sps confuse me (help)

[Jake.g]

so i have had my tank running for about 5 months, its an upgrade with my old tank being converted to a refugium for it, so all the live rock and that is about a year old.

 

i'm having some issues figuring out why some of my SPS does really well and why some of it looks washed out.

 

my parameters are as follows

 

alk 8.1

cal 450

mag 1380- 1400

temp 26

po4 undetectable with salifert and 0.00/0.002 with a hanna egg

no3 undetectable with salifert

 

i have a nanobox duo over the tank for lighting and its turned up relatively high. the tank is only 30cm deep and the total volume is about 270/300 liters

i feed KZ sponge power, acro power, KZ phols extra and KZ coral vitalizer.

also dose the red sea colors so ABCD ( iodine iron copper and a trace of something)

 

https://flic.kr/p/oRqBMs'>https://flic.kr/p/oRqBMs'>20141025_095309 by https://www.flickr.com/people/27269787@N00/'>JAKE JAKE-SON, on Flickr

 

 

[Arkayology]

You might want to turn the nanobox intensity down a little. Are you using GFO, biopellets, or carbon dosing? You could try feeding more and let the water get a little dirtier.

 

Are your params fairly stable?

[CrazyCarl]

Are you dosing 2 part and if so, how? How often and what % water changes? You say light turned up relatively high, have you tried turning them down a notch and see how the corals react? How is PE and growth?

[Jake.g]

Well im dosing all mag and cal all red sea liquids. My parameters are all pretty stable..had a few fluctuations with mag recently. I run GFO and carbon dose (no3pox4) iv recently turned the white intensity down on the nanobox. What confuses me is that my shortcake and pink lemonade have awesome color and the polyp extension is pretty amazing, everything look fluffy. And growth is pretty good as well

[East1]

I'd say your nutrients are too low - I'd feed a bit more or start dosing some amino acids - I personally really like Salifert Coralline Amino acids, but if you use the Red Sea colour/foundation you can do well going with the two part carbs/amino acids they have, it sounds like they're lightening due to the lack of free nutrient, How often do you feed and what's your fish load like?

[Jake.g]

well i feed every day, either mysis or a combo of mysis and pellets. as for fish i have a decora goby, two clowns a leopard wrasse, a mystery wrasse, three banggai cardinals and five glass cardinals. so its a decent bio load.

as for amino acids i dose every night, i dose acro power, i use the zeovit amino acid and phols extra which is some sorta coral thing which is supposed to help with washed out color. as well as the zeo vit coral food.

[FishTacos]

Try cutting lighting intensity back

[masterbuilder]

Sounds like your parameters are OK, except try to bring up your nitrates until they are just detectable. Thats a lot of stuff your adding as food. Amino Acids are really only useful for ULNS. I would cease all the additives and try Oyster Feast mixed with Reef Roids or Coral Frenzy. Feed as much as you can with flow turned way down or even off. You will know when you have fed too much or too often when you see signs of nutrient build up.

 

 

I would also drop the intensity of your lighting some. We have been brainwashed to think SPS need to be fried with high light, thats just not the case with LEDs. Shoot for a happy medium with your light intensity.

 

Its hard to get it where every SPS stick is happy. Most everyone has a couple that just dont live up to their potential. You can either replace them with something similar to your good ones or just live with it.

[markalot]

well i feed every day, either mysis or a combo of mysis and pellets. as for fish i have a decora goby, two clowns a leopard wrasse, a mystery wrasse, three banggai cardinals and five glass cardinals. so its a decent bio load.

as for amino acids i dose every night, i dose acro power, i use the zeovit amino acid and phols extra which is some sorta coral thing which is supposed to help with washed out color. as well as the zeo vit coral food.

 

Stop dosing all the crap for now. Acro Power and Zeovit amino is nearly the same thing, and all of these are like eating vitamins but skipping the meals, you'll starve! Acros need clean water but they also need food in the water. I always recommend feeding pinches of Reef Roids daily because it just works. There may better foods, and cheaper foods, but I know this works.

 

You will notice that people with huge fish loads don't even need to feed the corals, but most of us, while overstocked, are not THAT overstocked.

[Jake.g]

i looked into reef roids but they are actually crazy expensive over here. the coral vitalizer that i use is a food not an amino acid compound. so i figured i would give this stuff a go first. a far as dosing two amino i figured it wont do any harm and plus got the acro power for free from a mate so i figured what the hell.

 

i might try and reduce the amount a carbon dose to "dirty " up the water a little, i'm always nervous when doing this as i'm scared nutrients will just spike.

[masterbuilder]

I have noticed that the commercial growers that say what they feed all include Oyster Eggs in their food. You should be able to find that "down under".

[markalot]

i looked into reef roids but they are actually crazy expensive over here. the coral vitalizer that i use is a food not an amino acid compound. so i figured i would give this stuff a go first. a far as dosing two amino i figured it wont do any harm and plus got the acro power for free from a mate so i figured what the hell.

 

i might try and reduce the amount a carbon dose to "dirty " up the water a little, i'm always nervous when doing this as i'm scared nutrients will just spike.

 

Yea, it's a tad expensive up here as well. In my opinion the secret to acros is starting with the basis and doing as little as possible to color them up. Keeping it simple really works. Doubling up amino mixes is not doing anything and there is no solid proof that level of aminos is even needed. You'll notice on the Acro Power bottle the recommended dosage is rather low, which is probably about right.

 

As far as Reef Roids I always point people to this study done on the topic of coral farming:

 

http://www.academia.edu/1647139/Coral_farming_effects_of_light_water_motion_and_artificial_foods

 

You can close the popup to read the article. It's only one study, but it's a good read.

[Jake.g]

i'l have a look for it next time i swing by the LFS i go to. i might have to call around for it...it surprising ho hard it is to find stuff here sometimes...hooray for living in the most isolated city in the world!

[Jake.g]

Yea, it's a tad expensive up here as well. In my opinion the secret to acros is starting with the basis and doing as little as possible to color them up. Keeping it simple really works. Doubling up amino mixes is not doing anything and there is no solid proof that level of aminos is even needed. You'll notice on the Acro Power bottle the recommended dosage is rather low, which is probably about right.

 

As far as Reef Roids I always point people to this study done on the topic of coral farming:

 

http://www.academia.edu/1647139/Coral_farming_effects_of_light_water_motion_and_artificial_foods

 

You can close the popup to read the article. It's only one study, but it's a good read.

 

definitely a good read, i might look at reef roids when i use this stuff up,

i think i'm gonna look at reducing my light then reduce the dosing when i get the colors into the coral, then just use enough to maintain

[Jake.g]

i was just wondering does anyone know what colors demand what conditions?\

i just ask this cause all my pink corals seem to be coloring up nicely but my blues, purples and greens not so much

[basser1]

 

i was just wondering does anyone know what colors demand what conditions?\

i just ask this cause all my pink corals seem to be coloring up nicely but my blues, purples and greens not so much

 

Look at this thread on reef-central and read post #4.

 

The poster gives some guidelines on what is needed to highlight different colors.

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1906920&highlight=potassium

[Snow_Phoenix]

Reef roids are expensive everywhere in the world. It took me six months of saving before I could actually purchase a small nano reef-roids container. But it was the best coral food I'd ever purchased. Full PE on my finger leather and all other corals. They love that stuff. So even if it pinches the wallet, this is one food you don't want to miss. It's really good.

[Jake.g]

does a specific light spectrum help with different colors?

i'm thinking about dishing out for reef roids but i am getting a t5 retofit and then a calcium reactor so i can keep the tank running whil ei'm away working.