I agree with the above poster... halides for the win!!
Acropora sticks losing color over time
- Thread starter Ksmmike
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I do not use any LED at all. I mostly use MH, but have a few T5s and some VHOs to supplement on a few tanks. I have been to WWC and even Vivid multiple times (more times to Vivid) and I see tanks that would look better if they had better lights - they are about at 80% of where they could be. Not everybody agrees with me, so to each their own. However, if I was running a retail shop, I would be doing it exactly the same way that they are (mostly).
For me, no amount of LEDs can get to where I am with the MH... if they ever do, then I will switch.
For me, no amount of LEDs can get to where I am with the MH... if they ever do, then I will switch.
Ksmmike
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Thanks JDA,
Everyone has their own way and I'm happy that your way works for you. If I were you, I wouldn't change either. I did a lot of research on lighting before I set up the tank and I ended up
with Radions, though I admit if money was no object, I would have gone with a hybrid of some sort from the start. Some days I think I should have just ripped the lights off my biocube and really jacked that up and grew acros in there, but the idea of 4 small fish drove me nuts. Now that I've had problems with ich in the larger tank, again, the biocube looks better and better.
My biocube has been no problem, the corals grow and the I still have my 4 original fish. Granted the corals are all easy grow corals like zoas and mushrooms ect, but I don't think I've ever killed a coral in that tank either.
Then the wind shifts and walk past my larger tank and I want to just get it right and have everything growing with healthy fish and drop dead corals. It's why I buy cheap acros for now, until I get them growing properly and then maybe to the more expensive ones. For now, $20 acros, but I do purchase nice chalices, leptos and acans that do pop and make me smile for now.
I guess what bugs me is that I know I can grow out a reef tank, but acros seem to be giving me fits right now and I'm trying to figure out why.
thanks again
Mike
steve o
Community Member
I’m having very similar issues!! It seems as my SPS become colonies I cannot keep same color as when they’re frags. I have AI Hydra and T5 combo. My Battlecorals spainbow has turned a brownish purple it is directly under my white AI pucks. A small piece broke off about 4 months ago I just put it in the back where it gets most of T5 lights and its color is spot on. I don’t think my leds are to high since I’m only running my whites at 30%.
Nitrates 5-10
Phosphate : not sure ( I know I have some turf scrubber producing)
Alk 8.5
Cal. 420
Mag1400
Salinity 1.025
Nitrates 5-10
Phosphate : not sure ( I know I have some turf scrubber producing)
Alk 8.5
Cal. 420
Mag1400
Salinity 1.025
Reefcowboy
Well-Known Member
IMO the main reason most tanks fail to have expected colors is mainly lack of nutrients. People run their tanks WAY too clean these days. Ive seen tanks where NO3 has been kept between 10-20ppm and sps colors are simply amazing.
Po4 depletion also brings bad results to many sps. Another nutrient seen as a threat and is the hideen secret for the beautiful colors we envy.
The worst thing to do now is to raise nutrients too fast...this could risk all sps in the tank. I personally would add some fish keep all params stable and increase very slowly feeding regimen and observe. Colors will improve. Do not change lighting.
With sps, more light demands more nutrients so the coral can metabolize properly to stay healthy. We read over and over people freaking out over 10ppm nitrates and start carbon dosing so levels can go quickly below 1ppm. We look into their sps, growth is ok, but colors are all pale...
Po4 depletion also brings bad results to many sps. Another nutrient seen as a threat and is the hideen secret for the beautiful colors we envy.
The worst thing to do now is to raise nutrients too fast...this could risk all sps in the tank. I personally would add some fish keep all params stable and increase very slowly feeding regimen and observe. Colors will improve. Do not change lighting.
With sps, more light demands more nutrients so the coral can metabolize properly to stay healthy. We read over and over people freaking out over 10ppm nitrates and start carbon dosing so levels can go quickly below 1ppm. We look into their sps, growth is ok, but colors are all pale...
