Acro Coloration

[Jasontkd]

hey all, I am wondering if there is anything I can be doing (in addition) to help bring out the best colors in my Acros and other SPS. My water chemistry is great and I keep everything really consistant and clean.
My tank is a 29 gallon SPS dominant mixed reef.
Flow is provided by 2 tunze 6025's and a mag 7 return pump ran thtough a SCWD. I have a nano calium reactor that keeps my Ca at 420 and my Alk a 9.6. My ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are undetectible. I have about a 1" sand bed which I syphon weekly with my 10% WC. I use a mix of 50/50 instant ocean and eoceanic salt. lighting is provided by a 150 watt DE 14k pheonix buld in a PFO mini pendant and 2 x 24 watt actinic T5's lighting is on for 9 hours (MH on for 8). I also run carbon to combat any warfare between softies, LPS, and SPS. Skimmer is a Coralife SS 220.

anyhow, the blue colors are doing great in my tank. a lot os my acros have blue tips and they stand out great. However, some of my colonies just seem a little pale. Averything is growing excellently, and I am very happy with my setup, I am just wondering if there is anything I can dose, or tweak to help really make those corals reach their color pontential?

Thanks in advance for the help. Here are a few pictures for reference. I am not a great photographer, and the colors are not exactly as they appear in person, but they are as close as I can get.

[chrischris]

maybe more light

[reefermike1]

thats what i was going to say. mh lighting is point source, meaning you will have alot of light in the middle and not much on the sides, and anything to the left of the light will be shaded on the left, anything to the right will be shaded on the right. adding another one would probably give you the results youre looking for imo

very nice setup though

[skey44]

you need more poop. just kidding but seriously, you need some more nutrients in the water to get the deeper color you are looking for. you are perfectly setup with a big skimmer to feed your corals/fish more, and possibly add more fish (you didn't mention this). the slight bleaching is from the water being too devoid of nutrients- big skimmer low bio load, assumption i'm making is low feeding. these acros want nutrients delivered in a quick manner. eg. fed heavily then aggressive nutrient export. try rod's food, oyster eggs, or just more fish fed moderately with a quality pellet.

[skey44]

i personally believe you have plenty of light. what ballasts are you running? also what t-5 bulbs are you running. the phoenix is known for pale ish colors and with more blue from like blue+(ati) or actinic+(giessman) all your light is in the same spectrum. i would advise a more full spectrum halide or t-5s. you could have a blue only halide (phoenix) supplemented with blue only t-5. but i really bet it is more the nutrients but both play their roles.

[hng]

I'd probably agree with Scott, seems like you've got too much light compared to the rest of the system. Try cutting back the halide to 6 hours a day and LEAVE it there for a month and see what happens. Other option is to feed more, but that's a recommendation that I find hard to give with such a small system (you could quickly overload the sandbed). Overall, I think your system looks great, maybe just one small change.

[Jasontkd]

thanks for all the responses. I did forget to mention fish. I have 2 clowns whcih I feed every couple days. I also throw a cap full of DT's in ever couple days for my Dendrophylia. I was considering switching to a Reeflux 12k bulb, but wasn't sure that it would make too much difference. Although I have heard it is a great bulb. I would like to "feed" my sps but don't really know what or how much to feed. any suggestions?

[Wiskey]

I would stop feeding DT's,.. feed the fish daily, maybe even put a touch of Cyclopeze in the tank daily and watch your colors to see what they do. Don't make any changes too fast, or expect color to change too fast.

Phyto is Algae, SPS don't eat that,.. I have seen them catch Cyclopeze though, and allot of people really like Oister eggs, that's another option for feeding them.

This can add allot of nutreants to a system real quick though,.. so do it sparingly,.. I also might suggest syphoning half the sandbed per month,.. rather than the whole thing every week.

Whiskey

[fish.freak]

Not sure if this is the case, but I found in some cases move a coral up or down will change its color appearance.

[WilyGuy]

I'm not familiar (perhaps) with "DT's" (I know that Oyster Eggs are sold under that Brand, so unknown what you are referring to).

Do you Target the Dendro? I feed mine Mysis and not the crumbles, I give mine the size that is slightly bigger than Adult Brine. The beauty is that my fish are pigs with it as well.

This doesn't answer your question about coloration necessarily. How often do you change the bulbs in the system? If you do this regularly, perhaps you want to try a 20K. You may not get the depth of light, but it is bluer (typically) and your colors may change.

Good Luck. Nice to see another Dendro enthusiast out there!

[Wiskey]

Oh,.. shoot. Yeah sorry,.. when I read "DT's" I assumed you ment "DT's Phyto",.. Is that the case?

Whiskey

[Jasontkd]

you assumed right. I have been using the phyto because the LFS I got the dendro from was using it. I also feed the dendro once a week with mysis shrimp. My fish go nuts over the stuff as well. I may give the cyclopeze or oyster eggs a shot. Will definitely add slowly. I am way too paranoid about having a small system to change anything drastically.

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Jasontkd

you assumed right. I have been using the phyto because the LFS I got the dendro from was using it. I also feed the dendro once a week with mysis shrimp. My fish go nuts over the stuff as well. I may give the cyclopeze or oyster eggs a shot. Will definitely add slowly. I am way too paranoid about having a small system to change anything drastically.

Good deal Yeah,.. Phyto is like dosing pure phosphate to your system,.. and nothing we really keep in our tanks eats it,. unless your keeping feather dusters or something,.. but even then you'll crash the tank before you give them a good meal. Ontop of that Phyto occures naturally in our systems,.. it's where the green skimate comes from if your skimming real wet.

Whiskey

[WilyGuy]

Yeah Phyto is good for Rotifer cultures, but not much beyond that IMO.

Originally Posted by Wiskey

Good deal Yeah,.. Phyto is like dosing pure phosphate to your system,.. and nothing we really keep in our tanks eats it,. unless your keeping feather dusters or something,.. but even then you'll crash the tank before you give them a good meal. Ontop of that Phyto occures naturally in our systems,.. it's where the green skimate comes from if your skimming real wet.

Whiskey

[Jasontkd]

sounds good. how much would you recommend feeding oyster eggs or cyclopeze?