Strawberry shortcake help

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

Hello everybody, I've had a strawberry shortcake frag that has grown quite significantly over the past three months, and still continues to grow moderately fast. My issue is coloration

This is really my only acropora in my tank that doesn't have great color and I'm not sure what else I can do. Here are my parameters:

Calcium- 420
Alk- 9.5
Mag- 1300
(I use a GEO612 so all levels are pretty stable)
Nitrate- 0
PO4- .02
Temp- 79

My tank is lightly stocked, only having 3 fish in my 80 rimless. I feed my corals ReefRoids once a week but I may stop that for an entire month just to see how it goes. The acro is about 18" under my 2x 250 watt radium with VHO actinic. I plan to lower my lights 6'' whenever I build my new hanging canopy. I know there isn't much, if anything, y'all can do. I'm just looking for some advice on getting more color on my SS. Thanks

Diesel · Nov 15, 2013

SSC are not a easy Acro to keep.
I have three in my tank and find the best place for it.
Now after 1 year and good encrusting finally the two closed to the lights are having awesome color and growth.
Give it some time and good flow.
GL

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

Here are the only current pics I have of it. It's just above the red planet.

spspirate · Nov 15, 2013

Seems really healthy.

bct15 · Nov 15, 2013

Is it brown, faded, or no pink in it with extra green? More specifics on what isn't colored right in your opinion can help.

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

The pink is faded and I'm not seeing as much green as I'd like

spspirate · Nov 15, 2013

Maybe bump your nutrients up a little, but not too much.

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

I'm guessing my nutrients are pretty low since I only have 3 fish. I plan to buy 5 anthias here shortly, though. I have no algae other than the typical glass algae that every tank seems to get.

spspirate · Nov 15, 2013

Sounds like a plan, keep us posted! This would be my guess. Also how fresh are your bulbs?

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

Radium- 2 months
(This is the bulb it's user)
Phoenix- 7 months

**i started a little experiment to compare the two bulbs 2 months ago. I'm switching to all radiums here shortly instead of having just 1 of each

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

*the bulb is under the radium.

I'm also leaning towards the fact that it's 18" below the light.

bct15 · Nov 15, 2013

If your getting film algae your Nutrients are not too low. I recommend you lower your alk to 8. When my phosphates are below .03 alk above 8.5 causes issues like faded color, alk above 9 causes burning tips. Bring down your alk. Do you know your potassium level? Is the green faded or is it brown? This coral likes light and flow.

adevice · Nov 15, 2013

Is that tang new, from the pic it looks like it could really use some fattening up. I know this post is about your coral, but I couldn't help notice.

spspirate · Nov 15, 2013

I did this with a setup of mine with a 250 mogul Radium and a 250 Phoenix mogul. I could hardly tell the difference but ended up all Radiums. Radiums for life!..LOL. I think 18" from your 250 is fine. Here is a pic of my shortcake. I would say about 15" from bulb. 4" under the surface. I fed a lot but kept the water very clean. 250 Radium 6x 24" actinic T-5's on a Lumatek ballast. Water is low in this pic because of water change.

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

It's about 7 months, but I'm getting great growth out of everything so far. I'm gonna lower my ALK to where it was before and keep it there.

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

Sure it needs to be fattened up. I've got about 20-25 frags that will grow into colonies on top of the 4 colonies I have now

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

spspirate said:
I did this with a setup of mine with a 250 mogul Radium and a 250 Phoenix mogul. I could hardly tell the difference but ended up all Radiums. Radiums for life!..LOL. I think 18" from your 250 is fine. Here is a pic of my shortcake. I would say about 15" from bulb. 4" under the surface. I fed a lot but kept the water very clean. 250 Radium 6x 24" actinic T-5's on a Lumatek ballast. Water is low in this pic because of water change.

Beautiful colony.

spspirate · Nov 15, 2013

childress5tyler said:
It's about 7 months, but I'm getting great growth out of everything so far. I'm gonna lower my ALK to where it was before and keep it there.

My dKH sets about where yours is at now. 9-10

childress5tyler · Nov 15, 2013

bct15 said:
If your getting film algae your Nutrients are not too low. I recommend you lower your alk to 8. When my phosphates are below .03 alk above 8.5 causes issues like faded color, alk above 9 causes burning tips. Bring down your alk. Do you know your potassium level? Is the green faded or is it brown? This coral likes light and flow.

The green is there, just not a ton. The pink is faded

spspirate · Nov 15, 2013

Looking at your photos your reef looks pretty clean. I have never heard of burnt tips on acros from having a dKH of 9-10. I have had burnt tips from a rapid increase in dKH but never at a sitting point at 9-10.