Ksmmike
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Thanks Reef cowboy,
It's been interesting to get a wide range of answers. I haven't wanted to add fish since I had an ich outbreak a few weeks ago. I've been going back and forth of removing my 4 remaining fish
and putting them in QT or riding this out, since the Foxface, wrasse and neon cleaner goby so no signs of stress or ich at all. The yellow tang had it bad, but fought it off. He has a few spots again but is eating well and acting normal. If I could get them out without taking all my rocks out, I would go fowler and eradicate the ich, but right now my priority is getting the corals right, so I've avoided touching the inside of the tank other than cleaning the power heads and cleaning the sand during water changes. But I have removed the GFO and carbon to raise up the nitrates and phosphates a bit. In my biocube, I do have elevated nitrates and phosphates and the corals are growing fast and keeping color despite the crap light that comes with the cube.
Once I can afford it, I'll probably get that new Kessil for the biocube and put some better corals in there. It's fairly mature now. I've been purposely running my 2 tanks slightly different. My 120 gallon I do water changes every 7-10 days and the biocube every 14-17 days. I use different salts too. And I keep the NO3 around 10 and the NO4 around .5 in the cube. In the 120 gallon the NO3 doesn't register and the NO4 is at .01. Since a few have mentioned this, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try and raise them up a bit in the 120 gallon. It hasn't hurt anything in the biocube with elevated levels other than having some bubble algae.
thanks for the advice
Mike
It's been interesting to get a wide range of answers. I haven't wanted to add fish since I had an ich outbreak a few weeks ago. I've been going back and forth of removing my 4 remaining fish
and putting them in QT or riding this out, since the Foxface, wrasse and neon cleaner goby so no signs of stress or ich at all. The yellow tang had it bad, but fought it off. He has a few spots again but is eating well and acting normal. If I could get them out without taking all my rocks out, I would go fowler and eradicate the ich, but right now my priority is getting the corals right, so I've avoided touching the inside of the tank other than cleaning the power heads and cleaning the sand during water changes. But I have removed the GFO and carbon to raise up the nitrates and phosphates a bit. In my biocube, I do have elevated nitrates and phosphates and the corals are growing fast and keeping color despite the crap light that comes with the cube.
Once I can afford it, I'll probably get that new Kessil for the biocube and put some better corals in there. It's fairly mature now. I've been purposely running my 2 tanks slightly different. My 120 gallon I do water changes every 7-10 days and the biocube every 14-17 days. I use different salts too. And I keep the NO3 around 10 and the NO4 around .5 in the cube. In the 120 gallon the NO3 doesn't register and the NO4 is at .01. Since a few have mentioned this, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try and raise them up a bit in the 120 gallon. It hasn't hurt anything in the biocube with elevated levels other than having some bubble algae.
thanks for the advice
Mike
Ksmmike
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Since I promised to do updates, I thought I would. After reading what everyone said, I changed the light schedule slightly and upped my nitrates to 5ppm.
I had a huge outbreak of dinos. I wasn't sure if it was cyano or dinos, so I started with chemiclean and removed carbon and gfo(which I had done to increase the nitrates anyway). I had also added some nitrates using the stump removal which people suggested on this thread or another. So my tank became a nightmare almost overnight. Ugh. Chemiclean didn't do much over a few day period, so I assumed it was more of a dino issue. I did have cyano starting in my biocube and used chemiclean and it cleared the cyano overnight. So I know the product does work.
Ok, so bought some Dino-X and it knocked down the brown yuk in the tank within 24 hours. Not completely, but 70% of it. I did a second dose the next night as suggested and it cleared up a bit more. I let it sit for several days, did 2 water changes and changed the filter socks every 2 days for a week. After a week or so, the tank looked so much better. The snails were on the glass and in the rocks again. The hermit crabs were active again. The zoas opened up. All the corals seem to be happy again. My nitrates held stable at around 3ppm and the phosphates are barely visible. The alkalinity jumped from 8.1 to 8.4 but I kept the ph and salt stable.
One acro which had been fading seems to be getting some color back just in a few days of having the tank sparkling again. I had another acro which had bleached a couple of months ago, but I left it in the tank, now has color again. I allowed algae to grow on it for about 2 months and never touched it. I then began to blow the algae off it every day once I realized it was starting to color up again. Now there is zero algae growing on it and its almost back to its original dark red color. I'm very surprised but very happy with that coral.
