Why do my SPS have such poor coloration?

[dmack]

Im trying to determine why my SPS have such faded colors. Please give me some factors that might contribute to poor coloration. My corals seem to grow quickly. I have green birdsnest coral that is almost white but grows like a weed. How can I get that deep green beautiful color that I often see? Why is my green cap so light colored? The only SPS that I own that seems to be bright is my pink birdsnest. Here is some info about my 90 gallon tank.

Lighting: Retrofit T5 with Icecap reflectors, placed about 5 inches from the water surface. They are probably about a year old, and I have new bulbs on order. My bulbs are: 4 blue plus, 2 aquablue plus.

Skimmer: Modified reef octopus 200 skimmer

Weekly 12 gal water changes using reef crystals

Alk: 10 DKH, calcium 425, pH 7.9-8.1

Temp usually around 79 deg.

I feed that tank cyclopeze, frozen foods, and pellets. I give the fish pellets about 1-2 times daily, and 1 cube of food daily.

Fish: 1 yellow tang, 1 small 6 lined wrasse, 2 clowns, and 1 gramma

I only supplement using calcium reactor and limewater
(off and on) for top off.

Any ideas how to improve color?
If my phosphates are high, could that cause corals to have faded color?

 

[duecejt]

Could dose amino's also maybe another fish or two. The sps in my tank really colored up when I put in a few more fish. Just a thought.

 

[JMalone81]

Are your phosphates high? That could be the problem. What are your nitrate phos ph cal and alk levels?

 

[CleveYank]

Check your nitrates. If they are -0- that can do it. I like a sweet spot of 5 ppm.
Balances some nice coloration while keeping bright colors. Adding a bit more natural foods for the corals and fish to eat helps with this.

Going above the 10's and 20's can get to brown coral land if other factors like lighting (10K and such).

I'd just add little more oyster feast or phyto or ESV dried and see if you get things where you want them.

Some say dose aminos. You can, but it's not required. Food can do the same thing.
Just stay away from flake or any foods that have phosphates in the ingredients.

good luck.

 

[dmack]

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to metion that I add amino acids daily, but it seems to have no effect at all. I also add vodka which keeps algae in check. I need to measure the nitrates. In the past, its always been very low. I never measure phosphate because I dont have an accurate way to do it.

 

[JMalone81]

It's not a good idea to dose vodka not knowing what your nitrates and phosphates are. The purpose of carbon dosing is to lower phos and nitrates

 

[CleveYank]

If you are dosing vodka then your sticks are pale and washed because they are starving for a little bit of nitrate. Add 1 fish or just feed the system a tad more and see what happens. Test for nitrate before you start. And test after 5 days and see where you are at. Then keep the levels at 5 for a while and see if things start to turn around. Go easy for it's easy to go the other way and end up with them browning.
Things still not picked up in a couple weeks bump it up around 10 for while. The colors will perk back up.

 

[dmack]

You may be correct regarding the low nitrates causing the color problem. I just tested it, and nitrates are undetectable. How can I bring nitrates up without elevating phosphates?

 

[dmack]

I'll stop the vodka dosing for now.

 

[dmack]

Also, I wasn't using carbon until last week. I began using it, and I noticed the corals became even lighter.

 

[Marklu]

Your tank sounds about like mine a few months ago. All of my corals were pale pale pale (especially greens) expect for a very pink birdsnest. After a few months of increasing nutrient import the colors are improving. The greens are still not where they could be, but i've always heard that green colors require the most nutrients to acheive. A good indicator I use in my tank is the pink birdsnest. When the halides are off, and its only actinics the coral should have a subtle fluorescent green pigment. If the pigment starts to disappear I know I need to add some food. Assuming, you have the same species of birdsnest or perhaps a similar coral it could be a good indicator for your tank.

Also, what type of algae's do you see in your tank? Green, brown, cyano, coraline?

 

[JMalone81]

You may be correct regarding the low nitrates causing the color problem. I just tested it, and nitrates are undetectable. How can I bring nitrates up without elevating phosphates?

That is where you want you nitrates. I would not try to raise it. How high are you're phosphates?

 

[dmack]

That is where you want you nitrates. I would not try to raise it. How high are you're phosphates?

