Cabbage Leather Bleaching

[TylerJaid]

Hey everyone I just had some questions on my cabbage leather, it seems to me as if it is bleaching or turning a pale brown color. When I got it it was a very bright green and I have had it for over a year it has probably tripled in size but has lost the neon green brightness that it had. It does still open up nicely during the day and the polyps open nicely but just has a very pale color to it, any suggestions on bringing it back to color or just keep my parameters stable for a few months and see what happens? I did just put a sump in and upgraded from hob everything because I’m of a hair algae problem I have had since the beginning! Thanks for any tips or any other thing I missed!

Nitrates:0 (gha all over)
Phosphate: .02
Magnesium:1300
Calcium:445
Ph:8
Alkalinity:8.2
Temp:79
Salinity:1.026

I am using two viparspectra 165w for 9 hours a day blues at 50% whites at 15%. Cabbage is lower third of the tank.

Tank has been running for just over two years other corals still have there color and everything has good extension, also all soft corals in the tank! Thanks

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Pictured will help. Why run your lights at 50%, is your light super strong for your tank? If you have appropriate sized lights for your tank then it should be set higher. What size is the tank? How is the flow? Turning brown usually indicates not enough light. How are you dealing with the algae? Pictures will help

 

[TylerJaid]

Sorry I don’t have a picture from the as of today, this was before but you can see how green the cabbage is, it has grown since than quite a bit but has lost that bright green color. It is brown/pink with a green hue now. I have my lights so low because it is a soft corals still only tank and I was under the impression that they don’t need or want a lot of light. I am dealing with the gha by manual removal and a lot more cuc including a sea hare and it seems to be getting under control, still a lot but starting to be less.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Lights are a set it and forget it thing. Low lighting refers to placement , not the light setting. Low lighting means set them lower in the tank which is farthest away from the light. Medium lighting g means means place them in the middle and high lighting means set them at the top of the rocks. Soft corals still need certain amount of par. Actually there are so many soft corals that like high lighting, it’s a myth that soft corals prefer low light.

Algae and corals need the same thing so if you lower the light to hurt the algae you also affect the corals.

If you have the proper light for you tank and it looks like you do then it should be around &0%+ ish IMO

 

[TylerJaid]

Lights are a set it and forget it thing. Low lighting refers to placement , not the light setting. Low lighting means set them lower in the tank which is farthest away from the light. Medium lighting g means means place them in the middle and high lighting means set them at the top of the rocks. Soft corals still need certain amount of par. Actually there are so many soft corals that like high lighting, it’s a myth that soft corals prefer low light.

Algae and corals need the same thing so if you lower the light to hurt the algae you also affect the corals.

If you have the proper light for you tank and it looks like you do then it should be around &0%+ ish IMO

Okay I will crank them up, should I move them up 10% ish a week until I hit 80%? And only crank the blues and leave the whites at 15?% thanks for helping me out I’ve been doing this a couple years but am really trying to dial everything in and make the colors pop more, I’m looking to eventually upgrade but want to be able to support everything I want to grow before I do that!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would do 10% a week, it also gives you a chance to see how they react. The only real way of knowing about lighting is to rent a par meter, many LFS's rent them. Otherwise try to find someone with a similar set up as yours and ask them about their settings. The vivarspectra 165 is a popular light, type it into the search engine here and you'll find lots of posts. You can even start a post to ask.

The whites are as per your preference, I like a whiter a tank so I run them at 25%, some people put them down to 0%.

 

[TylerJaid]

I would do 10% a week, it also gives you a chance to see how they react. The only real way of knowing about lighting is to rent a par meter, many LFS's rent them. Otherwise try to find someone with a similar set up as yours and ask them about their settings. The vivarspectra 165 is a popular light, type it into the search engine here and you'll find lots of posts. You can even start a post to ask.

The whites are as per your preference, I like a whiter a tank so I run them at 25%, some people put them down to 0%.

I will look into a par meter and also start increasing the lights 10% a week until I hit 80%, depending on the look I may increase the white a little as well cuz I’m on the same page as you I don’t like super blue. Last question I have for you is roughly how long will it take for me to see the corals change after I change the lighting? A few days? Haven’t messed with my lights much at all since set up!

 

[gabriellar]

I noticed that you mentioned your nitrate is 0? If you think that's due to the hair algae that you mentioned, you may want to get more cleaning crews or manually remove them. If it's not because of hair algae, then you may want to consider bring nitrate up to at least 2ppm. Coral needs nitrate as nutrient, having nitrate as 0 long term can starve them and also is another potential cause of color fading. Especially after you increase light intensity, corals demand for nutrient will increase as well, which can be dangerous if your nitrate is still 0. Either way, you may want to consider target feed your corals while parameters are adapting.