SPS faded colors

[trueblackpercula]

I'm exhibiting the same problem and more feeding seems to mean much more phosphates than nitrates. Colors in my sps were good when I had a good balance, but I believe my tank is and has always been nitrate limited. I have been dosing with zeovit coral vitalizer and pohls extra with no changes in color. My next step is sodium nitrate to hopefully help with color and growth. HTH-

Sodium nitrate ?

What will that do? Please tell us more about this.
Thanks

 

[trueblackpercula]

I have a few pieces that are a bit faded in colors and others are perfect.
Here are my parameters before anything else
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Calcium-460 Red sea reef foundation pro
Alkalinity- 9
Magnesium-1400
Phosphate- 0 via hanna
SG. 1.026

I've read too much light could cause them to fade.. but its been a month shouldn't they have acclimated now ? So I thought maybe too little nutrients so I increased my feedings and another perfect coral faded so, I think too much nutrients is the culprit. Any other suggestions or advice ?

I just want to say I have been going through this for a while. It wasn't until I adjusted my radion G1 with TIR lens down to 85% did I start seeing results. LEDs are very powerful and had me fooled for a while.

 

[MHG]

How do you get the nitrates up?

What steps did you take to get them up higher? More food in general, or coral specific food?

Well installing an auto feeder was the best part. It gave me the best control. But watch your phosphates...I use hi capacity GFO and I have zero phosphates. I feed about 6 times a day.... But I am gonna get more fish so I can cut back a bit....

 

[MHG]

I'm exhibiting the same problem and more feeding seems to mean much more phosphates than nitrates. Colors in my sps were good when I had a good balance, but I believe my tank is and has always been nitrate limited. I have been dosing with zeovit coral vitalizer and pohls extra with no changes in color. My next step is sodium nitrate to hopefully help with color and growth. HTH-

It took 7 months for my colors to come back.... Now when I put a frag in I get no more color loss...most of the time....

Watch the use of XTRA and cv.... Overdosing is a sure fire way to get Dino....XTRA is great when dosed properly...


Brightwell now sells a nitrate product but there is only one place on line to get it. I would just have the LFS special order it for you...But I think the answer is not to start dumping stuff in the tank. Frequent light feeding with a good pellet and general reef food like rods, along with regular water changes will bring your color back... But it takes months to repair what damage is done in two weeks...

 

[kenith]

Sodium nitrate ?

What will that do? Please tell us more about this.
Thanks

The idea is to add a nitrate source for nitrate limited tanks. I run a bare bottom tank with some live rock in the sump. There is zero detritus build up and I often test detectable po4 (I use hc gfo), but zero nitrates.

It took 7 months for my colors to come back.... Now when I put a frag in I get no more color loss...most of the time....

Watch the use of XTRA and cv.... Overdosing is a sure fire way to get Dino....XTRA is great when dosed properly...


Brightwell now sells a nitrate product but there is only one place on line to get it. I would just have the LFS special order it for you...But I think the answer is not to start dumping stuff in the tank. Frequent light feeding with a good pellet and general reef food like rods, along with regular water changes will bring your color back... But it takes months to repair what damage is done in two weeks...

Some history on my tank, I broke down my mixed reef tank and kept only my large colonies of sps and qt'd them due to aefw. During the qt process of dipping, the sps colored up nicely despite the dips and cheap t5's. Since the move back to the display, they have continually lost their deep coloration, especially a purple acro and garf bansai . The only thing I can attribute this lightening of color, is the lack of fish while in qt, but I did add a continual source of nutrients via Pohls extra and corals vitalizer which I presume adds nitrates as the final break down. The only difference now is the addition of fish and increased po4, though I do not have any browning issues.

 

[animalkingdom]

Lower leds all colors and implement a nutrition program for your corals. Heavy import and export. As nutrient levels increase so will the color and growth and this point slowly increase your Leds. I settled on 100% Blue and 50% white/multi color and found this to be most astatically pleasing for my tastes and the corals look great.

Here is my 320 with 12 120 fixtures over it:

your tank looks very thinned out in that photo compared to your tank thread. where did all the coral go...or is it an old photo