SPS Wild Colonies Coloration

[shandy_say]

yo shandy,

sad to hear about your coral's colors. try keeping rock solid parameters - salinity, alk, ca, mg, k... aside from the given zero on nitrates & p04. also try dosing amino acids perhaps? jmho

best of luck!

Thanks vic. I have been keeping my params as stable as possible with calcium at around 460 and alk between 7-8 dkh. Mg i have yet to get a test kit but i just keep it up with my water changes using Red Sea Coral Pro salt. As for amino acids (Seachem Amino Acids), i don't dose directly to the tank as i have already included it in my DIY food. So i think whenever i feed it to my fish i am also adding amino acids to my tank. Salinity is stable at 1.025. I just recently started also dosing Lugol's solution at 1 drop per day.

Don't get me wrong, when i got my sps most if not all of them were brown or pale brown in color. Then after a month or so all of them started to green except for 1 pc of acropora which retained its purple tips. I don't know if im doing anything wrong as all my sps have great polyp extension and have started to grow already and some have started to encrust the LR's. Im just wondering how long it usually takes for wild colonies of sps to color up (assuming they are not green or brown to begin with).

 

[shandy_say]

Phosphates ( P04 ) cause greener pigments.
Sometimes even brown, due to massive amounts of PO4.

While small traces of nitrates is good, since it's food for the corals.

I'm not a believer in all those other random chemicals that are off the shelves.
Which claim , proven to be "growth hormones" for the corals. Nothing you can't get from dosing 2 part, and kalk Kalk has everything!

I just use the simple basic stuff.

2 Part and Kalk.

My light consists of 4 20k MH Mogul 250watts. Supplemented by 8 54watt T5 Actinics.

With a smaller volume tank, I would suggest changing the water more frequently.

Just like living in a small house, do you vaccuum one a week or one a month?

Hahaha! Nice comparison! heheh! Will do more water changes. However i skim wet so i do top off with saltwater instead of just topping off with RODI.

 

[shandy_say]

@spc1spc1 - I did that to all my sps when i got them. Placed them all on the sandbed then after sometime i moved them to their final positions.

@jcal - here's to hoping they color up! heheh!

@jackson6745 - kinda envious that you guys can get those already aquacultured corals. But here no one actually sells aquacultured sps. All we can get here are wild ones which often times arrive in very very poor condition.

 

[fijiblue]

Nutrients will cause the skeleton deposits to turn green, but in most cases, too little light will cause coral pigments to turn green - especially bluer bulbs. Try moving the corals up slowly and see if they respond.

As far as the nitrates go, 5ppm is nothing too high to worry about...

 

[shandy_say]

@fijiblue - thanks! I have my lights at around 14inches away from the water surface as this was the recommended distance for the lumebrights. You think i should lower it? I can adjust it lower if need be since the stand for my lights are adjustable anyways. Im just worried that bringing the light closer will cause temp problems for me.

 

[fijiblue]

I wouldn't necessarily move the lights down since the Lumenbrites do best at a higher distance:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-06/review/index.php
I would, however begin moving some of these corals up and adjust accordingly.

 

[shandy_say]

Thanks fijiblue.

 

[shandy_say]

btw, im running my light for only 6 hours a day. Would increasing it to lets say 7 or 8 hours improve color?

 

[fijiblue]

Possibly, but I would try to increase the intensity first by moving a few up and monitoring them.

 

[justins13]

Do you have them high in the tank already? If not I agrea just move them up slow and monitor closely.

 

[shandy_say]

They are already at the highest point i can place them at so im only left with 2 options:
1. lower the lights, and
2. Increase photoperiod
Just noticed that my other brown acro starting to turn green also.

 

[shandy_say]

Here are some pics of my sps:

As you can see, most of them are different shades of green or brown. Some have gained a more intense shade of green while others have changed from brown to green.

 

[eros]

where they a different color when you purchased them? Perhaps they are just green/brown corals? Those are definitely the 2 dominant colors in corals.

 

[shandy_say]

Some of them had a lighter green or were fully brown when i got them. Then after a few week they started to intensify their green colors or change colors from brown to green.

For example, the birdsnest in the 1st picture arrived yellowish brown. Then after 2 weeks it started to turn green. Then now that same piece is almost completely green from base to tip.

Perhaps they are just green or brown to begin with. A single purple tip acro i got still retained its color though.

 

[cdan]

Hi Shandy,
Be patient all of my colonies are also wild and it has taken up to 18 months for some to show coloration and decent growth. You will find that if you take a frag form these colonies the growth and colour of the frag will be much greater than with the mother colony.

 

[waxy]

Strange how that works, but it's definitely true.

18 months... that's time for 2 Christmas's.

 

[shandy_say]

Thanks. I do love the fact that my sps have 1-2mm growth every 3 days. Still hoping that they color up though.

 

[shandy_say]

Strange how that works, but it's definitely true.

18 months... that's time for 2 Christmas's.

hahahah Would you have pics of frags from wild colonies that have better coloration than the mother colony?

 

[cdan]

Yeah will post pics later don't know why it happens just does.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

I wouldnt expect them to collect brown corals. Some of mny wild colonies are still changing colors 5 or 6 years after they were collected. Dont ever give up on a green coral. They often develop blue and purple if the tank conditions are right. Sometimes it takes years to find the right mix. I have success obtaining very intense colors in fish heavy high nutrient system combined with extremely intense lighting and high flow. The colors in many of my wild colonies are actually brighter under the 10 K lights as they develop the intensity that i find to be missing under the 20 k lights.