affect any of my lps but any soft corals and sps i noticed a big difference. soft corals always had color but they either got alot bigger or like me red mushrooms went from 1 that was small to it doubling in size and now i have 7 of them on that rock.

 

[raynist]

I used to use the zeovit method with very few small fish. Initially my colors improved, but eventually browned out. I listened to borneman's speech this spring and started to feed much more and added 10x my bioload with fish. Colors improved dramatically, but bstarted to get some algae....

 

[Kimberly63]

If things are browning out, try moving them up. Where are they located in the tank? Depending on how old/quality of the bulb, it may not be putting out good par. I've noticed that it takes about 3 weeks to notice a difference in color after you make changes. Any type of acro should probably be moved up to the highest points in your tank if you have weaker lighting. Monti's should be started out in the lower points of your tank and slowly moved up to middle of the tank depending on color. Different color morphs require different amounts of lighting.

Salinity issues and too high amount of lighting causes bleaching so those are clearly not the issue. Usually high nutrients/lower lighting causes browning.

I would not recommend dosing anything yet until your colors come back on their own first. I also recommend getting at least a 14k - 20k bulb. Make sure you slowly acclimate if you get a new bulb. If you plan on getting a new bulb right away, wait on moving any corals in your tank for the first month until bulb color breaks in.

In my opinion, if you're running a 250w and your coral is browning out, your bulb is probably junk or your ballast is old - even if your tank is 2' deep.

What kind of fixture are you using?

 

[cloakerpoked]

I would not recommend dosing anything yet until your colors come back on their own first. I also recommend getting at least a 14k - 20k bulb. Make sure you slowly acclimate if you get a new bulb. If you plan on getting a new bulb right away, wait on moving any corals in your tank for the first month until bulb color breaks in.

In my opinion, if you're running a 250w and your coral is browning out, your bulb is probably junk or your ballast is old - even if your tank is 2' deep.

What kind of fixture are you using?

It is a retro-fixture using a 1 month old spider reflector. It is the same ballast and system that I've been using for over 2 years in various applications. (2x250 over the 120 and 72 gallon with 2x110 actinic) only cut down to the single bulb. The ballast would support another bulb if I so desired. The point of all that is to express doubts that the ballast itself is the issue here, since it's been used before on tanks with great success. I did put a different bulb (as explained above) in the tank, and it is my first culprit that I'm thinking about. I grossly overfeed my fish in the tank, just because the LPS all chows down on the mysis too, and as I said, my feeding regimen hasn't changed, so I'm pretty sure that's not it.

Vodka scares me, and since, besides a little bit of brown algea growth on the sand, I'm not having algea issues at all, I'm not willing to start Vodka dosing. Since growth and polyp extention are good for right now, I'm probably going to go with the bulb for another 2 or 3 months and leave everything as is, but the first thing I will try is to change to a better bulb. Because I have no actinic supplimentation in this tank, I want to go with a 20k bulb, or a bluer 14k bulb. My eventual goal is to go with a radium, but I'll have to buy an HQI ballast for that, and that's an expense I just can't justify at the moment. Any recommendations of a different type of bulb to try in the meantime? (i.e. Ushio, XM, etc)

 

[Kimberly63]

Having used a couple MH fixtures myself, I know that ballasts can weaken over time. See if anyone you know can let you borrow a newer ballast for a day or so. But if you don't feel that's the case and the ballast is still good, I'd go with a Phoenix 14k 250w. The color is great and I highly recommend that bulb if you can't go with a Radium.

 

[NaClH2Opgh]

I just changed bulbs and tried some cheap generics in place of my phoenix and lets just say my green with purple rim monti is dirty green with a pale rim. I put the phoenix back in and viola' colors were back. I ordered some phoenix again. Could be the bulbs.

 

[LeviChar1]

its def the bulbs.

 

[doconnell]

Ok, I'm starting to have the same problem. I have a 75 gallon tank with two T5 HO white light totaling 108 watts and two Actinic blue light T12 totaling 80 watts. with a grand total of 188 watts. What can I do different?

I do want to say, my coral is growing wonderfully, they just are losing their bright color. I feed them three times a week with DT's premium Reef Blend, Live Marine Phytoplankton.

