Let's talk color and variables in Sps coral.

[wickedfish]

I've had trouble with some colors lately in my tank. Granted I moved rock scapes around so I'm sure that's playing into it.

In most of our tanks a few shades are dominant and do well. I will be honest in corals like pink lemonade and red planet I don't get the maroon and bright yellow on pink Lemo and I get a regular red on the RP. Curiously I have a red robin stag that is bright red and is beautiful. Other thing that is curious is my Raspberry limeade does have that burgundy/pink PE the pink Lemo does not.

I've noticed in my tank purples and blues like less lighting if you like a deeper purple keep em at mid to low. I recently raised my Hawkins (sp.?) around 4" and it lost its blue/purple hue.

Anyone have a clue what to do? Should I be doing more consistent WC's? I've been doing every 3 weeks but I've been all over the place with total amount changed. Should I dose something for yellows?

Do you guys have issues with particular colors? This would be a good thread to hear people's theories on colors and possibly how to up the game to perfect em.

 

[BluRocket3]

I've had issues in the past with blues and purples, however I started to dose potassium and the blues and purples seem to come out better than ever when I would dose potassium. My hawkins was a more green color when I first got it, then I moved it up to higher light and got a lighter blue shade out of it and think it looks better. My Cali tort likes mid to lower lighting and tends to grow pretty good in that setting, same goes for my mother of pearl. The only coral I always have issues with is strawberry shortcake, I can never find a good place for it. All other Sps I usually do well

 

[wickedfish]

I've had issues in the past with blues and purples, however I started to dose potassium and the blues and purples seem to come out better than ever when I would dose potassium. My hawkins was a more green color when I first got it, then I moved it up to higher light and got a lighter blue shade out of it and think it looks better. My Cali tort likes mid to lower lighting and tends to grow pretty good in that setting, same goes for my mother of pearl. The only coral I always have issues with is strawberry shortcake, I can never find a good place for it. All other Sps I usually do well

My Aussie short cake loves light. I've always had it in at least 375 par. Also likes medium to high flow but not direct.

 

[BluRocket3]

My Aussie short cake loves light. I've always had it in at least 375 par. Also likes medium to high flow but not direct.

What's your toughest Sps to keep?

 

[wickedfish]

What's your toughest Sps to keep?

Honestly the one that keeps melting on me is a simplex I bought at Rap 3 years ago. Put it this way 3 years later it's the same size as when I bought it. Grew it to about a baby fist then a Cody fist and now it's back to a Sanhchi Schmekel.

and that purple nana that got encrusted by a montipora and so it was losing.
Any salinity swing or temp above 81.6F. And the simplex melts.

Solitudes Red Planet. On my third attempt It was fine for a long time. Then I decided to move pumps around and boom it started to melt on me. I grew it into a baby arm and now it's the size of three fingers.

If it's an LE piece from Aaron or some other collector the piece is usually rocking with out issue.

If I had a chiller I don't think I would lose any coral. Might have to suck it up in the Spring and get one.

 

[Six2seven]

do you feed your corals? mine tend to color up with consistent feeding. Ive tried aminos and I saw no noticeable change except the pinks got pinker but still not as bright as I would like. my Hawkins is in what I think is low light shaded by large branches of a green slimmer and it has a nice light blue/green color so I left it alone.

I think smaller, more frequent water changes work best for my tank.

 

[Ddavies564]

When I keep my tank super low nutrient wise I would often have to keep an eye on my blue corals and play with the halides as I would se them start to pale. I ran Gfo, carbon and was dosing vinegar. Then I read some some article and decided to combat the pale with more feeding this worked and I was still using the same filtration methods as before. With the vinegar I could feed soo much if felt kinda wierd and the pale would go away. At this time the tank was by far the cleanest ever and the colors where awesome but it was allot of work. So once I started planning and setting up my new tank I scaled back my effort and time spent on my old tank no vinegar , no Gfo, way less feeding ,same carbon. And they all definitely lost some color and browned a little bit. But the cheato took off. And slowly with water changes and the fuge the color came back with much less work. Do allot of methods can work but What it comes down to is a balance between nutrient and how hard you hit them with light, a browned out healthy coral can take a lot of light , crank the halides. Almost can bleach the brown out of it. A starving pale ulns system coral looks frail and grows slow. I seem to have the best luck with nitrates at 5 ppm on a salifert test and phosphate at .05 on a hanna and just adjust my water changes or feeding according to weekly test of these two. I mount my corals on plugs similar to the maricultured plugs acros come on that way I can move them for a couple months to find the best spot. Also I was using two part but ending up switchingto kalkwasser to take up the majority of what I was dosing. Then the ph of the tank raised and now is consistently at 8.3 day and night and I feel that this has help sps growth. Potassium as well I dose a drop into a 60 gallon system twice a week and I have noticed better purples.

You would be surprised how much a fan can cool a tank to instead of a chiller.

 

[wickedfish]

do you feed your corals? mine tend to color up with consistent feeding. Ive tried aminos and I saw no noticeable change except the pinks got pinker but still not as bright as I would like. my Hawkins is in what I think is low light shaded by large branches of a green slimmer and it has a nice light blue/green color so I left it alone.

I think smaller, more frequent water changes work best for my tank.

What do you feed your Sps directly?

 

[robert_ellis]

I use to dose the Red Sea coral color 4 bottle deal on my old tank and noticed better color. Since I have upgraded I haven't used it but have been thinking about it. The rs color program has hat ever trace elements are needed to boost whatever color the 1 bottle is designed for.

