SPS Color Issues

[mshonk]

The excel I set up was for my tank you only need to focus on the yellow section. Dispite the yellow being square I marked the front of the tank at 24" for the reading and my tank is 18" wide. The only thing I can't try to acount for is and reflection off the glass on the sides of your tank.

I was reading my settings in that excel I adjusted my lights back down to 13" above the water a while back and with them ramped up to 100/100 I get about 350 par bottom center, 700 par top center, and the highest par my acros get is about 500.

 

[mshonk]

The parameters are good but my red monti is not liking the lower light. The thing is I grew it all at a higher intensity but turned it down due to the lps colour

I get it I was really worried about my elegance and keeping an sps dominant tank, being that the best place for it is bottom center-ish. It gets about 350 par and is happy and healthy. You've got a ton of digi's! and they look great in that video!

I have two montis [spongodes and a spiderman I think] and sponodes is good and I am not to sure how the other will turn out. It looks terrible. Slow and steady I haven't lost any sps yet! And some have had tissue necrosis.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Thank you so much for doing this. The only difference is mine has 120degree lenses on it so the spread is probably more but the lower in the tank numbers won't be as high as what you measured, the lens will spread more than penetrate so I think from seeing those numbers I'm going to work back up to 65/20 maybe 75/25 or even 80/25 but I'm going to try 5% per week and see what happens.
I wish I'd just stop bloody messing with the lights I see why t5 is coming back slowly.

 

[mshonk]

Thank you so much for doing this. The only difference is mine has 120degree lenses on it so the spread is probably more but the lower in the tank numbers won't be as high as what you measured, the lens will spread more than penetrate so I think from seeing those numbers I'm going to work back up to 65/20 maybe 75/25 or even 80/25 but I'm going to try 5% per week and see what happens.
I wish I'd just stop bloody messing with the lights I see why t5 is coming back slowly.

Well I maxed mine so there is nothing to change. but i have gsp getting 350 and zoas getting 250. Did you change your lenses?

 

[mshonk]

Oh and no problem. I wasn't going to get the seneye but no calibration is nice. Though, the caviat is buying cartridges/ chips. It measures temp, ph, par, lux, kelvin, o2, nh3, and nh4. Measuring the ammonia seperately (nh3/nh4) and nh3 reads down to the thousandth in pmm is awesome. Plus, I figure that if I stop getting the chips i will always have a par meter.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I get it I was really worried about my elegance and keeping an sps dominant tank, being that the best place for it is bottom center-ish. It gets about 350 par and is happy and healthy. You've got a ton of digi's! and they look great in that video!

I have two montis [spongodes and a spiderman I think] and sponodes is good and I am not to sure how the other will turn out. It looks terrible. Slow and steady I haven't lost any sps yet! And some have had tissue necrosis.

Well they corals were 1 inch frags and they grew really well but they encrusted for months before growing upwards when I accidentally frag it I glue it elsewhere in the tank. The red used to have amazing polyp extension and looked amazing under blue but the polyps don't extend as much in the middle of the tank just higher up so I think that light might be the issue.

in this photo the red looks smooth. When it used to look like.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Well I maxed mine so there is nothing to change. but i have gsp getting 350 and zoas getting 250. Did you change your lenses?

No but I think I might be wrong on what lenses are fitted. I bought it over 2 years ago now it works I just wish it was a set and forget.

 

[mshonk]

No but I think I might be wrong on what lenses are fitted. I bought it over 2 years ago now it works I just wish it was a set and forget.

https://www.viparspectra.com/goods.php?id=62 if its this one its pretty dang close to mine! I see what you are talking about. Tha digi is definitely pale in comparison.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Yeah it does look pale but from your test results I'm going back up to 65/20 how fast do you think I could get back up daily / every other or weekly increases?

 

[mshonk]

Yeah it does look pale but from your test results I'm going back up to 65/20 how fast do you think I could get back up daily / every other or weekly increases?

I had pale acros when I ramped up. But being that they are pale, likely from low light, I would shoot for more like 3 weeks. 2% on each every 3days the first week, 2% every other day for the second week, then every day after that until you hit your mark.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I had pale acros when I ramped up. But being that they are pale, likely from low light, I would shoot for more like 3 weeks. 2% on each every 3days the first week, 2% every other day for the second week, then every day after that until you hit your mark.

Thanks for that tomorrow it's going up. I should have just left it alone. Thank you so much for all your help and assistance with this. you're a star cheers.
I'll post back with results.

 

[mshonk]

Some updates. I still run carbon. Alk sits at 7.3 -7.5, still dosing no3 @ 15ml of the mix I made a day, po4 rests aroum .05, added a make shift algae reactor to make room for a frag section in the sump, bought a jebao ow10 and moved the eflux pumps to the sump[they suck and they were replaced once] one in the middle/frag chamber, and one in the first chamber to prevent settling. Testing like a mad man! I feed Reef roids 2-3 times a week target feeding, the fish get sheet algae, brine , and mysis daily, I dose reforest amino and energy every other day, and I dose trace elements with redsea's tracecolor tests and supplements as needed. But it is working. My sps are coloring up. I lost the spiderman monti but I dont think it had much hope when it first arrived. That red acro in the pics never had polyp extension. I also want to note that I had a few acros with tissue necrosis and they are recovering just fine!

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Great to see that what you're doing is working . I'm still raising the brightness on my lights it's at 50/18 a the mo so looking to go to 65/25 and see if the colours come back. Also I'm trying to get kh down to 7.5 - 8 as that's was when they looked and grew the best currently I'm at 9.3.

 

[mshonk]

Great to see that what you're doing is working . I'm still raising the brightness on my lights it's at 50/18 a the mo so looking to go to 65/25 and see if the colours come back. Also I'm trying to get kh down to 7.5 - 8 as that's was when they looked and grew the best currently I'm at 9.3.

Thanks, and I think it will all work out for you. I always used to keep my alk around 10 -11 dkh and I never had an sps survive after they started stn or rtn. I am definitely digging this new approach. Minus the algae from dosing. Though, I observed something cool. I will occasionally kill gha with boiling rodi water. I did it today and my tang wouldn't ever touch it until after I hit it with the boiling ro. He likes cooked veggies

 

[mshonk]

It's the little things. First time this cali tort ever was blue. Not much but it is blue!

 

[mshonk]

Update: Evertything is doing well. I want to post a few close-ups of a few sps but the cali tort is doing really well and my pearlberry is finally growing. My alk 7.1-7.5 cal 410-420 mag 1300 no3 1ppm po4 .05ppm i2 .6 k 430 fe undetectable.

 

[mshonk]

Progress!!!

 

[mshonk]

Man ph and alk play a very dangerous game.

 

[SeaDweller]

Man ph and alk play a very dangerous game.

Don’t chase pH. Alk is more important.

 

[mshonk]

Don’t chase pH. Alk is more important.

It seems that over a week span my ph swings from 8.25-8.35 [day -night] to 8.35-8.45 then back and has an impact on alk consumption. I use dosing pumps so when consumption decreases in the low range and I am dosing for consumption in the high range it concerns me about an alk spike. All my sps go into grow mode in the high range.