# SPS Coloring Up



## aquaticlog (Mar 24, 2012)

I'm really set on colouring up my SPS to their possible max. While some are doing OK, a lot of the other ones are not developing to my liking. Help me get them to their best coloration possible.

My water parameters are:
Calcium: 420
Alk: 8.5 dKH
pH: 8.0-8.2
Temp: 79.0 - 81.0
Phosphates: 0.07
Nitrates: 0
Magnesium: 1350

This 180 gallon aquarium has been up and running for 4 months (everything was transferred from a 100 gallon 2 year old reef). 72 x 26 x 22 dimensions.

I'm running 8 bulb ATI T5, 7.5 hours of 8 bulbs and 12 hours of 2 bulbs (blue+ and KZ Superblue).

Bulb combo:
Blue+
Coral+
KZ Superblue
Purple+
KZ New Generation
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

In the sump I have a frag tank and a decent size ball of chaeto that has been until recently running for 18 hours, but for the past 2 weeks I've had it down to 6 hours and lower light intensity.

Here are some photos of what I'm dealing with:

Red Planet is now showing a lot of white and not as much red










This acro is also showing quite a lot of white










This strawberry milkshake had a much richer colour a few weeks back upon introduction:










This guy is supposed to be blue:










I have been dosing AcroPower for the past couple of months, recently upped the dosage from 10ml to 20ml a day (!!!).

SPS expert opinion is needed.

:wave:


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

My SPS have colored up since I started zeovit, but I have to say, with a drawback for LPS.


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

i think nutrients are too low. are you running carbon and GFO? having 0 nitrates and 0.07 po3 and with sps pale like that bring me to that conclusion. are you running carbon and GFO? 

if so then stop the carbon and gfo, and start to feed reef roids and/or phytofeast, or some sort of coral food and you'll see color come back in like two weeks. 

don't be afraid to have some nitrates, or some p03; i'm not sure how many fish you have in your system but fish poop is the best coral food

i also started on the zeovit phol's xtra special, and while it helped with polyp extention, it was the feeding that brought back the color. since then i stopped the zeovit and colors are the same if not better.


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## Flameangel (Sep 25, 2013)

Have you tried adding Strontium lately?ZeoSpur2 is said to help bring out colors in SPS but DO NOT over dose coz it's very potent so start at half the recommended dosage and watch your acros how they respond.Your NO3 is okay but your PO4 is little high....try 0.03-0.06 ppm.


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## aquaticlog (Mar 24, 2012)

Flexin5 said:


> i think nutrients are too low. are you running carbon and GFO? having 0 nitrates and 0.07 po3 and with sps pale like that bring me to that conclusion. are you running carbon and GFO?
> 
> if so then stop the carbon and gfo, and start to feed reef roids and/or phytofeast, or some sort of coral food and you'll see color come back in like two weeks.
> 
> ...


Yes, I do run both. I did try taking GFO off for a month but saw only my phosphates rapidly increasing. No nitrates.

I dose reef-roids and the like every other day. Again, only increases my phosphates.

I got 4 tangs, 1 trigger fish and a few more fish in it.


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

aquaticlog said:


> Yes, I do run both. I did try taking GFO off for a month but saw only my phosphates rapidly increasing. No nitrates.
> 
> I dose reef-roids and the like every other day. Again, only increases my phosphates.
> 
> I got 4 tangs, 1 trigger fish and a few more fish in it.


what kind/how much carbon are you running? that could be stripping the water too clean. i use the vertex carbon, and that is strong stuff.

also what are you testing phosphates with? phosphates are one of those things that's hard to get an accurate reading of i find. my damn hanna checker always gives me 0 and that's with no algae in the tank.


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## aquaticlog (Mar 24, 2012)

Flexin5 said:


> what kind/how much carbon are you running? that could be stripping the water too clean. i use the vertex carbon, and that is strong stuff.
> 
> also what are you testing phosphates with? phosphates are one of those things that's hard to get an accurate reading of i find. my damn hanna checker always gives me 0 and that's with no algae in the tank.


150ml of vertex carbon in a mesh bag replaced monthly. 
Phosphates are measured with Hanna


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

aquaticlog said:


> 150ml of vertex carbon in a mesh bag replaced monthly.
> Phosphates are measured with Hanna


ah ok, i would ease back on the carbon. just don't change it out for a while and see if colors improve. atleast that's what i'd do


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## Flameangel (Sep 25, 2013)

You have to realize that every reef tank has it's own distinct qualities.We have different husbandry that we employ in our individual tanks (ie.additives,lighting,water parms. etc.)All these affect the corals (not to mention fish) that we keep in our tanks.Perhaps this article may help you understand a bit about Acros Coloration:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/12/corals Goodluck!!!


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## aquaticlog (Mar 24, 2012)

Flexin5 said:


> ah ok, i would ease back on the carbon. just don't change it out for a while and see if colors improve. atleast that's what i'd do


Thanks. I will give this a try.


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## aquaticlog (Mar 24, 2012)

Flameangel said:


> You have to realize that every reef tank has it's own distinct qualities.We have different husbandry that we employ in our individual tanks (ie.additives,lighting,water parms. etc.)All these affect the corals (not to mention fish) that we keep in our tanks.Perhaps this article may help you understand a bit about Acros Coloration:
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/12/corals Goodluck!!!


Thank you. I have read the article, but in all honesty must say that I don't think I would know how to apply it. It mentions nothing of nutrients either.  basically, still not sure what is the practical advice advocated in this article.


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## CanadaCorals.com (May 12, 2013)

Flameangel said:


> ZeoSpur2 is said to help bring out colors in SPS but DO NOT over dose coz it's very potent so start at half the recommended dosage and watch your acros how they respond.


I would be VERY careful when using ZeoSpur2. ZeoSpur2 does not nessasarily make an acro more colourful. It basically just forces the coral to expel the zooxanthellae from its tissue.

We did a 25% recommended dose when our acro's browned out (when using LED's) and it was nearly too much. The corals expelled most of their zoox within 24hrs. If I did a 50% recommended dose, I would have killed them for sure.

I then experimented with setting up a small tank, and doing the recommended dose in that tank. I placed the acro's in the tank and waited until the desired zoox was expelled and quickly removed them. Most colonies were ready to come out after 6hrs.

This is one of the only products that KZ has told us what is inside. It's essentially just copper.


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

Your coral look a little bleached.

The light schedule you posted seems to be a whole lot of "on" time (maybe I'm reading it wrong). Its seems like you have a 19.5 hour "on" schedule and 8 bulbs for 7.5 hours just seems like a lot for a 20" depth.

With 4 tangs (lots of poo) and a po4 level of 0.07 (somewhat high for a SPS tank) - I don't think nutrients is your problem. Ime carbon absorbs organics and metals and don't really do anything in terms of nitrates.

If you are running a frag tank in your sump - then how are the colours of your frags - if they are good - then its not a water quality/nutrient problem and I would suspect lighting and cut back.


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