ANOTHER sps color thread

KJoFan · Apr 19, 2017

So, the story goes...I had several sps frags that were mostly holding their color if darkening a bit under a Kessil 360. I didn't feel I had enough light (hence the darkening) so swapped out for a 150w MH. Either just the change or the increase in light toasted a lot of the frags. Oops.

Anyway, what's done is done there. The remaining frags browned out for the most part. The Red Dragon actually held it's color all the way through, it's still a brown shade of red, but...could be worse. Another frag I got as a freebie with a local buy was completely bleached out when I got it. It's the only one really gaining color through all this. Go figure. A couple others are now starting to get some color, but mostly just green. Some are as brown as ever, if maybe lighter brown than before.

Light swap was done...a couple months ago so I know it takes time for adjustment to happen with sps and I'm still in adjustment mode.

But is there anything besides the lighting change I'm missing that might help color come back? Parameters as most recently tested on Monday:

KH - 8.3 (this is down .5 dKH from previous test 10 days prior, so...maybe things are starting to grow again?)
Ca - 450
Mg - ? (didn't test)
Nitrate - 10 (Salifert...a little high)
Phos - .09 (Hanna ULR checker)

I feed very sparingly, some LRS maybe once/week if lucky. But the tank can easily go a week without any feeding. Pellets get tossed in on occasion as well.

So ideas? I've been hesitant to feed more because nutrients are high enough already, but...maybe more is necessary to get some color? Or maybe a coral specific food is needed?

happyhourhero · Apr 19, 2017

I would just give it some time and stability and things should turn around.

I am of the school of thought where high import and export of nutrients will add to coral color. I feed my tank LRF reef frenzy twice a day as well as pellets pretty much whenever I am by the tank. I run high flow, a good skimmer and an Algae Turf Scrubber. SPS need food.

I would also test MG just so you can be sure its good to go.

Icemam457 · Apr 19, 2017

I agree SPS corals love stable water parameters. I would just give them time to get there color back. Another school of thought you could try is you can dose more trace elements. depending on what you are dosing now. I have found that the Red Sea Color program as been a good one for helping corals regain there color. My company uses Aquaforest method dosing components +1 +2 +3 and we have had extremely good results with it.

KJoFan · Apr 19, 2017

I'm not currently dosing any trace elements or anything for that matter. Just weekly water changes and the food I mentioned. Things have been stable for awhile now. Ca and Alk are dosed via Neptune DOS and the most recent reading is lower than it has been for about a month, so I'm hoping that means growth is starting back up somewhere in the tank.

I suppose I'm leary of feeding too much/dosing anything extra due to current nutrient levels, plus this is a small (biocube) tank w/out a skimmer. It relies on weekly 5g waterchanges and good chaeto growth for nutrient export.

So, I don't want to get too crazy with feeding and all that, but I could stand to increase it even if for the fishes sake.