How to get vivid colors from SPS corals

[Scorpius]

Don't forget good flow.

 

[Bacon505]

It's funny that sometimes we swear by the trace elements whereas some of the best sps keepers keep things as simple as possible with weekly water changes , high nutrients by feeding fishes , high light and high flow .
One of the best sps keeper - @Big E share your thoughts please ..

Regards,
Abhishek

Totally agreed, people tend to over complicate their system with all these additives, and supplements. you just have to remember, every tanks is its own.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

I haven't do any WC for more than 3 years. Not because i am lazy but my wallet is too small for it. After i learned all the tricks that works and stabilize my parameters, i started gluing my first SPS somewhere in October last year. Agreed, stable paramaters, good flow, adequate light of proper spectrum and nutrients are essential for SPS. Tweaking your light spectrum will give some extra pigmentation on corals.

 

[Velcro]

I am interested as well...ive heard t5s are for growing and leds are for cooking (coloring up) but I'd like to hear what the experts say.

lol what? So nobody had colorful SPS before LED??

 

[Abhishek]

lol what? So nobody had colorful SPS before LED??

On the contrary , many successful old timers had just radiums to color up acros .Till today , you cannot beat radiums for color and growth if system is stable enough .
Sometimes I feel , it's just better to leave the system alone and stick to basics of water change .
Acros take time to acclimate to tank and color will show up with time .
I have several acros that are fragsand hardly have any color beside brown . Tried many additives and it only makes things worse .
Currently just leaving things alone and sticking to basics .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[jsker]

I started the balling method to stabilize my parameters and my over all element consumption and I purchased new lights last year and my colors and parameters stay very steady and the coral is great. EDIT could have used and any more?

 

[Donovan Joannes]

I believe the only reason why MH lighting is good on both growth and color simply because it is bright enough and filled with almost all the spectrum emitted by the sun. Trying to mimic the same under LED is difficult but possible.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Photoshop...

All joking aside, here is a really good guide https://reefbuilders.com/2008/09/03/guide-of-sps-coral-coloration-make-them-more-vivid-bright/#

I dont think this write up is to accurate, some parts are in a way but a number of the parts are not.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Some decent top view pictures...

 

[Dilan Patel]

Beautiful tanks those are the colors im striving for. How do yall take top down photos?

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Beautiful tanks those are the colors im striving for. How do yall take top down photos?

Turn off all flow, including return pump. Wait until all surface ripples stop. Grab your camera and start shooting. Some will use glass/acrylic viewing bowl for better picture. The best method is using a waterproof camera.

 

[Dilan Patel]

ok cool

 

[Dilan Patel]

Any cool corals I should be ont he look out for? Love a diversity of colors if possible. Maybe name yoour favs.

 

[N4sty T4te]

On the contrary , many successful old timers had just radiums to color up acros .Till today , you cannot beat radiums for color and growth if system is stable enough .
Sometimes I feel , it's just better to leave the system alone and stick to basics of water change .
Acros take time to acclimate to tank and color will show up with time .
I have several acros that are fragsand hardly have any color beside brown . Tried many additives and it only makes things worse .
Currently just leaving things alone and sticking to basics .

Regards,
Abhishek

Basics of just water changes excludes any form of carbon dosing or a refugium I'm assuming? My biopellets definitely make it to where a water change alone isn't enough to compensate for loss in trace elements.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Any cool corals I should be ont he look out for? Love a diversity of colors if possible. Maybe name yoour favs.

Sorry sir. Out of 64 SPS frags/colonies, only 2 are confirmed with IDs (SSC & Pikachu). The rest remained unnamed

 

[Dilan Patel]

love both of those corals. SSC kind of out of my price range haha.

 

[Dilan Patel]

never mind the price has dropped. Might be a new addition...

 

[Donovan Joannes]

never mind the price has dropped. Might be a new addition...

Relatively cheap as more reefers have it in their tank. 95% of my SPS corals are wild frags hence the no-name problem.

 

[Robthorn]

Good thing you are on the internet with those old timer comments. When we are this old we have uncontrollable hand and arm movements when people are rude. ;-)

I have had very good color with Iwasaki 6500k and vho actinics and very good color with t5 only , led only and led/t5 combo. As long as you don't have complete junk its not the lights.

I am not much of a crappy cell phone or photoshopped picture guy but I do get a kick out of hearing wow everytime someone enters my living room. Especially when they have been keeping acros 20 years or more like I have.

 

[ashr]

Cal, mag, pot, can flex a little bit as long as you stay with in the acceptable parameters . Alk is the only thing that I work hard to keep on the money every day.
Dosing pumps for cal and alk maintain them spot on. Every 3-4 weeks I have to make small adjustments up to compensate for growth. Mag and pot, I dose manually every 2 weeks. Right after water changes.
Depending on your coral growth, will dictate the demand on cal,alk,mag,pot.
Alk, alk, alk, alk, alk.............this is key. Stable alk super important.
Bioload also important.

Anytime I have had major issues or losses are from big Alk swings... this is key!