SPS Corals Missing Color
- Thread starter dtum
- Start date
dtum
New member
Routine form your build thread.
Looks like you have a lot going on dosing wise and I am not familiar with the products. Are you running Activated Carbon? If so in a reactor or passive? The Carbon dosing may be starving your tank and the look kind of hungry. Keep in mind that the light may be more intense vs your old lights and the corals may be metabolizing much faster where they might come up empty handed nutritionally. Judging on your pictures from May you appear to be getting growth.
You are at 60% light wise which doesn't say much. I would look to maximize the blue channel and minimize the whites to 10-20% from a light standpoint but I think your main problem is coral nutrition.
Edit: One other thing which makes life easier on corals metabolizing is a PH at say 8.3. You are running low alk because of the carbon dosing I get it but you might have better success and maintaining an higher PH at say ALK 8.3 which would effectively bring your ORP down to 400-350.
Yes, I am running ROX activated carbon, roughly 100ml in a sock bag, passive.
Interestingly enough, I was running close to 100% on the lights in May, but so many people were saying to dial down that I've finally succumbed. My growth is really great and has always been.
I've recently lowered the white spectrum somewhat (about 3 weeks ago) but did not notice much of a change yet.
The only reason I'm running low alk is because I was mimicking the natural sea water and also the European school, thinking that it would bring out the best colors, but so far that was not the case. What does carbon dosing have to do with low alk? Thanks!
dtum
New member
Cool, I think I can do that
That prodibio dosing is too effective, I think. I'm also worried that increased feeding will primarily increase my phosphates.
dtum
New member
I really appreciate your kind words and suggestions, will definitely try to follow that regimen. I will also lower down my prodibio carbon dosing in half.
dtum
New member
Thanks, I will try pretty much that.
trueblackpercula
New member
Rotifers? Can you PM with some details don't want to take Away from the Op thread.
tdb320reef
Active member
Bingo - Id take the carbon out and watch your colors return. I run carbon passive a day a week. This a new process. I belive it starved out my corals along with the BP's and caused my tank crash. I think it removes important trace elements that in an ULNS is a huge problem for SPS. I have actually taken my carbon offline for about a month now and the tank looks much better IMO.
When you are running an ULNS it is a best practice to emulate natural sea water averages. It has been reported that alk higher than 9 is a big problem for ULNS. I am not sure scientifically why but I know corals grow faster at alk 9 and above so the assumption is that there is not enough nutrients to meet the growth demand.
dtum
New member
Yikes! Now what about the yellowing of the water? Also, isn't carbon use widespread (everyone is using it). I'm using just a tiny bit and it is passive.
I will listen to your advice and will take it out, but can you elaborate on this, plus what's the rationale for using it once a week, also what do you do with it afterwards?
Ptyochromis
New member
If you are running a protein skimmer, tannins(yellowing) shouldn't be an issue.
Edit: I never run carbon and have only recently started skimming. Never had a water clarity issue.
tdb320reef
Active member
I am of the impress that Rox can be too aggressive on a system removing vital elements that the corals need to maintain its zoox. I think this is much more significant in an ULNS. Yes it does remove yellow phenol, metals, and other chemicals but honestly may do more damage than good. I am saying just pull it for a week or two and see if thing improve.
When I added it passive on my frag tub many of my corals palled and I had a few STN events on my frags from the base up. This was not happening before the addition. Furthermore I started using Rox .08 May 1st and my tank starting crashing at the end of the month.
AcroporAddict
There is no substitute.
I would look at your lighting. Radions just don't cut it over SPS, IME. I had the same issues in my 465 gallon SPS tank, went back to Radium metal halides, and got my colors back.
I have two Radion Pros over a 100 gallon mixed LPS/Softy reef and they are fantastic. Not so much for SPS, however.
I have two Radion Pros over a 100 gallon mixed LPS/Softy reef and they are fantastic. Not so much for SPS, however.
dtum
New member
I've done my research on this before getting them and I've seen quite a few breathtaking SPS tanks running Radions, especially the Pros. I doubt it is the lights capabilities.
AcroporAddict
There is no substitute.
Whatever you say. I had eight Radions over my tank and my colors were lacking. Not terrible, but not as good as they could be. Colors bounced back after I went to Radium Halides. I'm not the only one that has experienced this.
