Favia experts
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#reefsquad, any Favia experts among us?
Crabs McJones
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Low nutrients could be an issue. Was it this color when you first got it? Could be a reaction to your lighting. If the seller used T5's and you used LEDS or something along those lines could change colors in corals.
Favias dont like too low nutrients. I would feed it locally every alternate night. Dont tease it or move it they dont like that too.
Sabellafella
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I've had a few favias darkin up a bit. I pointed figures toward "not enuff par". interesting enuff, as soon as I raised the par in that area, it got it's vibrant color back. What I've also found is the shaded portion had ALOT better color to it. So I think it's a balancing act between light intensity.
does anyone know the reasoning for dark coloration in favias? Nutrients are pretty low ( maybe a little to low actually)sitting in 70 par. One of my fascination favias almost turning completely black. One month ago and now..
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jason7570
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Yeah, I have quite a few favias and for some reason this colony is the only one that is literally turning black. It was bright green and yellow when I received it. I have radion/t5 combo ( frag tank) so maybe I’ll move it closer to the middle and see how it does...
What par do you guys keep your favias at?
Thanks for the info...
What par do you guys keep your favias at?
Thanks for the info...
biophilia
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My favia colony is at a PAR of ~60-140 (half of it is a bit underneath a rock overhang). Coloration (mostly blue-green with some purple) appears to be the same in all locations. I've noticed that when my NO3 becomes undetectable, the parts of the colony with the least PAR darken and turn almost completely (dull) purple. They color back up within a couple weeks once NO3 is back up.
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I had a favia that was light pink and after placing it in a shade area it turned to a very nice dark red. So maybe lighting.
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jason7570
IG Riot_Corals
I’m guessing that’s what it is. I have such a hard time keeping nutrients in my system. I just tested my water 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates... I think I need to “dirty” up the water a little. Although, I do feed reef roids 3 times a week....Has anyone ever dosed nitrate?
biophilia
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I had the same issue and ended up resorting to dosing potassium nitrate (Spectracide stump remover). I feed pretty heavily, but was finding that further increasing the feeding was bringing up phosphates a lot faster than nitrates. I've been adding nitrate once a week to my water change water for the last 8 months or so to keep the tank at ~10ppm NO3 and it has improved coloration quite a bit. The exact ppm doesn't really matter. What matters is that there is "some" in the water column. I chose 10ppm only because that gives me a little buffer so that it doesn't accidentally drop to 0 if I don't test for a few weeks or skip a water change.
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jason7570
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Thanks for the info. Yeah, my system ( direct tank and two frag tanks) which are all linked together is about 5 years old and next to impossible to keep nutrients in tack. Starting dosing nitrates so hopefully things will start to look better....