Don't know yet. I just ordered a hanna meter. I think it might be worth the investment. I'll post the results as soon as I find out.

 

[dmack]

Also, what type of algae's do you see in your tank? Green, brown, cyano, coraline?

I have plenty of coraline, I have plenty of algae but it is restricted to my overflow. Its a variety pack of hair algae, green bubble algae and red grape algae.

 

[dmack]

Well my hanna meter came in. My phosphates read .03. So I dont think my phosphates are out of wack. I have new bulbs on order and I'm feeding more. I'll monitor these changes and see if the color improves.

 

[Amphiprion]

Well, if you are not experiencing any nutrient issues, then try feeding the corals more. Look for specific, very small foods, like oyster eggs, rotifers, etc. Play around with the amount you can feed before you notice an increase in nutrient levels. Many of the spikes that you'll see after feeding can be temporary. If given time (a few weeks), that will subside and go back down and you can start adding more (i.e. increase the amount at feeding time). That should give your corals the extra boost in whatever is limited (usually nitrogen) and hopefully will give them a bit more color again, unless there are other causes.

 

[dmack]

Thanks for the info Amphiprion. I think its a good suggestion. I'll try adding some new foods in small but more frequent quanties.

 

[ReefTECK]

What happens in ULNS's? Don't they keep nitrates super low also? or they keep them in the 2-5ppm range too? Or just feed like hell to compensate?

 

[Amphiprion]

What happens in ULNS's? Don't they keep nitrates super low also? or they keep them in the 2-5ppm range too? Or just feed like hell to compensate?

I no longer run an ULNS, but everybody approaches the needs of corals differently in terms of nutrition. My approach is to maximize export and then begin slowly raising the import in the form of food. Others rely on things like amino acids, etc. I don't prefer that because it seems too incomplete to me. Where's everything else they'd normally get? Of course, you can't add anywhere close to the amount of food they'd normally eat in a day to the average tank (even with the better export mechanisms in place), but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Instead of raising parameters like nitrogen, I work on minimizing them and presenting these elements in the form of food, which is how they'd mostly get it in the wild. That way the water quality remains acceptable while the corals get all the nitrogen, vitamins, fatty acids, etc., they need. Now that you've maximized your export, it is time to start raising import to give the corals more to sustain themselves, while simultaneously keeping good water quality.

Now that I think of it, there was actually a thread on this concept a short while ago and it is something I agree with and have been attempting to do since I noticed poorer coloration, slower growth, and more bleach-prone corals. I wouldn't consider what I'm doing a success just yet, but there is a noticeable difference in all of the above. I see steady improvement over time, though, and I'm still able to maintain very high water quality with fairly heavy feeding (at least a lot more than what I had to in my old tank). Many still do things differently with great results, though. That's just me looking at it in my perspective.

Take home message from me--yes, feed like hell short of deteriorating water quality. I think you'll notice that you can feed increasingly larger amounts as the bacterial population the vodka is fueling increases to take advantage of added N and P. You may notice increased N and P for a few weeks while maintaining a steady level, only to have it suddenly drop and be undetectable (or at least very low) again. That's your cue to step it up.

Edit: you will eventually reach a point that won't take any more food without water quality deterioration. It takes a lot, though--probably a lot more than you think.

 

[ReefTECK]

I no longer run an ULNS, but everybody approaches the needs of corals differently in terms of nutrition. My approach is to maximize export and then begin slowly raising the import in the form of food.

Isn't that the idea behind ULNS? lol

you will eventually reach a point that won't take any more food without water quality deterioration. It takes a lot, though--probably a lot more than you think.

Yeah I can certainly hear you on that point. After begining my carbon dosing system with Zeostart (not going full zeo just using the bacteria) I had started feeding like crazy hell! PE mysis every day, twice a day, then every other day I was adding amino acids, concentrated chromaplex phyto plankton, oyster eggs, rotifers, and cyclopeeze.

Then I ran into a bad spot of dino's only to find out that the problem was that my nutrients were too low, a couple of weeks of no water changes raised my NO3 to 2-3ppm and the dino's are disappearing!

If that's not a testament to how much food it takes to counteract a bacterial driven system, then I don't know what is!