SPS coloration?

0.02 phosphates and undetectable nitrates along with Lighting, and Stability of Alk and Cal....that's it.

Oh, and stability of everything else. No swings of any kind.

Stable Stable Stable

 

what led are you running?

 

Sorry everyone I was at a hockey game tonight and have not read responses until now.

I recently had a cyano issue that I seem to have under control right now. However things have seemed to trend from cyano to GHA and I have a couple spots of cheato that have been growing naturally for a while but recently have seemed to increase in growth rate. I don't doubt I have excessive nutrients as evidence by the algae trouble. Over the last two months I've been performing weekly 10 gallon WC's along with manual cyano removal and a regimen of Dr. Tim's Re-fresh and Waste-away products. Things are really starting to look better.

In terms of lighting I have 4 BoostLED par30 bulbs. Two are 4RB 1CW. Two are 3CW and 2RB. I also have Crees. 6 Blues and 4 UV's driven at 750ma. 5 XPG-R5 coolwhites and 5 XTE RB's driven at 1050ma. The XTE RB's are new and in their place I was running 1 watt UV's about 3 weeks ago. Colors of my SPS have remained the same in spite of the slight lighting changes. I was running a TLF phosban reactor with RowaPHOS just before I began the Dr. Tim's treatments. Took it off-line because it didn't seem to make any difference in my battle with algae/bacteria in spite of using a high amount of media. I've also upgraded my skimmer in the past two months to something that undoubtedly will be removing waste(see my sig.) compared to the HOB it replaced. My PO4 and NO3 readings are undetectable using my Salifert test kits...but I know that doesn't mean much since the algaes in the DT are consuming.

So do you all really think my lack of colors are due to excessive nutrients?

 

If you are battling Algae you have nutrient issues which would very likely effect the coral coloration. What do your feedings look like?

 

Yeah i have to go with a combination of changing lights and nutrients. Alot of corals will fade or brown when changing light sources, and with the algae, you probably will have issues with greens and purples going a little brown and other color 'dulling' a bit.

 

I actually only feed about 2-3 times a week. It's a mixture of Rod's, Zooplanktos M and S, mysis and a few drops of brightwells amino additive. I don't spot feed anymore either, just a broadcast feed. I used to spot feed some of my LPS but just don't make the time anymore with my other animals.

Upgraded my R.O. Unit too about 3 months ago to a BRS 6 stage deluxe unit with dual DI. Just to eliminate that as a contributing factor to phosphate introduction. With all the WC's I've performed since then, I've probably replaced my tank volume more than twice.

The last part of my algae/excessive nutrient battle was going to be implementing biopellets once again. I used to run them a while back when my tank was young and I had less knowledge of what I was doing. The step after that, if necessary, is going to be a HOB refugium most likely. I won't have the luxury of a sump until I move from my current residence, which won't be for some time. So my current plan of attack will have to suffice.

Just sucks to have a thriving colony that's nearly white...still encrusting and growing vertically, but had light blue tips with overall fluorescent green flesh when I bought it.

 

I bleached my red planet in 2010, and it didnt color up and start growing again until January. I would move your acro down it sounds bleached.

 

That particular colony is already pretty heavily encrusted on my rock work with two other's that I know for a fact like the light. Perhaps I should frag a chunk and move that to a different spot?- it sure wouldn't look pretty though

 

oh snap. Be patient then it will get better!

 

After thinking about it some I'm not gonna jump the gun. I'll tend to the nutrient problem first...see what happens and then choose another course of action after that. Oh yeah, just recalibrated my refractometer tonight and found out my salinity is really 1.023!!! Stupid rookie mistake. That'll be tended to as well before I go hacking at anything.

With these obvious problems remedied and another six months after, if my colors are still blah THEN I'll blame my lights. Sorry if I wasted anyone's time