SPS colouration (or lack of)

[chimera]

Still, my acro's are brown (some slowly colouring up, but not as much nor as fast as they should) After much research, I still equate this to both lack of lighting and also not enough light in the lower spectrum (currently I have 2 x 250W's with 14K bulbs). All other areas (water chemistry, current etc) are fine. Supposedly lighting requirements for a SPS reef should be 8-12 watts/gallon. Mine only converts to about 3.5W/gallon.

Here is an interesting conversation from a guy on WWM about SPS colouration:

Hi, I'm Bill.

I'm relatively new to coral reef aquariums. I've had much good

luck with my two 50 gal tanks. One thing that I'm noticing is that the brightly colored corals turn brown or darken relatively quickly after introducing them to my aquarium(s).

I have some idea that this has to be a lighting issue.

I have a 250 watt 14k metal halide that I thought would brighten ...or at least retain these colors.

The lights are on from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm ...too much?

I'm hesitant to decrease the amount of light out of fear that the corals will not receive enough light.

All other water parameters quality are constantly monitored and kept well within range.

Thanks for any help you could suggest.

Bill

REF: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/AcroFAQs.htm

This is not the only article I have found, many more that discuss pretty much the same thing.

Jetski is loaning me a 3rd halide to sit in the centre, hopefully with a 10K bulb too. It will be interesting to see what happens with coral colouration over the next month or so, will keep you all posted.

What is everyone else opinion on this? Thoughts?

[RnB]

how low in the water coloumn do your acros sit?

do you know that other who have purchased the same ones have nice colours?

wasp gave me a very pale acro that has become very orange, its right under (like 2 inches under the water) a 400W 6.5k MH, its growing slowly. I have quite high phosphates again as my RO membrance died and i did not have a TDS... now have a TDS and getting them lower again, it has not seemed to effect much tho....

Peter

[chimera]

acro's sit about 6-9 inches below water surface. lights are about 6 inches from the water surface (although reflectors are about 4" above this)

that was one of my other ideas, to put one of the brown acro's in steve's tank and see if it colours up - maybe these ones are just chocolate brown?

also on WWM someone writes...

...

I am trying to feed more and like I said, my purple corals are really starting to color up but the greens are not dark enough.

You are correct about the nitrates. My tank do not register any with my kit (selifert).

...

i have 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates (or rather undetectable) i dont overfeed. i could potentially upgrade my skimmer (Deltec TS1060, rated for 1,000 litres - main tank is 540 litres, entire system is 1,000 litres) although it does appear to be skimming well.

[Brianemone]

why not give zeovit a shot?? i think ill end up using it after seeing the resultsof the tanks around the place

[chimera]

why not give zeovit a shot?? i think ill end up using it after seeing the results of the tanks around the place

there is no doubting it works and works well, but it is not a requirement to get colouration of corals. i want to work out what my corals need now and get good colours, then perhaps later use zeovit and get great colours. take pies tank as an example, good colours and no zeovit.

i have good coral growth (although this is more related to calcium levels) and excellent polyp extension on all my sps. most of my sps show some form of colouring - except two larger brown ones i got from reef... all other sps have colouration at the tips, a couple colour extends about 1/2" further down.

[RnB]

not being negitive, but your skimmer is small given what you are trying to do as well........

want to by a bigger one 8)

[cracker]

Come and get some Mg off me....I thought you running at about 1100.

It wont be your lighting or your water parameters.

MG, Corbonate and Calcium HAVE to be spot on.

[Brianemone]

i wouldnt have though the Mg would effect the colour hugely.

how long have they been in there without incident?

[cracker]

I reckon 1100 could definitely be an issue.

I think Chim has been running at that for awhile, as his reactor hasnt been keeping up.

Im running 20k and my acros are very colourful.

[chimera]

Mg has absolutely nothing to do with colour, it mainly helps stabilise calcium and alkalinity

want to by a bigger one

tempt me, what is it

[cracker]

Magnesium, calcium and Carbonate builds corals.

Pottasium is the flowering element of plants and flower along with nitrogen for vegetative growth.

Magnesium is VITAL for Coral growth, just as the above is for plants.

Low element levels will effect growth in many ways.

