sps RED colors.... looking for the reef geeks

Tahoe61 · Aug 19, 2015

Less, move it down if everything else is doing fine where it is under the current lighting intensity.

Myka · Aug 19, 2015

IME, to keep Hyacinthus/Mille/Convexa red they need high light. I've found red to be the most light-hungry color. In my old tank I had my RP maybe 8" under water from 250W Phoenix SE halides that were 6" above the water. It was solid red with pink growth tips - no green. If I dropped nutrients to ULNS then I started to see green too.

aslmx · Aug 20, 2015

Mine is low in the tank under 250 radiums with no actinics. It's a bright red with more of lime green base. I'd love to get some actinics to see what it would look like. Crappy cell phone pic. This thing grows like a weed for me. This is 7 months from a 1" frag.

Russ265 · Aug 20, 2015

aslmx said:
Mine is low in the tank under 250 radiums with no actinics. It's a bright red with more of lime green base. I'd love to get some actinics to see what it would look like. Crappy cell phone pic. This thing grows like a weed for me. This is 7 months from a 1" frag.

looks like a purpleish red. mine is going that color as well.

Diesel · Aug 20, 2015

Russ, IMO just leave it alone.
Most ppl have white sticks and they don't care what color it turns into as after bone white any color will work.
Time will tell and you'll be amazed in most cases what they'll turn into in a few months.
You don't do anything wrong, just don't push nature as it will push back on you.
If you ask yourself "what would Adam @Battlecorals do?" well............

And for that matter @Paul B would say "more supermodels"

Russ265 · Aug 20, 2015

Diesel said:
Russ, IMO just leave it alone.
Most ppl have white sticks and they don't care what color it turns into as after bone white any color will work.
Time will tell and you'll be amazed in most cases what they'll turn into in a few months.
You don't do anything wrong, just don't push nature as it will push back on you.
If you ask yourself "what would Adam @Battlecorals do?" well............
And for that matter @Paul B would say "more supermodels"

i think you give some legit advice, however i am not one to just be happy with "any" color if it isn't bone white.
also, if i took this advice without interfering with nature, i would still have bone-white paling sticks waiting for nonexistent nitrate.
the question pertains to reds, and what others have done to either deepen or lighten them. green has been used to state that the light isnt enough on red.
the example here are two red sticks. on the left deepening in color to a purple, on the right brightening to a fluorescing green.
contradictory in a sense that all reds are created equal.
while you may be perfectly happy with corals just surviving in a glass box, i would like to tweak this canvas a bit.

not sure your reference to adam or paul but, i hope it wasnt a jab at stiffling the exchange of ideas and conversations on the hobby we all enjoy in our own ways.

Diesel · Aug 20, 2015

Russ don't get me wrong at all.
Your right in that we all enjoy this hobby in our own ways and no stifling here just hoping on a wide variety of opinions from hobbyist that been in this a long time.
This same issue I discussed with Mike about tweaking colors and it will all come down to water chemistry.
Each tank act different in it's own way and sometimes tweaking isn't a good thing to do, most cases your system needs to be stable for a year or two to have a real grip on colors
I have many red corals and they all give different colors in different spots and flow.
We all know less light gives you darker red and more green, more light is lighter color, less nutrients is pastel colors and more nutrients is deeper in color.
IMO opinion you should tweak a bit with your potassium and iron, flow may ad a bit to that as well.
Your light should be ok, I've used many light sources and I didn't noticed any difference long term.

Russ265 · Aug 20, 2015

Diesel said:
Russ don't get me wrong at all.
Your right in that we all enjoy this hobby in our own ways and no stifling here just hoping on a wide variety of opinions from hobbyist that been in this a long time.
This same issue I discussed with Mike about tweaking colors and it will all come down to water chemistry.
Each tank act different in it's own way and sometimes tweaking isn't a good thing to do, most cases your system needs to be stable for a year or two to have a real grip on colors
I have many red corals and they all give different colors in different spots and flow.
We all know less light gives you darker red and more green, more light is lighter color, less nutrients is pastel colors and more nutrients is deeper in color.
IMO opinion you should tweak a bit with your potassium and iron, flow may ad a bit to that as well.
Your light should be ok, I've used many light sources and I didn't noticed any difference long term.

thanks a ton diesel, you gave me a lot to chew on for a bit.