 

[acer]

Ok, I'm starting to have the same problem. I have a 75 gallon tank with two T5 HO white light totaling 108 watts and two Actinic blue light T12 totaling 80 watts. with a grand total of 188 watts. What can I do different?

I do want to say, my coral is growing wonderfully, they just are losing their bright color. I feed them three times a week with DT's premium Reef Blend, Live Marine Phytoplankton.

HOW old are the bulbs?

 

[doconnell]

I just replaced all of them thinking that could be the problem. the oldest is 3 weeks, newest 2 days.

 

[acer]

Obviously bulbs is not the problem then. Unless the loss of color occurred after changing them= new bulbs are much brighter and the corals are not used to them- too much change too quickly can cause problems. I assume parameters of water are good? Reasonable water changes, etc.

 

[LeviChar1]

How long did you own the corals? This is key......

Hobbiests need to realize that the color of a coral you buy in a store will NOT be the color you get in your home tank. Sometimes you notice this right away when you get it home (like a purple hornet under a phoenix mh at the store vs under a VHO only at home 50/50s).....

Other times, it takes MONTHS for corals to lose their color after adapting to the new light environment they are under in your home tank.

This is common and expected. Sometimes it feels like a bait-and-switch as LFS's use high quality lights in their coral displays (well, good LFSs do...).

The problem is lights....the light we perceive is the difference in what the coral reflects vs. absorbs....

Now, how to fix. Making it trickier is that some corals react to different corals in different ways. If you have a wide variety of corals, mix your spectrum by using both MH and vho's (actinics) to cover all spectrums.

I have seen countless examples of color changes over 6-8 months with unchanged water conditions. In general, the coral will appear to fade. Corals that have iridescence are especially effected. A green leather will loose its glow under vhos and requires a mh to maintain it.

The good news for doconnell.......if he upgrades his lights to MHs, the corals he has will regain their store-colors over time.

I suspect that cloak's problem is the same, just over more time. If you buy corals under certain bulbs, and other corals under other bulbs, and then move them all to your tank under a third set of bulbs, the corals will ADJUST....they have to. Part of this adjustment is perceived as color changes.

All your corals are still healthy, they are just adapting.

always look (VHOs vs MHs) or ask (MHs....never look at an MH while on...LOL) at your LFS, and calculate that as part of the purchase decision.

On-line Coral traders boost their coral colors using specialty MHs and dont always advertise that....sometimes the color is different than in the wild....artificially induced, if you will.

let me know if you have any more Qs.

 

[cloakerpoked]

I suspect that cloak's problem is the same, just over more time. If you buy corals under certain bulbs, and other corals under other bulbs, and then move them all to your tank under a third set of bulbs, the corals will ADJUST....they have to. Part of this adjustment is perceived as color changes.

.

In case I wasn't clear, my color loss was a very rapid browning that corresponded to my switching my corals from my 72 bowfront to my 60 cube. The bulb is almost definitely a lot of the problem...although I think it's coupled with the coral settling into its new environment as well.

 

[doconnell]

I have not purchased any of my coral from a store. they have all come from our kind members on here. I have no MHs lighting. I have now switched out to the following.

1 54watts t5 and 1 40watts t12 of Actinics blue total of 94
136 watts of daylight T5 total 136watts
Grand total 230 watts.

I'm not making anymore changes. We will see how they do with this and keep up with the feedings and maintence of the tank.

If nothing changes in a few months then I will think about getting some MHs.

Like I said, my coral is growing nicely so I'm not going to worry to much about it.

thank you for all of the tips as I greatly appreciate it.

Danette (Her/She) LOL

 

[acer]

If they are growing = they are doing well- be patient and colors will return as the coral adapts to its new environment - As LeviChar1 stated above. Danette - my corals were under VHO ( 440 watts)/T5 (108 watts) at my house and MH (250 DE) in my office -so they were used to more intense lights than in your setup. Make sure flow around the corals is good, but not blasting them , as well. Let me know if you have trouble - I will work something out for you if you loose one.

 

[cloakerpoked]

Color is the last thing that a coral will use it's energy to produce. The first being metabolic processes necessary for life, the second being growth. Growth is not a sure-fire sign you'll get brilliant colors since the coral may not have enough energy to produce the colors, it'll be just on the threshold of it. Still, the adjustment period can be very long at times, upwards of 1 year for some particular corals, so I wouldn't stress about anything just yet.