[cracker]

Do you have prrof that MG has nothing to do with colour?

I would find that very difficult to ascertain and probably hard to find proof of in written form.

[chimera]

More importantly, do you have proof that it does?

[Brianemone]

My acros had nice colours before the flat worm incident and i had never dosed it. (water changes and calc only)

i didnt say it had nothing to do with it, i said i wouldnt have thought that it would have effected it that much

[cracker]

The proof really I spose would be what is contained in NSW.

Couldnt really go off much else.

I'm sure there is information somewhere on line that describes what each element does for a coral.

But personaaly, I just keep my levels a bit higher than NSW and there is then plenty enough for them to use.

[cracker]

Im sure Layton has something....or Wasp!!

[ZEOvitANZ]

Chimera,

How low is low on your phosphate test ? I presume you use a Salifert test kit ?! Do you double the reagents and still get no blue tinge in it ? Also, remember there is other types of PO4 that we can't test for.

Regards

Brendan

[RnB]

chim i will run a colourmeter test on your water if you like...

[cracker]

what are your phosphates reading on Salifert chim?

[lduncan]

Alkalinity seems to be a factor in colouration. Lower alk can result in brown corals, higher alk, more colourful, in my experience.

Layton

[chimera]

How low is low on your phosphate test ? I presume you use a Salifert test kit ?! Do you double the reagents and still get no blue tinge in it ? Also, remember there is other types of PO4 that we can't test for.

thanks brendan, yeah even a double test shows zero. i'll do a triple test

Alkalinity seems to be a factor in colouration. Lower alk can result in brown corals, higher alk, more colourful, in my experience

yes, borneman (i think) has the same theory. my kh is 9.6. he says anything between 9 to 12 gives good colouration.

colorometer would help rnb, cheers.

only two things i can think of is nutrient levels (bigger skimmer!!!) and lighting. i just got a loaner 150W 10K from steve, being lower wattage, I've mounted the light about 3-4" lower than the current 250W'rs. there is no doubting that it has visibly made a massive difference. the lower spectrum lighting should help too. here is the 150W crudely mounted at the back. note that i havent moved the 250's outwards, just stuck the 150W in the middle (for now).

i will no doubt get a 3rd halide at some stage anyway, so the 250's will be moved outwards giving a better spread of lighting. however for this test, the 150W'r is just stuck in the middle (bye bye moonlight )

here is the tank with 2 x 250W 14K's.

here is the tank with 2 x 250W 14K's and 1 x 150W 10K.

As you can see a substantial difference.

I have a small SPS acro that is sitting to the left of the tank, its the only one colouring up (pink with green tips). a few weeks ago i bumped it and broke a piece off so i mounted it in the centre of the tank, centre of the 2nd plate rock down from the top (just visible) this should be a good test to compare the same coral, one under 250 14K's and one under 150 10K's. i'll take pic's of both now then again every week.

[cracker]

You ignoring me chim?

I run my Alk/Carbonate at 12kh

[Brianemone]

that is a huge difference, sorry i completely forgot about the halide on saturday, i had other things on my mind

[chimera]

You ignoring me chim?

I run my Alk/Carbonate at 12kh

no, not purposely just the same thing repeated several times. thanks.

i am definately looking at raising alk too, 9.6 is supposedly ok but im aiming for a little higher to see if it makes a change. one thing at a time though, otherwise i wont know what the exact problem(s) are.

sorry i completely forgot about the halide on saturday, i had other things on my mind

no worries

[chimera]

just did another phosphate test - doubled (cant do higher without a larger vial!) = zero

still brendan is right, there are plenty of things i cant test for. i believe a larger skimmer will most DEFINATELY help, cant afford though. in fact, i bought a cheap queen skimmer in addition to the deltec, just to give a little more skimming - POS i really need to rule out things one by one first, lighting being perhaps the cheapest. i have read that some nitrates can actually assist with coral colouration, that feeding fish should not be overly reduced because SPS are pigs and need to be fed! i've started adding cyclop-eeze too, just a pinch daily.

what i'd like is to get someone in auckland who has good colours, to take one of my brown acro's (fist size) and put it in their tank to see if it colours up (or whether it's just a chocolate brown acro) i'll keep the other one and we'll see what happens.