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- Nov 6, 2017
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Hey there
Long time reader, almost first time poster. I've been keeping marines for about 6 years now, and one thing i've always struggled with is SPS colours. My latest tank, a TMC signature 600 has been up and running for 2 years, and is mainly SPS based. I should say, my other corals are mainly LPS, and I have a small bioload of 2 fish, a clown and a damsel.
My SPS are pretty much brown. Or at least, the reds are not red, and the greens are not green.
Some info about the tank:
Its around 110 litres after displacement.
I am running a radion over the top of it. I have recently changed my lighting schedule to run the SPS+ schedule, as previously i was running a custom one i made. Since this, the green montipora at the top of my tank has seemingly gone a little pale. Its currently on an acclimation timer for 4 weeks.
I am running an MP10 on reef crest mode of about 70% power.
I run rowaphos in a reactor, along with a bag of carbon, skim quite wet, and have a refugium with cheato in my sump.
About a year a go, i was running Triton, but came off of it because all of my LPS withered away, and all my cheato died. I am now using balling lite.
KH is at 8.6dKH, calcium at 420ppm and magnesium 1460ppm.
Phosphate, using a phosphorous hanna checker, came out at 0.009ppm (3ppb phosphorous).
Nitrate came out at 0.2ppm using salifert test.
I water change 12litres every 7-14 days.
I used to feed my tank about once a week on pellets. Because of this, i've been reading that i ought to either dose nitrates, or slowly increase feeding, defrosting frozen food, and then turkey basting my lps and feeding fish. I also have reef roids i've been starting to use also.
I also have bryopsis, which i have literally just started treatment of fluconazole for. Because of this, i believe that my nitrate and phosphate readings maybe incorrect.
My question is really related to how i can get the best out of my SPS colours. They grow, my hystrix and stylo have grown considerably in the last 5-6 months, but some acropora i have and my green montipora just lack those sharp colours, and in fact, only the polyps on the green monti have any colour. Should i reassess once the fluconazole has run? Should I consider dosing nitrates to get them up to around 4ppm (which is what i've read is a good number to keep them at for SPS), or is there something else i am missing. When i did an ICP a long while back, i had traces of copper, but these have since been eradicated, which I had assumed was the reason for poor tank health.
Obviously, I am not expecting things to pick up overnight, just wondered if anyone can shed some light as to why perhaps my SPS are brown or browning?
Thanks
Long time reader, almost first time poster. I've been keeping marines for about 6 years now, and one thing i've always struggled with is SPS colours. My latest tank, a TMC signature 600 has been up and running for 2 years, and is mainly SPS based. I should say, my other corals are mainly LPS, and I have a small bioload of 2 fish, a clown and a damsel.
My SPS are pretty much brown. Or at least, the reds are not red, and the greens are not green.
Some info about the tank:
Its around 110 litres after displacement.
I am running a radion over the top of it. I have recently changed my lighting schedule to run the SPS+ schedule, as previously i was running a custom one i made. Since this, the green montipora at the top of my tank has seemingly gone a little pale. Its currently on an acclimation timer for 4 weeks.
I am running an MP10 on reef crest mode of about 70% power.
I run rowaphos in a reactor, along with a bag of carbon, skim quite wet, and have a refugium with cheato in my sump.
About a year a go, i was running Triton, but came off of it because all of my LPS withered away, and all my cheato died. I am now using balling lite.
KH is at 8.6dKH, calcium at 420ppm and magnesium 1460ppm.
Phosphate, using a phosphorous hanna checker, came out at 0.009ppm (3ppb phosphorous).
Nitrate came out at 0.2ppm using salifert test.
I water change 12litres every 7-14 days.
I used to feed my tank about once a week on pellets. Because of this, i've been reading that i ought to either dose nitrates, or slowly increase feeding, defrosting frozen food, and then turkey basting my lps and feeding fish. I also have reef roids i've been starting to use also.
I also have bryopsis, which i have literally just started treatment of fluconazole for. Because of this, i believe that my nitrate and phosphate readings maybe incorrect.
My question is really related to how i can get the best out of my SPS colours. They grow, my hystrix and stylo have grown considerably in the last 5-6 months, but some acropora i have and my green montipora just lack those sharp colours, and in fact, only the polyps on the green monti have any colour. Should i reassess once the fluconazole has run? Should I consider dosing nitrates to get them up to around 4ppm (which is what i've read is a good number to keep them at for SPS), or is there something else i am missing. When i did an ICP a long while back, i had traces of copper, but these have since been eradicated, which I had assumed was the reason for poor tank health.
Obviously, I am not expecting things to pick up overnight, just wondered if anyone can shed some light as to why perhaps my SPS are brown or browning?
Thanks