 

[wickedfish]

When I keep my tank super low nutrient wise I would often have to keep an eye on my blue corals and play with the halides as I would se them start to pale. I ran Gfo, carbon and was dosing vinegar. Then I read some some article and decided to combat the pale with more feeding this worked and I was still using the same filtration methods as before. With the vinegar I could feed soo much if felt kinda wierd and the pale would go away. At this time the tank was by far the cleanest ever and the colors where awesome but it was allot of work. So once I started planning and setting up my new tank I scaled back my effort and time spent on my old tank no vinegar , no Gfo, way less feeding ,same carbon. And they all definitely lost some color and browned a little bit. But the cheato took off. And slowly with water changes and the fuge the color came back with much less work. Do allot of methods can work but What it comes down to is a balance between nutrient and how hard you hit them with light, a browned out healthy coral can take a lot of light , crank the halides. Almost can bleach the brown out of it. A starving pale ulns system coral looks frail and grows slow. I seem to have the best luck with nitrates at 5 ppm on a salifert test and phosphate at .05 on a hanna and just adjust my water changes or feeding according to weekly test of these two. I mount my corals on plugs similar to the maricultured plugs acros come on that way I can move them for a couple months to find the best spot. Also I was using two part but ending up switchingto kalkwasser to take up the majority of what I was dosing. Then the ph of the tank raised and now is consistently at 8.3 day and night and I feel that this has help sps growth. Potassium as well I dose a drop into a 60 gallon system twice a week and I have noticed better purples.

You would be surprised how much a fan can cool a tank to instead of a chiller.

Have a fan but for some reason it still hovered into the red 82.6 degrees one day.

 

[wickedfish]

I use to dose the Red Sea coral color 4 bottle deal on my old tank and noticed better color. Since I have upgraded I haven't used it but have been thinking about it. The rs color program has hat ever trace elements are needed to boost whatever color the 1 bottle is designed for.

I'm gonna try one and see.

 

[Ddavies564]

Have a fan but for some reason it still hovered into the red 82.6 degrees one day.

Possibly a bigger fan? Replacing top off water is much cheaper then running a chiller, I installed a big blower fan on a 8 x4 frag tanks that where in a hot shop during the summer and it dropped the temp from 81 to a consistent 78.

 

[Six2seven]

What do you feed your Sps directly?

Lately what I've been doing for fun is mixing a little oysterfeast with my golden pearl and adding a few drops of vitamin c. Mix it and spot feed. Been testing out aminos some corals like it direct and some don't. Overall when I feed normally I see better results

 

[wickedfish]

Lately what I've been doing for fun is mixing a little oysterfeast with my golden pearl and adding a few drops of vitamin c. Mix it and spot feed. Been testing out aminos some corals like it direct and some don't. Overall when I feed normally I see better results

Where are you getting oyster fEast? I need some. That stuff is legit. My Clam literally goes into a frenzied convulsion eating the stuff. So it has to be good. The pearls you mentioned somewhere but I forgot.

 

[Six2seven]

Where are you getting oyster fEast? I need some. That stuff is legit. My Clam literally goes into a frenzied convulsion eating the stuff. So it has to be good. The pearls you mentioned somewhere but I forgot.

This place here in San Pedro stocks it regularly but I hate the store. Guy is a straight salesman to the max. Ten times what the guy at mystic reef is.

But rancho PV has a lot of tanks. Never met any of them on the forums but I've talked to a few. Guy does service on all their tanks.

Google brine shrimp direct. They sell the pearl stuff. Just got to get the fine powder for the sps. It's real cheap and smells like dog sht

 

[lowbudget]

your problem is stop messing with your tank. freaken leave it alone for 6-8 months do your gfo, carbon small water changes. dont add fish, dont add coral, dont take away fish, dont take away coral. leave it for 6 months. just do regular maintenance dont stress too much to have your tank look like waynes tank. let it grow. i bet you it will look better in 6 months

 

[Mr. Plant]

your problem is stop messing with your tank. freaken leave it alone for 6-8 months do your gfo, carbon small water changes. dont add fish, dont add coral, dont take away fish, dont take away coral. leave it for 6 months. just do regular maintenance dont stress too much to have your tank look like waynes tank. let it grow. i bet you it will look better in 6 months

+1….. Just keep it stable…..

 

[wickedfish]

This place here in San Pedro stocks it regularly but I hate the store. Guy is a straight salesman to the max. Ten times what the guy at mystic reef is.

But rancho PV has a lot of tanks. Never met any of them on the forums but I've talked to a few. Guy does service on all their tanks.

Google brine shrimp direct. They sell the pearl stuff. Just got to get the fine powder for the sps. It's real cheap and smells like dog sht

His name is Juan if it's the shorter brother. I'll go in haven't been there in years.

 

[wickedfish]

your problem is stop messing with your tank. freaken leave it alone for 6-8 months do your gfo, carbon small water changes. dont add fish, dont add coral, dont take away fish, dont take away coral. leave it for 6 months. just do regular maintenance dont stress too much to have your tank look like waynes tank. let it grow. i bet you it will look better in 6 months

Not stressed about looking like anyone's tank. It's more perfecting placement of current inventory. I need more frags so not adding is not an option.

 

[jjmelgoza]

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1583005
This hass great info for sps color, check it out.

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