Coral colour

[loubee]

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering how to get more colour in my tank. My acro is brown & my bird's nest is beige! However, I see all these beautiful photos of your tanks with fantasticly coloured sps... What's the secret?

Thanks,
Lou

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

Lighting, water quality, feeding and stability

[toniell]

Wht type of lighting are you using.

[loubee]

Lighting is triple 150w aquastarlight. Can good colour be achieved with this?

I'm quite on top of the water quality by testing every few days... sometimes even every day! I haven't tested for phosphate in a while though, think I might go get a phosphate test kit tomorrow.

(Calcium 440ppm, magnesium 1440ppm, KH between 9-10.5dkh, nitrate 5-10ppm would it help if that was lower? Iodide/iodate 0.01-0.02ppm, SG 1.025).

What do you feed? I use Salifert coral food most of the time, do you rate this?

The acro & bird nest polyp all the time and are growing quickly but not colouring up.

[Jasontkd]

magnesium is a little high, it should be about 1350

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by loubee

Lighting is triple 150w aquastarlight. Can good colour be achieved with this?

I'm quite on top of the water quality by testing every few days... sometimes even every day! I haven't tested for phosphate in a while though, think I might go get a phosphate test kit tomorrow.

(Calcium 440ppm, magnesium 1440ppm, KH between 9-10.5dkh, nitrate 5-10ppm would it help if that was lower? Iodide/iodate 0.01-0.02ppm, SG 1.025).

What do you feed? I use Salifert coral food most of the time, do you rate this?

The acro & bird nest polyp all the time and are growing quickly but not colouring up.

What size tank? What K are those 150W Bulbs? Do they have any atinics with them or just the MH? How old are the bulbs?

Whiskey

[crvz]

Elevated phosphate (and nitrate) levels will affect coral coloration; I've noticed they tend to brown out a little in these cases. Could you describe your feeding habits, filtration, and husbandry habits?

I've never really fed the corals anything specific, either. I find they do well with what finds it's way through the water column.

[loubee]

Tank is 600 litres.

Bulbs are 13000k. The unit only has very dim moonlight (2x 15w screw in bulbs), would some T5 atinics help? I was thinking about buying 2x 54w arcadia T5s. I don't know how old the bulbs are because I bought the unit 2nd hand, but think they are now about 8 months old.

Thanks
Lou

[Wiskey]

Leiters? Hold up I'll look for a conversion caculator.

What are the tank's dimentions? How old are the bulbs themselfs?

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

158 Gallons. I would say you definitally need more light,.. especially since your using 13K bulbs,.. Atinics would help,.. but if it were me I would upgrade to a fixture that uses 250W MH and has built in atinics.

How far off the water is your fixture?

Whiskey

[loubee]

Hi Chris,

Ok... I feed the tank quite heavily, usually 3-4 small feeds a day using mostly high quality dry foods.

Filtration is through the sump, low surface area bio media in weirs (just to make them quieter), pre filter coarse sponges 1st chamber of sump. Then an algae bed with T5 lighting and in the last chamber is the main pump. There is a uv steriliser and large air pump in last chamber of sump but no skimmer, no phosphate reactor or calcium reactor.

I use Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium whenever Ca falls below 410ppm & Bio-Magnesium when lower than 1300ppm... maybe I should try keeping 1350 & not higher? Iodine whenever below 0.01ppm, Coral food every week, liquid strontium every couple of weeks, occasionally add Kent Coral Accel, Phyto Plex & Coral Vite.

I usually do a 50 ltr water change weekly using RO & Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt.

Lou

[loubee]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

158 Gallons. I would say you definitally need more light,.. especially since your using 13K bulbs,.. Atinics would help,.. but if it were me I would upgrade to a fixture that uses 250W MH and has built in atinics.

How far off the water is your fixture?

Whiskey

Could move the halides closer they are about 6" away from water surface.

I'm tempted to think about getting a triple 250w MH with T5's built in now! Rrr... more money! I'll have to do some serious overtime for that but it could be worth it! By the time I've bought new bulbs plus atinic lighting thats proably £220 anyway plus I could sell my old light.

I'm talking myself into it!

[Jasontkd]

I think you are probably looking at a phosphate problem. Why do you feed so often? with that much feeding, and no skimmer, you could eaisly be loading up on phosphates. Do you have a sand bed? how deep? How often do you change the media in the sump?

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by loubee

Could move the halides closer they are about 6" away from water surface.

I'm tempted to think about getting a triple 250w MH with T5's built in now! Rrr... more money! I'll have to do some serious overtime for that but it could be worth it! By the time I've bought new bulbs plus atinic lighting thats proably £220 anyway plus I could sell my old light.

I'm talking myself into it!

I think you'll like it

Wait,.. No skimmer you say? The money might be better spent getting a really nice skimmer then worry about the lighting later.

Whiskey

[loubee]

ok... I'll definatly test the phosphate tomorrow!

I feed little and often because I believe it's more natural for the fish and better for their immune system. I believe they can get more nutrients from the food this way too, so making them healthier more colourful & hopefully happier!

I have a sand bed about 3/4" deep but very well turned over by a banded sifting goby, 3 sand sifting mollusks & 1 sand star.

I haven't changed the pre filter sponge in the sump & the tank is about 8 months old, I don't know if it makes a difference but the sponge is very coarse and full of pods side shrimps & mysis... I was thinking that might be keeping it fairly clean?

I'll let you know what the phosphate is tommorow,

Cheers