tricolor valida blah

[oneradtek202]

So this has been a forever issue with my tricolor valida in my sps tank. the whole colony just looks bland. the tips have purple, but nothing too bright. is it possible that this is just a less colorful colony of valida than others such as ORA? my tank has had some issues with flow since its soo overgrow though, but everynight the polyps are whippin around nicely.

specs

2x250 radium setup with m80 ballast ( bulbs at 10 mos )
100 gal tank
sal 1.025
ca 400
alk 9-10
po4 undetectable (hannah)
havent measure nitrate in a long time....hmm i dont even think i have a viable test for that anymore

i run gfo and rox carbon, water changes bi weekly 32 gallons.
12 fish

 

[roberto_lopes]

My Experience

Genetics on first place
Tricolors like a little "dirty" water.

I have one, full purple vibrant color but...If I dont feed her, she become brown with purple tips.

Here is mine now

 

[buzzy]

nice
! what do you feed her?

 

[jbanks]

Here is my Valida

What I've noticed, is that flow plays a huge factor with this particular coral.. I have another piece from the same colony that does not get the same direct flow as the one pictured and it is exactly how you described yours.. This one has flow hitting it from both sides and is up high.

 

[roberto_lopes]

nice
! what do you feed her?

Zooplankton + CoralColor from brightwell.

 

[edsreef]

So this has been a forever issue with my tricolor valida in my sps tank. the whole colony just looks bland. the tips have purple, but nothing too bright. is it possible that this is just a less colorful colony of valida than others such as ORA?

I have the ORA Tricolor Valida. AFAIK, it only has the purple tips and a lighter cream/tan colored base with polyps from gold to light green color. In searching, I've only seen examples with similar colors as mine. Maybe you have something similar to it?

 

[reefereef]

I have that same ora tricolor, when I had lots of hair algae it had awesome color, now it is blah

 

[milspec]

I think it has to do with nutrients in the tank. I have three huge colonies that take up most of my tank and they are dark purple with light purple tips. I think it has to do with me not using a skimmer and not doing water changes.
A frag of my coral I put in another tank with heavy skimming and a refugium is tan and purple with the same lighting.

My tank not skimmed- Grows faster and looks like Jbank's Picture.
The skimmed tank - Looks more like Edsreef's Picture and grows very slow.

The other system is bigger or I should say HUGE custom built tank. It is running with filter bags a large skimmer, a forty gallon refugium and a 120 gallon sump.

My tank is a 125, thirty gallon refugium, no skimmer or filters or water changes for years. We will see what happens as I just started doing monthly water changes.

 

[oneradtek202]

very interesting info

edsreef, thats exactly what mine looks similar to! so feeding is kind of a spot feed? or a overall tank feed?


its probably got something to do with flow too, because my calie tort and loistte(both higher end) are beautiful! and that side is less corwded with corals

 

[JustinM]

My buddy just picked up a Tyree Bali Tri color and it looks like roberto lopes' and I have an ora valida and it looks like edreefs. Maybe that could be the difference.

 

[edsreef]

very interesting info

edsreef, thats exactly what mine looks similar to! so feeding is kind of a spot feed? or a overall tank feed?


its probably got something to do with flow too, because my calie tort and loistte(both higher end) are beautiful! and that side is less corwded with corals

Again, AFAIK, if it's the same kind, that's what it's going to look like if the conditions are optimal no matter what. I've never seen an ORA TC Valida that was all purple before. I've seen some top-down shots just showing tightly clustered tips that almost look all purple but I think the base color was the same (tan/gold/brown).

 

[Av8bluewater]

My Experience

Genetics on first place
Tricolors like a little "dirty" water.

I have one, full purple vibrant color but...If I dont feed her, she become brown with purple tips.

Here is mine now

That's not Tri color Valida. That looks like Tyree Bali TriColor.

My Valida is pretty sensitive.

 

[danil]

That's not Tri color Valida. That looks like Tyree Bali TriColor.

My Valida is pretty sensitive.

+1 it's not Valida.

 

[Coelli]

I have an ORA Valida high on my rock wall that's just been sitting there encrusting for 10 months. It's about 12" under a Kessil A360NE and gets high flow. It's almost completely orange-brown with green polyps. I keep waiting for it to do something. Branch. Color up. Anything. If it wasn't encrusted onto the rock I'd move it. Maybe to the trash.

 

[markalot]

This is mari-cultured and I was told a valida but not 100% sure. It does show better color at higher PO4 and NO3.