ACRO and MONTI Lighting Requirments Help

[Xler8n]

I have a 75 Gallon Tank with 2 X 150 watt Phoenix Bulbs in a Sunpod. I know the placement of your corals in the tank depends on ur lighting but generally how far or close to the lights should i keep my Acros and Montis with my type of lighting?? Most of the montis are fine but some others look like they are turning brown like the base of my tyree rainbow which used to be REALLY blue, my reverse sunset's base turned almost white but the orange polyps are still there so its not dead. With the Acros the same thing. Most look fine but others are brownish at the base and more colorful at the top. I have noticed that the corals in my tank dont look as vibrant as they should, they never looked that way. At first i wasnt using RO/DI but now i am and have been since July of this year so i thought it might jave been that. I measured the top of my highest acro and it is about 9 inches from the light and 7-8 inches from the surface of the water. Some of the other acros are fine.. All my params look good. Could my skimmer also be a factor of my corals not being as "vibrant" as they should? I have a bak-pak 2 with the biobale removed and an airstone mod, it skims pretty good i guess. I am saving to get an Octo Extreme 200 so the bak-pak is what i have for now. My tank is not really that stocked only 3 fish; yellow tang, mandarin dragonette, coral beauty. Please help.

 

[u_shat_up]

xler8n- many factors come into play first and foremost make sure you have the basics covered before you can diagnose the problem with sps coloration.

Basics

Most importantly, Make sure your Mag, Cal, Alk are first and foremost at nsw values or a little above, secondly make sure that they are as stable as possible especially alk, this is key.

Test N&P and try to get them to 0

Once you get these in line give your corals some time to respond and i assure you that they will start to color up, then you can start to diagnose specific problems with specific corals i.e, flow and lighting - too little too much? each coral will be different.

To take it further, you can start dosing potassium for deeper purples and blues, use your monticaps as indicators as test kits are quite dodgy, as your monti's start looking ashy and faded, slowly dose at recommended dosages on bottle until colors improve, do not over dose.

Look into carbon dosing, there are some simple and very elegant solutions but u will need a good/recommend a good skimmer. It could be as simple as you picking up a cheap bottle of MB7, and vodka dosed daily, or placing these new N&P reducing pellets that just came out.

As you can see there are endless steps you can take, but most importantly get your basic parameters stable, and make your changes only one at a time so you can see how it affects your corals and your system. Test kits are great but your most useful tool as an aquarist is your eyes. :) hope that helps

 

[xrayrider]

Can you get ahold of a PAR meter. Our local club has one, and we did some experimenting. About 180-200 is the lowes PAR that can sustain sps longterm. Check to see if they are getting enough light by putting the sensor right next to the coral, and checking the PAR. If it is much lower than 180, that might be your problem.

Test N&P and try to get them to 0

+1, high phosphates will definately effect color, polyp extention, growth rate, and overall health.

Check both of these.

 

[Paul_N]

I have (2) 250w 14k on my 75 and there are sps that I have to place high to get them to color up.

Also "At first i wasnt using RO/DI but now i am and have been since July of this year so i thought it might jave been that." I did the same thing when I first came from a FOWLR and it took me almost a year to get it under control. The main issue was phosphates.