Emac909 · Aug 20, 2015

Here was my red planet when I got it 6 months ago

Here's how it looks today

ifarmer · Aug 20, 2015

very nice Emac,
did you have to dose anything in particular to get that great red color? or it's just a matter of times.
thanks

Emac909 · Aug 20, 2015

ifarmer said:
very nice Emac,
did you have to dose anything in particular to get that great red color? or it's just a matter of times.
thanks

To b honest, I don't do anything to the tank other then turn on my ro/di system once a week to fill up my 55 gallon top off barrel.
I haven't done a single test on my parameters sense November of last year. I could even tell u were there even at. I don't even know what my salinity is at. I haven't done a water change on the tank sense February; maybe January idk. It's just been up and running. I let the calcium reactor do it thing, make sure there's fish food in the auto feeder, drain the skimmer cups every now and then, and pull pretty much all the chaeto out of my fuge once a month. That's it. I don't spend massive amounts of time on this tank like I had on others. These days I hate to even get my hand wet anymore.

O yea let me add my tank has aefw too!

aslmx · Aug 20, 2015

Emac909 said:
To b honest, I don't do anything to the tank other then turn on my ro/di system once a week to fill up my 55 gallon top off barrel.
I haven't done a single test on my parameters sense November of last year. I could even tell u were there even at. I don't even know what my salinity is at. I haven't done a water change on the tank sense February; maybe January idk. It's just been up and running. I let the calcium reactor do it thing, make sure there's fish food in the auto feeder, drain the skimmer cups every now and then, and pull pretty much all the chaeto out of my fuge once a month. That's it. I don't spend massive amounts of time on this tank like I had on others. These days I hate to even get my hand wet anymore.

O yea let me add my tank has aefw too!

Lol. If it ain't broke don't fix it. That's awesome

jasonandsarah · Aug 22, 2015

Red planet In high light= pure red W/white base

Red planet in moderate/high light will be the same but the base will be green and the shaded undersides of the branches will be that deep purple

Red planet in lower light=green W/red highlights/coralites.

Here's my Red planet 2 days ago in what I consider moderate/high light.

Diesel · Aug 22, 2015

A few of my Red corals and I forgot how I got them the way they are.

therman · Aug 22, 2015

Beautiful @Diesel ...what are the bottom two (or one from two angles...)?

dankreef · Aug 22, 2015

Emac909 said:
To b honest, I don't do anything to the tank other then turn on my ro/di system once a week to fill up my 55 gallon top off barrel.
I haven't done a single test on my parameters sense November of last year. I could even tell u were there even at. I don't even know what my salinity is at. I haven't done a water change on the tank sense February; maybe January idk. It's just been up and running. I let the calcium reactor do it thing, make sure there's fish food in the auto feeder, drain the skimmer cups every now and then, and pull pretty much all the chaeto out of my fuge once a month. That's it. I don't spend massive amounts of time on this tank like I had on others. These days I hate to even get my hand wet anymore.

O yea let me add my tank has aefw too!

Haha I lol. D summed it up pretty perfect i'd say. I screwed around for many years trying to adjust too many things at once and you never know. Best thing i've found is leave lights and adjust nutrient levels. If you want deeper colors ime feed more, get more fish and feed. I used to run gfo, pellets checked p04 everyday, ect tried it all. Best results (thanks adam) took gfo pellets out, went back to basics. Fish, feed 2x day heavy, wait it out.

Sabellafella · Aug 22, 2015

For me 290 to 350 is green with purple to red tipss , anything above is all red anything below is all green

Russ265 · Oct 4, 2015

i wanted to share what happens to this red planet after a week of 0 nitrate....

before

after

im trying to get my nitrates back up but i thought id share...

WesF · Oct 7, 2015

Just metal halides, GFO, skimmer, and 2-part for me.

This is a red planet up high. Almost completely red. When I cut a drag and put it in the drag tank with lower light, it gets more green.