Why is my corals loosing color?

[Larsen]

Ok I have 150 gallon marineland cube with a 8 bulb t5 fixture. The bulbs are ATI 4 blue plus 2 specials and 2 pinks. I just got a new chalice and placed him 5 inches from the bottom and it seems like he is loosing all of his color. I am not real impressed with the color of any of my corals. I got a frag of green cap and orange cap. Looked great when I first put them in there and now the green is pale and the orange is now light pink. Is this to much light or what.Your input is very much appreciated. Thanks

 

[7Reefer]

Have you checked your Alk, Mag, and Cal?

 

[Larsen]

Yup
Cal=410
DKH=9.4
Mag=1320

 

[donfishy]

how old are your bulbs?

 

[Larsen]

1 month

 

[Troylee]

Sounds like your cooking them.. How long is your photo period??

 

[odie]

Sounds like bleaching

 

[Larsen]

I was running lights 9 hours just dropped it to 8 last night

 

[Troylee]

Try 5 or 6 hours for a couple weeks then bump it up like 30 min a week until you get your desired time... I run actinics for 6 hours and my mh for 4 hours and my colors are awesome... They don't need to be pounded for 12 hours a day lol... If you wanna long photo period put a couple pieces of egg crate on top of the tank to kill some light and remove one every other week... You can run a 9 hour photo period but you have to acclimate your corals to it..

 

[Larsen]

Ok I will try that bro. Is there anything I can dose to help color up coral?

 

[FaviaFreak]

Sounds like your cooking them.. How long is your photo period??

this...sounds like too much light

 

[RaysReef]

agree with troy on lighting period, plus CA has nothing to do with color. CA = growth

 

[Troylee]

You can dose a drop a day of lugols "iodine" it helps... Also try some coral amino once a week if you don't have any nutrient problems..

 

[Me z]

I would tend to think your underlighting your corals. I have a tank that from top to bottom is only 24" tall and I run 400w halides on it and rarely will sps bleach I even have an idaho grap and red apple cap about 2" under the water surface directly under the halide and they are far from bleached. Granted I run radiums so there is less par than a iwasaki or ushio but its still a ton of light and I run them for 8 hrs a day. When a coral bleaches it tends to happen very rapidly, a slow lightening of color leads me to think there is too little light over the tank. Think of the color of your coral like a tan, the darker the tan the more light it has recieved. Also check your P04 levels and see what you come up with that could be compounding the issue. Good luck bud.

 

[Me z]

Also what size of fixture do you have? Does it have parabolic reflectors? And just to add I could be wrong with the less lighting thing but I really do think I am right. Bleaching has always happend quick for me, my corals dont slowly lose the color.

 

[Troylee]

I would tend to think your underlighting your corals. I have a tank that from top to bottom is only 24" tall and I run 400w halides on it and rarely will sps bleach I even have an idaho grap and red apple cap about 2" under the water surface directly under the halide and they are far from bleached. Granted I run radiums so there is less par than a iwasaki or ushio but its still a ton of light and I run them for 8 hrs a day. When a coral bleaches it tends to happen very rapidly, a slow lightening of color leads me to think there is too little light over the tank. Think of the color of your coral like a tan, the darker the tan the more light it has recieved. Also check your P04 levels and see what you come up with that could be compounding the issue. Good luck bud.

what your saying is fine if you bring the coral up to that intensity over a period of time... you can bring chalices up to the top under halides also but you gotta work your way there... you cant get a frag from someone and plant it under a 400w bulb and expect everything to be okay... i mean your water could be super clear and the tank it came from has yellow water it will cook.... even if both tanks had the same lighting etc.... as for the po4 that would brown your caps or corals out.... bleaching is caused by one of 3 things.. temp is to high, lighting to strong, or not enough nutrients... just my 2...

 

[Larsen]

It's a 8 bulb fixture with Individual reflectors. The corals lost there colore in about a week

 

[Larsen]

What nutrients would I be lacking

 

[gar732]

Its all about light aclimation if he changed all the bulbs at same time it can and will bleach corals. I've done the same thing myself with a four bulb fixture over a 75. The solution that worked for me was to run my blue+ bulbs most of the day and slowly I ran the other bulbs longer each day. I bleached my red planet and running lesslight for a while it colored back up.

 

[Troylee]

all depends what you dose and what your water change schedule looks like.... pretty much a low nutrient or ulns such as zeo or vodka dosing etc is what i was referring to..... if your tank isn't sparkling clean with zero algae you got plenty of nutrients....