Multiple threads here on Reef Central stating the same exact thing, not necessarily just about Radions, but about commercially built LEDs in general.
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trueblackpercula
New member
not to debate but i have a radion G1 and it is working to perfection and all i have is SPS over a 120 cube. Maybe you just didnt have to correct GRaph or maybe not enough of them as your tank is humungous
AcroporAddict
There is no substitute.
Most of the time those that are perfectly happy with LEDs over SPS have not used Halides over SPS. Not sure if you or the OP fall into this category. Here's a 40 page thread discussing it as well.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2203067
Either way, the lights you or OP chooses is your choice, but lack of color could be your llighting as much as anything else already mentioned in this thread.
Any research on Reef Central about LEDs or Radions specifically would have brought up thread after thread about color loss after placing LEDs over an SPS tank.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2203067
Either way, the lights you or OP chooses is your choice, but lack of color could be your llighting as much as anything else already mentioned in this thread.
Any research on Reef Central about LEDs or Radions specifically would have brought up thread after thread about color loss after placing LEDs over an SPS tank.
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trueblackpercula
New member
I used halides on my tank a 400watt radium and 150 watts of actinic. Yes they work well but the heat and the electric bill was out of control. I am getting better growth and more flexibility from LEDs and programming then with MH and actinics.
Doubt I will every go back to old school lighting.
AcroporAddict
There is no substitute.
Are your SPS colors as intense as they were under halides? That is what I was commenting on. There are advantages/disadvantages/tradeoffs to both types of lighting. If the electricity/programming advantages of LEDs were as or more important than color to me, I would have stuck with the Radions. But I am willing to pay for the extra electricity and any heat issues for the color intensity that a Radium 400 watt Halide gives SPS. My 465 is in my basement, and a fan blowing over my sump keeps the temp at 80 or less all the time, even with 4x 400 watt Radiums over the tank. Haven't needed a chiller all summer, and I live in Atlanta, pretty warm place.
trueblackpercula
New member
To be very honest with you I have a fish room and I still was battling heat and the electricity bill. But if I was able to get over the heat maybe I would have kept them. But the electricity bill here in New York is 29 cents a Kilowatt.
As for color I think and I will say think the LEDs are giving me great color. I did get great colors from MH as well but that was only when I was running an aquaconnect bulb that you just can't find.
But you and I know there is so much more to color then just lighting.
dtum
New member
Something tells me that this thread has taken a slight detour. While there can definitely be a discussion on which one is better, in my case I have a feeling that there's quite a few steps I may still take to try and fix the issue.
Just did a water change and can say that my greens are simply phenomenal.
This is my plan for the next month:
1. Stop dosing ProdiBio for now (I could always half the amount later as well)
2. Remove ROX carbon
3. Be more generous with feeding (on average I dose 4 times a day with some pellets and then a cube or 2 of frozen food, pre-soaked to remove extra nutrients).
4. Perform regular water testing to sense any trends and act accordingly.
From what I've read online so far, I should be able to see some changes even as early as 2 weeks from today.
I will make sure to keep you posted of the progress, I hope others will benefit from this.
So far I think that the real culprit is the absence of nitrates.
One other thing I wanted to add is that I have a fair bit of macro algae in my tank as well as some pulsing xenia. Both have been growing like crazy the past few months. But my glass needs to be cleaned once every 5-6 days.
Just did a water change and can say that my greens are simply phenomenal.
This is my plan for the next month:
1. Stop dosing ProdiBio for now (I could always half the amount later as well)
2. Remove ROX carbon
3. Be more generous with feeding (on average I dose 4 times a day with some pellets and then a cube or 2 of frozen food, pre-soaked to remove extra nutrients).
4. Perform regular water testing to sense any trends and act accordingly.
From what I've read online so far, I should be able to see some changes even as early as 2 weeks from today.
I will make sure to keep you posted of the progress, I hope others will benefit from this.
So far I think that the real culprit is the absence of nitrates.
One other thing I wanted to add is that I have a fair bit of macro algae in my tank as well as some pulsing xenia. Both have been growing like crazy the past few months. But my glass needs to be cleaned once every 5-6 days.
