SPS not coloring up

This thread interests me. You have alot of symptoms that I have minus the high po4. I have switched my lamps to 20k's from 14. I have 0 nitrates and 0 po4. I changed my lighting to mh's 6 hrs and actinics to 10hrs. Took the gfo off line. Added 3 new fish over the last month. I actually cut down on water changes. Increase feedings. I have slowly done this over the last 2 months. I do run a ca reactor so I don't have to worry about supplementing.
Now my colors have been coming in but there missing something. With the skimmer not skimming that well makes me think there is something in the water preventing skimmate
tension to export any waste. Maybe some one can chime in for reasons why that would happen. I think the skimmer not working is a problem. How often do you have your hands in the tank? I just p/u some arm lenth gloves to keep the oils from my skin getting in the tank. I think that going slow helps alot so do t rush anything. There has been alot of good info in this thread.
 
Can someone give some more info on potassium. How to test for it? If you can keep it somewhat of a simple explenation. Do you think this is just another fad?
 
fishguy597, are you testing PO4 with a hanna meter? Also its not a skimmer problem, I have a great skimmer its just not much gunk in the tank. It DOES pull out nice dark skimmate, just not lots of it. I would say a cup every 2-3 days of dark skimmate
 
jimrawr, ya i tested with a freinds meter i think it was a martini( hopefully its gd for what he paid for it).Tested it 3 times to be sure. Ya you have a nice skimmer seems a bit oversized for your tank. it says its rated for a 150 with a heavey bioload. Sorry thought frm your other post you werent getting much.Sounds a bit different. The skimmer im running is a reef octopus wich isnt a bad skimmer.
 
fishguy597 said:
Can someone give some more info on potassium. How to test for it? If you can keep it somewhat of a simple explenation. Do you think this is just another fad?
Click to expand...

Potassium plays a role in sps colors pink and purple. The best source is Lugol's. To test potassium you need a potassium test kit. I daily dose Lugol's and it has been one of the factors in my colors. ULNS need potassium dosed because the bacteria consume potassium at a fairly fast rate.
 
PO4 for sure.

GFO does not affect colors of corals. I run GFO 24/7 ALL the time and color and growth are just great.

PO4 at 0.1 means less and brown color and dramatically reduced growth.

Keep the gfo until reaches 0.03 or less. Than, if you want to turn it off go ahead but you will have to find other method for keep PO4 low...
 
Fishguy597: Go to the andvanced topics section and post that question. The big boys hang on that forum. I have learned a lot by reading posts on that forum. Hope this helps.
:thumbsup:
 
roberto_lopes said:
PO4 for sure.

GFO does not affect colors of corals. I run GFO 24/7 ALL the time and color and growth are just great.

PO4 at 0.1 means less and brown color and dramatically reduced growth.

Keep the gfo until reaches 0.03 or less. Than, if you want to turn it off go ahead but you will have to find other method for keep PO4 low...
Click to expand...

Sorry but I have to disagree. I have seen with my own eyes, multiple times, tanks with higher than .3 PO4 that have extremely good color and growth. The GFO may not be the problem, but .1 PO4 isnt it either IMO. Again, I would be interested to know what everyone has for PO4 in their tank after they use a Hanna meter, because on my Elos kit you would think I have zero PO4 as its not readable.

Also I did run gfo constantly for around 9 months and I seem to remember the problem starting around that time. I had PO4 at 0 for a few months during that time with no increase in color.

Something else is going on here
 
I've seen a million posts like these and when the water parameters are correct, there arent wild swings in anything, and all other factors are normal, it almost always ends up being some sort of pest (ie red bugs or AEFW). My corals looked like hell for a long time before I finally discovered I had red bugs.

As much as we all dont want to see them in our own tanks...you may want to take a real good look at your corals to ensure there's nothing stressing them out.

Just sayin...
 
BTW, I think that guy is out of his mind if he thinks Radiums arent good for SPS. I have 20k's on mine and they're great. I also have 14k Pheonix's too and they look identical FWIW.
 
Ive looked a couple times for pests, I have had redbugs before in another tank so I can spot them pretty easily now after having had them. Never had AEFW, will take a close look and see if I can find something
 
Can anyone chime in as to why my macro algae may not be doing well either? I think this somehow ties into being the same problem with my corals. I have tried twice to grow chaetomorpha and both times it dwindled and died away after a couple months. I use a 6k bulbs from Home Depot floodlight style, and I tried another bulb as well. If nutrients were the problem wouldnt the chaeto be taking off?
 
There's a lot of reasons, for one, chaeto doesn't need a whole lot of light, you don't need to blast it, also make sure it's getting tumbled somehow, either by hand or by powerhead. From my personal experience with tanks, GFO tends to really stifle chaeto and render it irrelevant. If you're running GFO start SLOW. Can't stress that enough. As in if you're using BRS GFO start out at 1/4 the recommended dosage, see what it does for you, change it out in about a month and if it didn't get your P04 down to .04 or less then move up to 1/2 the recommended dosage, then 3/4 etc. And .1 P04 will definitely diminish the color of a coral, I've seen it plenty of times, especially with SPS.
 
I dont have a powerhead in the fuge it just gets the flow that goes through the sump. I may add one and see if that helps with the chaeto. Like I said before I ran GFO for around 9 months, part of that time I ran it super aggressive and had zero phosphates but my corals started to decline around that same time if I remember correctly.
 
iriejp1 said:
BTW, I think that guy is out of his mind if he thinks Radiums arent good for SPS. I have 20k's on mine and they're great. I also have 14k Pheonix's too and they look identical FWIW.
Click to expand...

i agree radiums rock , but i smell something stinky ... these bulbs arent even on the same playing field . apples to doughnuts imo brand color price ... everything is different all together , especially the look !
 
jimrawr said:
Can anyone chime in as to why my macro algae may not be doing well either? I think this somehow ties into being the same problem with my corals. I have tried twice to grow chaetomorpha and both times it dwindled and died away after a couple months. I use a 6k bulbs from Home Depot floodlight style, and I tried another bulb as well. If nutrients were the problem wouldnt the chaeto be taking off?
Click to expand...
i run a 13 watt 6500k twisty (p/c) bulb over my cheato 24/7 and it does really well . mounted in a tight focus clamp light from home depot , not too much for looks but it does it 4 my reef !
 
jimrawr said:
Yeah I am glad to hear that others also think it may be the GFO. I dont know for sure but I am hoping within a couple weeks I will start to see my SPS turn for the better. Even some of my LPS is not doing well at all, lost a lot of their color. Thats very wierd for me as it was always extremely easy to keep LPS happy. I have a lobo that seems to be bleached but always had it in the same position in the tank for a year where it was happy. Another lobo that was green center with a pink rim, and thats brown/brown. Some nice favias also totally dark purple when they used to be purple with green rim.
Click to expand...

I really think it's the gfo. I had the same issue with my lps just like you after introducing GFO. It can be very harsh at high concentrations. The half recommended seems like a better idea if you're thinking about implementing it. I use chaeto and wc's and works quite well. No guessing games! ;)
 
jimrawr said:
Can anyone chime in as to why my macro algae may not be doing well either? I think this somehow ties into being the same problem with my corals. I have tried twice to grow chaetomorpha and both times it dwindled and died away after a couple months. I use a 6k bulbs from Home Depot floodlight style, and I tried another bulb as well. If nutrients were the problem wouldnt the chaeto be taking off?
Click to expand...

I would go based off what doobze said per recommended amount and why your chaeto is stagnant atm.
 
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