Garf Bonsai...who can keep it colored up?

Werdlone · Mar 2, 2009

Who is successfully keeping this coral colored up from base to tip? I see pics online of the entire coral being a bright purple with bright green polyps. Mine is only purple at the tips and an irredescent brown base. I know it is the real deal, it was all purple when I purchased it well over a year ago.

Who has pics and how are you keeping it??? high light, low light , flow?

Mine is under moderate flow, high light ( top of tank under 250 HQI phoenix 14K bulbs.

I run a low nutrient sps system and everything is growing and great colors, except the bonsai. grrrr

Spiderwoman · Mar 2, 2009

One of our local reefers has a ton of frags right now that are all absolutely gorgeous deep purple. I believe his frag tank is 250W Phoenix as well with fairly high flow.

Ladipyg · Mar 2, 2009

HIGH random flow...mine is just about 2" under 250 MH blubs with t5 actinic lighting and it is fully colored. These need a lot of light to keep their color

revaltion131 · Mar 2, 2009

The high light thing is definitly accurate. Mine was brown when it was new to the tank and moving it up towards the top of the tank colored it up. However, it's more of a bright, almost neon purple instead of dark purple. The polyps are so bright that I can see them from my desk ten feet away though. I think it would definitly get darker in even higher light, but I can't move it up without putting it on a "frag mag" on the back wall of the tank. It is in very high flow and also under a 250w Phoenix 14K.

returnofsid · Mar 5, 2009

Mine have held their color very well for about 8 months, under 6X54 T5HO.

Werdlone · Mar 5, 2009

Has anyone had one brown out and fix the problem??? I can't seem to figure out why I can't keep it purple. Some of my other purples are difficult to keep as well. Purple monster is light purple and tricolors are only colored at the very tips as well???? Nitrates are undetectable. I run phosban, but don't trust the test kits saying zero(accuracy is poor).

Any thoughts are appreciated.

reefboy · Mar 6, 2009

you might try changing spectrum of your bulbs maybe trying 20k that seems to give me the best color on my tri-colors and on just about anything got a bonsai a month or so ago but its actualy getting brighter so may just be the diffrence in spectrum because if you had high nitrate and or phospates you would see other issues.

Dejavu · Mar 7, 2009

Werdlone said:
Has anyone had one brown out and fix the problem??? I can't seem to figure out why I can't keep it purple. Some of my other purples are difficult to keep as well. Purple monster is light purple and tricolors are only colored at the very tips as well???? Nitrates are undetectable. I run phosban, but don't trust the test kits saying zero(accuracy is poor).

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Mine was one of the brownest corals in my tank for the longest time. It now is a deep dark purple. I find that little nuritents helps get the nice deep purple out. I'l try to get some pics.

alvieman · Mar 7, 2009

Agreed with Brian (dejavu) Nutrients help and high light/flow. I had one in a smaller nutrient rich tank, was solid purple tip to base. Was also about 4" under water using HOT5's. Kept color and growth well.

acronautical · Mar 7, 2009

I have to agree with the nutrient take; however, mine is about 2 feet, and not directly beneath, a 150 hqi 14K and a mix of Geissman T5's. The current is a soft, steady flow. When I first placed it in the tank about five months ago, a large percentage of the base turned brown. Once I began running GFO, it purpled back up. The base encrustation is growing well, with new "stalks," and the 1/8" rim of the base is an extra-dark purple.

macawmagic · Mar 7, 2009

I've got mine dead center of my 75 about 6" down. so it's not direct lighting, but it's getting light from both of the halides. PURPLE AS CAN BE!!! High flow (60-70x turnover) and i've had it under 3 diff bulbs. xm 10k, phoenix 14k, and now helio's 20k. all 250 watt DE.

hope that helps

Dejavu · Mar 11, 2009

Heres a pic with a litte nutrients.

mheaven · Mar 23, 2009

very nice.

I-K@ndY · Mar 23, 2009

here is mine middle of the tank

Acezwild · Mar 31, 2009

Pnoyreefer said:
here is mine middle of the tank

I got a frag last year from Pnoy and sure it has a hint of that brown at the base but it looks promising and the more it grows the more purple im getting all over. about 8 inches down with 14k phoenix

stunreefer · Mar 31, 2009

About 4-6" under a 250W DE Phoenix 14K on a Hamilton HQI. High light/flow:

SDguy · Mar 31, 2009

A local reefer here was able to keep all his pieces of it (he had many) pretty much solid purple. He had like one fish in the tank though :-/

macawmagic · Mar 31, 2009

reefsurf · Mar 31, 2009

i'm not sure about the high light...mine was colored up real nicely and growing under 150 mh in my solana.....now they're in my 180 under 150's w/ actinics and look great still...so i don't know!