Struggle with SPS colour, please help!

[ug.mac]

Hi all

I need you guys to help me to get deep rich colour from my SPS!

My tank parameters:

Established Nov, 2014
Water volume: 20 US Gallon, Display tank measures 15.75"x15.75"x15.75". Bare bottom.
Light:
LED/T5HO Hybrid
LED: 165W Full Spectrum, Blue: 45%, White: 55%, 10am-7:30pm
T5HO: 24w ATI Blue+, 24w KZ Super Blue, 9am-9pm
LED is 6" above water level without optics, T5HO is about 4 1/2" inch above water level.
Flow: Mp10es x1 Reef Crest 80%, Koralia Nano 425 x1

NO3: 0 PPM (Red Sea, same below)
PO4: 0.02 PPM
CAL: 445~460 PPM
KH: 7.4~7.8 dKH
MG: 1360 PPM
TEMP: 77.6~78.6 F, DA RKL controlled, 1/14hp Chiller
SCA-301 Skimmer

Dosing:
TLF 2 part via Doser
Vinegar 2.1ml/day via Doser
Prodibio Bioptim, Biodigest, Iodi+, Stronti+ once every two weeks
KZ Amino Acid, CV, Aquavito Fuel, Red Sea Reef Energy occasionally at recommended dosage.

I have 4 small clown fish and I feed once per day with frozen food/pellets. 3 gallon water change done religiously weekly with Red Sea Salt (regular). I'm also running 50ml Seachem Carbon, 20ml Phosban in TLF150 reactor, both changed out monthly.

I keep mostly SPS coral and 99% grow nicely but colour is lacking. Generally they just look faded/pale. I first thought it was due to lack of nutrition so I added two more fish and fed more, also started supplement dosing but still no change. I then thought it maybe the lighting, so I've tested just LED, just 150w 20K Radium, LED with T5, MH with T5, colour maybe slightly better here and there but generally the same.

There is a (poor) picture of the my green stylo that's 10" under water, you can see the change in colour in 1 month. Not all the colour change were so dramatic though.

I had a smaller tank before and most of SPS are colourful except for Bonsai (see picture below). Lighting was DIY full spectrum led.

I really have no idea what's going on. I'm thinking adding 1" live sand bed, change to 5X24w T5HO, change to different salt, dosing potassium, add refugium etc..... Please I need someone to tell me what I have to do!

Thanks in advance.

 

[bluecoyote79]

Having the same problem with my purple SPS, so following along.

I started dosing iodine, my Triton test showed it was low along with other trace elements, and my GARF Bonsai seems to be responding with polyps extending again. I've also turned down my whites and changed my Hydra 52s to mimic 18K. I need to read more into how lighting color can affect coral colors.

 

[Zukari]

bluecoyote79 would you mine sharing your settings you use for your Hydra52? I would like to try 18k out as well. Mine always seems to white.

 

[rovster]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would decrease your white lighting intensity, cut your photo period, to 8hrs total max, and start to feed more or add a supplement like Acropower or KZ Pohls. Raise your lights an inch or 2. I would also cut back on the carbon dosing. Keep the Prodibio, but wean off the vinegar. In 2 weeks you should tell if its working.

You are lighting the crap out of that tank and using aggressive means of nutrient export. That's my view from the bleachers.

 

[undertai]

Corals are more vivid and different under high k lighting. 14k, 18k, and 20k. Something to do with the coral trying to protect itself from the in light. I read that somewhere.

 

[kevin_e]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would decrease your white lighting intensity, cut your photo period, to 8hrs total max, and start to feed more or add a supplement like Acropower or KZ Pohls. Raise your lights an inch or 2. I would also cut back on the carbon dosing. Keep the Prodibio, but wean off the vinegar. In 2 weeks you should tell if its working.

You are lighting the crap out of that tank and using aggressive means of nutrient export. That's my view from the bleachers.

I concur. In my experience, pale colors come from too much nutrient export combined with high lighting.

 

[bluecoyote79]

bluecoyote79 would you mine sharing your settings you use for your Hydra52? I would like to try 18k out as well. Mine always seems to white.

I got my settings here. Someone was kind enough to post what Apex uses to copy the different K settings. I ramp mine up to 50% at 11am, 70% at 230 and back to 50% at 7 pm before ramping down. So you'd take the numbers for 18K and multiply by .7 or whatever you wanted to be your percentage.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2356724&page=6

I just started this last week so I can't say it will help in my case, but my fading colors started when my K was whiter than 14K.

 

[Kaman8]

I have radion and my intensivity is 100% for 4 hours with 14k , 3 hours ramp up and 3 hours down. Feeding and skimming heavy , also carbon dosing. Bonsai is placed middle of tank with moderate flow, color is very purple.

