The tan coral problem

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by Casey

I cant stand the look without my Mhs on

How long do you run your MH Casey?? And are you using vho or pc supplementation?

This is an interesting thread for me as i just built a new BB tank that the rock is still cooking for. I have the lights 5" from the surface. On my last bb tank i had them 13".............definitely doing some thinking now on how im going to run the lights in the first stages of this thing when i throw all of my stonies in it..........

[Casey]

I run my Mhs 8 hrs and yes I have 2 blue vho and 2 white.

[Fly Guy]

Thanks : )

[Lobster]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

For a while there I put in half atinic PC and half 10K PC so I could stand the look while the MH was off becase I was only running a 2 hour MH photoperiod.

Were you having this same problem? Did it help? I could definitely live with a daylight and an actinic, but 10 hours of actinic a day... I'd rather avoid it.

[REEF-DADDY]

so throw a 10k bulb in.

[SPS(BB)]

Do you have any pics of what the coral looks like? I run (2) 250 HQI halides for 7 hrs and my actinics for 12 hrs(over my 75 gallon). I have a high bioload I guess. I also feed rotifers every other day which they seem to love. Biggest issue I had is my tort went from blue to dark purple.. i am not complaining.. i also keep my lights 7 inches from the water surface... I do at least 5-10 gallon water change weekly.

[NoSchwag]

I had the same issue until I supplimented my halides with vho actinic.

Now when I turn off the vho's I can see that the brown color of the corals were actually the same color the lights were giving off.

The difference is night and day..

[Lobster]

Originally Posted by SPS(BB)

Do you have any pics of what the coral looks like? I run (2) 250 HQI halides for 7 hrs and my actinics for 12 hrs(over my 75 gallon). I have a high bioload I guess. I also feed rotifers every other day which they seem to love. Biggest issue I had is my tort went from blue to dark purple.. i am not complaining.. i also keep my lights 7 inches from the water surface... I do at least 5-10 gallon water change weekly.

I'll try to remember to get some pictures tomorrow. I've been running my halides for three hours the last week (as opposed to ten) and I do see some changes already (color at tips, much better growth in montis), but the improvements seemed to have stalled. Perhaps my PC actinics are just too weak? Changing them out is not an option. I suppose I could go to a 20K halide, but I like the look of 10K.

I love how easy my BB system is to keep clean, and it is easy to control in terms of chemical parameters, but I feel like I have zero control over coloration with it. Its a total mystery and seems commonly problematic. Thinking I might go with sand afterall in my 300G cube I am planning!

OR... maybe I am being impatient. Its just frustrating when it seems I am doing everything by the book.