I had another coral which looked similar to a green slimmer that bleached about a week after being in the tank. None of the other corals had an issue around that time, it was the only one. I've gain just let it sit in the tank and I'm noticing a faded green tinge return to the coral and there is no algae on it. I'm hoping it will return as well, but it still has a long way to go.
So that's an update. Now that I've increased the nitrates a bit, removed 90% of the dinos and hoping in time it will be 100%, the corals are responding. ( I didnt have a dino issue until I bumped up the nitrates, I guess too fast )The acans are puffed back out again and one of the chalices I'm sure has grown some just in 2 weeks. I also noticed one of the acros that sat in the tank for 3 months with no growth begin to encrust from the edge of the plug to the rock. That I noticed this morning. It wasn't that way a day or so ago. I'm hoping I'm again moving in the right direction.
The Pocillopora has always been a good grower in the tank. I bought 2 frags of it from Tidal Gardens about 4 months ago and both have more than doubled in size and encrusted very well over the rocks. I think every coral I have ever purchased from Tidal Gardens has done well in my systems. All the acros I bought from AquaSd have done well too. I couldn't get a birdnest to live until I got one from ORA. That one is beginning to grow. It could have been my system wasn't ready for a birdsnest, who knows but I've already fragged a small part of it and placed it in another spot and that hasn't grown yet, but its surviving.
Mike
I had a huge outbreak of dinos. I wasn't sure if it was cyano or dinos, so I started with chemiclean and removed carbon and gfo(which I had done to increase the nitrates anyway). I had also added some nitrates using the stump removal which people suggested on this thread or another. So my tank became a nightmare almost overnight. Ugh. Chemiclean didn't do much over a few day period, so I assumed it was more of a dino issue. I did have cyano starting in my biocube and used chemiclean and it cleared the cyano overnight. So I know the product does work.
Ok, so bought some Dino-X and it knocked down the brown yuk in the tank within 24 hours. Not completely, but 70% of it. I did a second dose the next night as suggested and it cleared up a bit more. I let it sit for several days, did 2 water changes and changed the filter socks every 2 days for a week. After a week or so, the tank looked so much better. The snails were on the glass and in the rocks again. The hermit crabs were active again. The zoas opened up. All the corals seem to be happy again. My nitrates held stable at around 3ppm and the phosphates are barely visible. The alkalinity jumped from 8.1 to 8.4 but I kept the ph and salt stable.
One acro which had been fading seems to be getting some color back just in a few days of having the tank sparkling again. I had another acro which had bleached a couple of months ago, but I left it in the tank, now has color again. I allowed algae to grow on it for about 2 months and never touched it. I then began to blow the algae off it every day once I realized it was starting to color up again. Now there is zero algae growing on it and its almost back to its original dark red color. I'm very surprised but very happy with that coral.
I had another coral which looked similar to a green slimmer that bleached about a week after being in the tank. None of the other corals had an issue around that time, it was the only one. I've gain just let it sit in the tank and I'm noticing a faded green tinge return to the coral and there is no algae on it. I'm hoping it will return as well, but it still has a long way to go.
So that's an update. Now that I've increased the nitrates a bit, removed 90% of the dinos and hoping in time it will be 100%, the corals are responding. ( I didnt have a dino issue until I bumped up the nitrates, I guess too fast
)The acans are puffed back out again and one of the chalices I'm sure has grown some just in 2 weeks. I also noticed one of the acros that sat in the tank for 3 months with no growth begin to encrust from the edge of the plug to the rock. That I noticed this morning. It wasn't that way a day or so ago. I'm hoping I'm again moving in the right direction.The Pocillopora has always been a good grower in the tank. I bought 2 frags of it from Tidal Gardens about 4 months ago and both have more than doubled in size and encrusted very well over the rocks. I think every coral I have ever purchased from Tidal Gardens has done well in my systems. All the acros I bought from AquaSd have done well too. I couldn't get a birdnest to live until I got one from ORA. That one is beginning to grow. It could have been my system wasn't ready for a birdsnest, who knows but I've already fragged a small part of it and placed it in another spot and that hasn't grown yet, but its surviving.
Mike