Here you can see when I just bought it and how it looks now
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2470649&page=3

 

[ug.mac]

Thanks for all your tips and suggestion.

I had a PAR meter so light setting was based on my memory on how bright tank looks at different PAR level, and apparently I'm hitting my tank with too much light. I decided to raise light for 1 inch, reduce intensity to 30% white, 50% Blue, photoperiod to 8hrs on LED.

I also just received 4000k~4500k neutral white LED, so I will be replacing all the 6500k/14000k tonight and hopefully I will get some colour back. [emoji16]

 

[Uncle Luke]

I think your nutrient export is fine. I would feed more heavily. Use Oyster Feast and Pohls. Bet your bottom dollar you'll see an improvement.

 

[kevin_e]

I think your nutrient export is fine. I would feed more heavily. Use Oyster Feast and Pohls. Bet your bottom dollar you'll see an improvement.

Another option would be to reduce nutrient export and save money on less media and additives.

Why use excessive filtration to remove things you're going to add again?

 

[rfgonzo]

Another option would be to reduce nutrient export and save money on less media and additives.

Why use excessive filtration to remove things you're going to add again?

Agreed, maybe try disconnecting your skimmer for a week, see if nutrients raise. Or possibly add another fish that should help bring up NO3.

 

[ug.mac]

Another option would be to reduce nutrient export and save money on less media and additives.

I think your nutrient export is fine. I would feed more heavily. Use Oyster Feast and Pohls. Bet your bottom dollar you'll see an improvement.

Agreed, maybe try disconnecting your skimmer for a week, see if nutrients raise. Or possibly add another fish that should help bring up NO3.

Yeah I certainly concerning if I'm staving my SPS out since NO3 is so low on my test kit, but I'm still getting nuisance algae, i.e. (slightly) visible green film algae on the glass everyday, green hair algae on the rock and red turf algae. So I don't believe my numbers are as low as test kit numbers. I'm afraid I will get algae outbreak if I take skimmer offline or feed even more.

Maybe I should just run GFO/GAC with skimmer without carbon dosing? What do guys think?

 

[SneekaPeek]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would decrease your white lighting intensity, cut your photo period, to 8hrs total max, and start to feed more or add a supplement like Acropower or KZ Pohls. Raise your lights an inch or 2. I would also cut back on the carbon dosing. Keep the Prodibio, but wean off the vinegar. In 2 weeks you should tell if its working.

You are lighting the crap out of that tank and using aggressive means of nutrient export. That's my view from the bleachers.

+1 to this. a little algae growth means you have a healthy system. you can supplement dawn for 10h. dont worry about raising light if you reduce intensity. and 1 thing at a time, its not like your corals have died on you so no reason to make drastic changes.
I've heard of extreme amounts of UV in the 395nm range cooking corals. Just planting the seed. INCEPTION :debi:

 

[toothman]

consider using zeostart as your carbon source vs vinegar it has some nitrate in it, nitrate will darken acros. If that sounds too drastic, you can use phol's extra special it does not seem to change any water parameters you will just notice a richer coral color in a matter of days. You do not need to use it every day or have to use at full dose strength.

 

[kenpau]

I'd definitely be running less white light, Thats a powerful LED. I am running Hydra 52s on the preset 14k and am getting great growth and good colour. However have just changed my lighting to run 14k for 8 hours and 20k for 2.5 hours, have noticed my corals colour up a bit more since I made the change.

For your information the Apex preset for 20k is 37% white light.

 

[ReefBum]

My corals have always done well when alkalinity is in the 8-9 dkh range so you might want to bump yours up a bit. Stable parameters are key so any large swings, which are certainly possible with a small tank, could hurt colors. If anything, keep alkalinity stable. I also agree that you should feed fish and corals more. Fish poop can help.

 

[swk]

I would guess lack of nutrients, too much light or the 2 issues together

My acros started looking really good and growing really fast when I let my po4 and no3 rise above recommended levels.

Yeah I have a little algae, but I'll take it over pale corals.

 

[minus9]

With such a small volume of water, you would probably be better off doing weekly water changes with a high quality salt mix (w/RO/DI water) and dosing for alk (when needed). High nutrient export in a small system tends to strip away more of the "good" things, unless you have a high bio-load or overfeed?

 

[gaberosenfield]

I also have the same problem with my sps in my 190 gallon system. I haven't had time to add enough fish yet, so I have been dosing nitrate into the tank. I did this on my old 20 gallon and it worked like a charm. I'm only dosing enough KNO3 to raise the nitrate by 0.1 ppm per day, and I haven't seen great results yet, by after only 2 weeks an A. tenuis and another unknown Acro are coloring up a bit and noticeably growing. I believe light color and slow growth indicates nutrients are too low. But I also have no pest algae growth, and you said your growth rate is fine, so maybe your issue is different.