Coral Colours and Amino Acids

[bigblack]

Hi ron, don't add aminos if corals are brown, they will just make them more brown. You need to give us some more info about your system before anybody can really help, i.e lighting duration, how stable are your parameters, salinity etc most importantly how stable is your alk as that is key for sps. Flow thru the tank? How long has the tank been up, how long have the corals been in there? What test kits are you using to detect p and n, even the really good ones dont' do the best at measuring in the lows.

from what you've written about the coralife pulling out that much junk i would assume that nutruients are most likely the issue, so just take your time, feed a little less and let your system clean up, the best advice i can give you is make changes one at a time so that you can identify the problem.

[lorenz0]

I only have 5 fish in my 60 gal (slightly shorter than the 75) and haven't had a crazy issue with color. out of curiousity, what is your bulb choice?

[Ron99]

Tank has been running since last May, was set up with established and cycled rock from other tanks so there was no cycle to speak of. Lighting runs 10.5 hours each day. Some corals have been in there since last may much of the others have been in 5 or 6 months. Salinity is stable as I run an ATO. Other parameters seem a fairly stable as well although I don't check every day. But they are similar when I do test. Flow is about 300gph through the sump and I have an MP40 running about 2/3 full power which gives plenty of water movement. Test kits are a mix of Elos and API. I have also tried some hagen test kits too for phosphate and ammonia/nitrate/nitrite. But all read zero or very close to it when I test so I don't think I have a major nutrient issue as I can't see getting false negatives all the time. I'm also not seeing any algae blooms; just the normal dusting on the glass that needs to be cleaned every few days.

I didn't think a cup of skimate per week was that much. I see others pulling that much in a few days.

As for bulbs I have 3 x actinics, 1 x fiji purple, 2 x 75.25 and 2 x 12,00K actinic white. Lorenzo, what kind of fish are the 5 you have? Some eat and poop more then others. I have 3 fairly small fish in a large tank so that is why I am thinking low biolad as a possible issue. I was reading these:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

http://glassbox-design.com/2008/amin...-do-they-work/

[fishytime]

It could be your bulb choice....if the actinic bulbs you are running are a "true" or "pure" actinic then four out of your eight bulb spread are "color" bulbs...meaning they dont produce as much usable par as 10000-18000k bulbs...

as far as dosing amino acids goes...I am all for it....everything in the tank seemed to perk up when I started dosing it...

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by fishytime

as far as dosing amino acids goes...i am all for it....everything in the tank seemed to perk up when i started dosing it...

+1

[lorenz0]

Originally Posted by fishytime

It could be your bulb choice....if the actinic bulbs you are running are a "true" or "pure" actinic then four out of your eight bulb spread are "color" bulbs...meaning they dont produce as much usable par as 10000-18000k bulbs...

beat me to it. I agree with your bulb choices. i don't dose anything and my colors are still really good. Double check what type of actinics they are and if they are "pure" i would remove most to all of them. As for the fiji purple, take it out. Every combo i have run has always produced better color without the fiji in it.

I suggest aquascience bulbs to anyone. These preform on the same level as ati and give off great color. the KZ line is good as well but UVL and GE aren't fans in my books for SPS.

It sounds like your reef is stable, good flow but i just have a feeling it has something to do with your lighting.

btw, I used to only have 2 fish in my sps tank. If your worried about food for your sps dose some coral food.

[Ron99]

Well, even so I have 216 watts of 12,000K to 18,000K light about 4 to 4.5 inches from the surface of the water and the sps are all close to the top of the tank too so some are only 8 inches or less away from the lights. I don't believe it's a lighting issue. There should be plenty of PAR in the top third of my tank. I had to move some chalice and cyphastrea frags under some overhangs on the sand bed because they were getting to much light out in the open on the bottom.

I think I will try feeding the corals a bit more often. It's fairly sporadic right now. How often do you SPS masters feed and what is preferred? I have some coral frenzy and some micro-vert.

[simplycoral]

Originally Posted by Ron99

Well, even so I have 216 watts of 12,000K to 18,000K light about 4 to 4.5 inches from the surface of the water and the sps are all close to the top of the tank too so some are only 8 inches or less away from the lights. I don't believe it's a lighting issue. There should be plenty of PAR in the top third of my tank. I had to move some chalice and cyphastrea frags under some overhangs on the sand bed because they were getting to much light out in the open on the bottom.

I think I will try feeding the corals a bit more often. It's fairly sporadic right now. How often do you SPS masters feed and what is preferred? I have some coral frenzy and some micro-vert.

I personally would deal with the nutrient issue first before feeding anymore ..

[lorenz0]

any chance you can take a picture?

[buddyreefer]

don't want to sound rude, but i think you need to the advice given to you on this thread, feeding your corals more when they are brown is not going to give you the results you need, brown corals are usually a symptom of too high nutrients and sometimes not enough light, your test kits will not give you accurate readings because p04 gets locked up in things like algae giving false 0's. Coralife skimmer are imo not great skimmers, you might look at getting a more effecient skimmer and go from there.