Rate My Fish Tank

Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:15 am GMT   Reply      

I purchased some corals about 1 1/2 months ago (Short Tentacle Plate, 2 Green Apple Capricornis, Turquos Staghorn Acro). The Staghorn and short tentacle plate kept their color but the two Green Apple (Montapora) changed from light green to brownish. All of the corals are growing nicely, the Montapora have doubled in size so I know they are not dead or in poor health. My question is can lighting or water quality change the color of corals and if so what should I do to make my corals more colorful?

Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:04 am GMT   Reply      

i dont know for sure but my guess would be yes. A coral is an animal, so put it in the perspective that if you have a fish, and you feed it poorly for a long period of time, the fishes color wont necessarily change but the brilliance of the color will be effected. Thats why they sell flakes that "enhance" fish coloration. Then again, i dont know for sure.

Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:23 pm GMT   Reply      

Yes. What are you dosing? It could be your supplements your using. It could be its under different lights. (which is most likely) If you add actinics or 20K bulbs your going to get more vibrant colors............but your going to get more blue hue as well. What lights did it come from and what is it under?

Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:38 am GMT   Reply      

I purchesed them from LiveAquaria so I do not know what type of lights they use (my best guess would be MH) I have a Current USA Extreme Pro T5 lighting with 3 10,000K and 3 460 Actinic. I use Two Little Fishy A&B for calcium and Alkalinity.

Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:57 am GMT   Reply      

Check your magnesium, Iodine, strontium levels. What's your water look like? Also, what are you feeding your corals?

Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:30 am GMT   Reply      

Here are my water perimeters from last week
SG - 1.024
Mag - 1260
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Carbonate Hard (Alk) - 10 dKH
Calcium - 400

I do not test for Strontium or Iodine because I don't dose those chems. I target feed 1 per week with Mysis shrimp and 1 per week of Phyto plankon.

Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:02 am GMT   Reply      

well levels look great. I would say its just going through puberty. lol. It all honesty its probably the difference in lighting. how high up is it? I think they use 400watt halides.....which is insane. You have to be a coral enthusiest to keep those colors at home. Im using two 150 halides and soon going to add two 36"T5 actinics, so close to 10 watts a gallon of very intense lights. Problem is. my stuff is bleaching, my softies are all bleaching. Moral to the story....its either getting too little or too much. if you can move it higher, do it. :)

Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:16 pm GMT   Reply      

Thanks for the advise guys

Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:07 am GMT   Reply      

Try using some Oyster Feast. I started feeding my corals this stuff a few months ago and all of them colored up nicely and are growing like mad. However, make sure you don't feed them too much because it will shoot your nitrates up.

Your water looks good. The colors could be your lighting. My 10k MH's on my 95 gallon definitely looks different than my 29 gallon with 14k MH's. If you want bright vibrant colors you should go with 14k's or 20k's. The 10k's are more for growing the corals. I'm planning on switching to 20k's in my 95 gallon once the bulbs need to be replaced.

Sun Jul 26, 2009 6:40 am GMT   Reply      

I just purchased these lights 4 months ago but when it's time to replace the bulbs I will go with 14,000K. I don't like the blue tint of 20,000K bulbs.

Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:29 am GMT   Reply      

My suggestion would be to raise your salt to 1025 to 1026 supplement with Kent phyto. We had the same problem with sps browning out still alive no color we started adding phyto and the corals in a couple days just started coloring up like crazy. We also feed cyclopeeze every other day

Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:13 pm GMT   Reply      

get you some Current 14K bulbs. I LOVE them. I agree with the feeding suggestions they added. I like using phyto too. Just dont go crazy with it.

Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:05 pm GMT   Reply      

kent phyto? is that phytochrom? Do you guys spot feed? ive head lots of ppl using that cyclopeeze but id have to order it off the net, it work pretty well?

Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:02 pm GMT   Reply      

I want to try reef roids. And oyster eggs. :)