ways to color up ricordea?

[amored]

hey everyone,

 

i have recently downgraded my 16G nuvo to a 4G nuvo pico with the intention of having it be a ric garden with sexy shrimp (and a trio of tiny green banded gobies that i just couldn't pass up). i am a poor grad student and in an effort to save money on shipping i bought a 15-pack of ricordeas from an ebay seller, rather than cherry-picking high-end rics and paying $35 shipping for each (ugh). some of them seem like they could be really fantastic colored (look nice under actinics) but under my regular LEDs they're pretty brownish and dull. some even are whited out (came that way).

 

params:

SG: 1.025

temp: 78*

nitrate: .5 ppm

phosphate: 0

 

light is one of the stock LED fixtures from my nuvo 16 (8W 14K LED).

 

any suggestions for making the colors nicer? anything i can dose, adjust, or feed?

 

thanks!

[Nano sapiens]

I wrote this up for another site recently that might help you out:

 

Flow: Many of these Ricordia are found in protected locations, such as lagoon areas in nature. I found a number of small yuma colonies on my last trip to Palau in just such locations in ~15 ft of water. My Ricordia are happiest when an intermittent flow just gently lifts up the polyp skirt as can be seen below following the link:



http://vid230.photobucket.com/albums...ps90lszxg4.mp4


Lighting: All Rics that I have started out with ~80 PAR on the sand bed, but over time as I've upgraded my lighting they have responded well to the increased intensity of a 'full spectrum' DIY LED array.
Some are currently receiving close to 250 PAR (both floridas and yumas) and since these are LEDs there is also a good amount of PUR from the blue spectrum. In my experience with them nice and slow acclimation to higher intensity is very important so they don't get upset, retract and expel zooxanthellae. I'm especially careful with any new wild Yuma (like the one in the video) to start them off with 'low/moderate' light and then observe behavior over the next month or two before deciding if increasing intensity is desireable, or not.

Feeding: I don't feed the floridas, but I do lightly feed the yumas 2x week. In an unfiltered tank like this one, target feeding is not really necessary, but individually feeding the yumas helps them to grow large and compete effectively for resources with the floridas.

The only additive (besides Kalkwasser for the stony corals) I use is Kent Concentrated Iodine (a few drops every week).

[opaquelace]

Try adding more blue to where it looks like a 20k fixture. I've noticed that most ricordeas under decent lighting that are well fed will color up or change color completely sometimes. I think it just takes some patience. Also yay for the green banded goby trio. Of all the fish in the reef community that tiny fish is by far my favorite of them all. I have one in my ten gallon and he's such a personality it's great.

[RK_tek]

The green banded goby is a great fish and their"personality" always brightens the day

[ninjamyst]

most likely they are stressed from shipping. i did a group buy and received a batch of rics in horrible shape. they were bleached and dull and small. other people in the same group buy threw theirs away but i kept mine in a low flow, low/med light area and just let them be. 1-2 months later, they turned yellow / orange / green.

 

Bleached and stressed

 

Few months later

[Paandemonium]

The reason why you probably got them that way is because 1) they got them themselves in Florida and we're having a LOT of bleaching issues because of the temperature 2) they got them from a supplier in Florida.

Give them time low light and good flow and they'll come right back. As long as they don't melt you'll be fine.

[Skuba]

+1 on the iodine. But be careful not to

Od. I started a light dose of 1 drop per week and been giving yuma n rics away practically since they grow

So fast. Even had a yuma smother out a deep water acro and part of

My ora Duncan. But be careful. The dropper that came on

Mine was dry n brittle and one night instead of 1 drop my tank got almost a whole dripper full. Never seen corals shrivel so fast and different looking, lots of carbon and some prime with a wc and lost nothing. But was a big wake up call to pull my head out of my u know what while dosing lugols.