pale colours sps

[fresh]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Would drop alk a little, and Ca a lot.

Out of curiosity, why drop alk? Isn't alk supposed to be around that number? My alk is at 10 and I have always kept it at 10.

I completely agree on dropping Ca to around 400 or a bit higher.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[kien]

Originally Posted by fresh

Out of curiosity, why drop alk? Isn't alk supposed to be around that number? My alk is at 10 and I have always kept it at 10.

I completely agree on dropping Ca to around 400 or a bit higher.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

When you run a probiotic system like Biopellets it is recommend to keep your alk lower, around 7-8 is ideal. Of course, you can run alk higher if you want, but again, that is typically not recommended.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by kien

When you run a probiotic system like Biopellets it is recommend to keep your alk lower, around 7-8 is ideal. Of course, you can run alk higher if you want, but again, that is typically not recommended.

Zactly!

[fresh]

But for non probiotic system, then 9 or 10 is perfectly fine, correct?
That explains the confusion.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by fresh

But for non probiotic system, then 9 or 10 is perfectly fine, correct?
That explains the confusion.

Yes, I used to keep my tank 9 - 11 before using Zeo. I even let it get that high now, but it's best to set a baseline when trying to figure out a problem like this.

[asylumdown]

My general rule of thumb with new corals going under LEDs in to a low nutrient system - only take their starting colour as a general guideline for what they will eventually look like. And it can take months for a coral to get to a new colour equilibrium in your system.

The process when I add frags to my system is pretty much always the same now that I have too many other well adjusted and happy corals to want to mess with the lighting in the tank to acclimate one or two new frags:

If coral is browned out when I get it -
1. Over the course of 2 or 3 days, the corals fades drastically, often to almost white. Whether this is due to the lighting, the low nutrients, or both, I don't know.
2. Starts plating, usually right away.
3. as new growth begins at the tips, the tiniest hint of it's 'actual' pigments begin to emerge, usually within 3 weeks.
4. within 1-2 months, the body will darken again to it's 'natural color' (often totally different from when it started)
5. 4 months later the coral looks exactly nothing like when I got it, and is either a pleasant surprise or a total bust.

If the coral is not browned out when I get it but came from a different lighting and nutrient regime -
1. coral loses it's 'brilliance' over the course of about a week-10 days
2. sometimes continues to fade out badly, often looking pretty washed out
3. begins to adjust, colours return to the max brilliance and shade possible for that species under my lights and my nutrient regime, which is sometimes less awesome than when it started, and sometimes way, way, way more awesome than when it started. Depending on the coral, this whole process can take either 3 weeks to 4 months.

If you're running BP and have phosphates under control, your corals will almost certainly take on a much more pastel-esque shade than in a higher nutrient system. On some corals that's an improvement and on others it's really not the best look. Some corals also just don't look as good under LEDs as they can under T5s or Halides, while others look way better. Even that is a crazy general statement given the different outcomes that the different LED diode mixes can produce.

But all the advice for the others here is pretty much bang on - if they're not dying and they're still relatively new, the best bet is to wait and see. They will still be sorting themselves out for a good few months. If your'e finding after a few months that you're losing something in your corals that you really really like and none of them are getting 'it' back, pay closer attention to the lighting and nutrient management systems of the tanks in which your favourites look they way you want and try to emulate that. Trying to convince a red planet in an ULNS LED lit tank to look the same as a red planet in a higher energy, T5 lit tank will be a losing battle.

[Tn23]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

My general rule of thumb with new corals going under LEDs in to a low nutrient system - only take their starting colour as a general guideline for what they will eventually look like. And it can take months for a coral to get to a new colour equilibrium in your system.

The process when I add frags to my system is pretty much always the same now that I have too many other well adjusted and happy corals to want to mess with the lighting in the tank to acclimate one or two new frags:

If coral is browned out when I get it -
1. Over the course of 2 or 3 days, the corals fades drastically, often to almost white. Whether this is due to the lighting, the low nutrients, or both, I don't know.
2. Starts plating, usually right away.
3. as new growth begins at the tips, the tiniest hint of it's 'actual' pigments begin to emerge, usually within 3 weeks.
4. within 1-2 months, the body will darken again to it's 'natural color' (often totally different from when it started)
5. 4 months later the coral looks exactly nothing like when I got it, and is either a pleasant surprise or a total bust.

If the coral is not browned out when I get it but came from a different lighting and nutrient regime -
1. coral loses it's 'brilliance' over the course of about a week-10 days
2. sometimes continues to fade out badly, often looking pretty washed out
3. begins to adjust, colours return to the max brilliance and shade possible for that species under my lights and my nutrient regime, which is sometimes less awesome than when it started, and sometimes way, way, way more awesome than when it started. Depending on the coral, this whole process can take either 3 weeks to 4 months.

If you're running BP and have phosphates under control, your corals will almost certainly take on a much more pastel-esque shade than in a higher nutrient system. On some corals that's an improvement and on others it's really not the best look. Some corals also just don't look as good under LEDs as they can under T5s or Halides, while others look way better. Even that is a crazy general statement given the different outcomes that the different LED diode mixes can produce.

But all the advice for the others here is pretty much bang on - if they're not dying and they're still relatively new, the best bet is to wait and see. They will still be sorting themselves out for a good few months. If your'e finding after a few months that you're losing something in your corals that you really really like and none of them are getting 'it' back, pay closer attention to the lighting and nutrient management systems of the tanks in which your favourites look they way you want and try to emulate that. Trying to convince a red planet in an ULNS LED lit tank to look the same as a red planet in a higher energy, T5 lit tank will be a losing battle.

Agreed and this is SPOT ON:
If coral is browned out when I get it -
1. Over the course of 2 or 3 days, the corals fades drastically, often to almost white. Whether this is due to the lighting, the low nutrients, or both, I don't know.
2. Starts plating, usually right away.
3. as new growth begins at the tips, the tiniest hint of it's 'actual' pigments begin to emerge, usually within 3 weeks.
4. within 1-2 months, the body will darken again to it's 'natural color' (often totally different from when it started)
5. 4 months later the coral looks exactly nothing like when I got it, and is either a pleasant surprise or a total bust.

I often compare my red planet to a T5 red planet.... it makes me very very how can I achieve this redness with LEDS?!