Coral Colors: How do you keep your colorful corals colorful?

[splitting_lanes]

Crayons

 

[ppatches24]

Reef roids is what i use. Haven’t found a better alternative to a dry food.

Benepets. I was using reef roids but have switched. You could try that

 

[hllb]

Benepets. I was using reef roids but have switched. You could try that

I’ve heard good things. Sometimes my corals look upset after a feeding. Almost like the mix is too strong.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I feel like the SPS part is a bit split for me. I don't keep soft corals. Zoas and LPS just grow and stay colorful for me, zero effort involved. I don't even feed them. Things like Stylophora, Seriatopora, and Montipora are the same. They just grow and get so dang colorful with little to no effort. Just water changes and dosing to keep things stable.

Acorpora, are the trick tho. They are still hard mode, but I'm getting there. Just got a few frags to try again, and hopefully they start growing here soon. THEN, we can worry about color.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I experimented with various aminos for about 4 months last year. I abruptly stopped on 12-26-19. I wanted to witness any adverse effects to my SPS tank. All that I noticed, at the time, was that the extremely vibrant green on the ORA Red Planet and the Walt Disney seemed to fade a bit. Which was kind of good because the pinks on the RP were more pronounced. So I just didn’t dose anymore.

Fast forward to this week...I have had really good pH and a consumption increase over the last couple weeks. This has caused a near ULNS environment which I do not want. For 3 days I dosed NeoPhos and nitrate to keep my numbers at .03 and 5+ respectively. I noticed no differences in the coral health or color. Wednesday I remembered that I had some Red Sea Reef Energy A&B Aminos still in the fridge so I decided to dose a bit over the recommended amount for my system because it also increases NO3 and my goal was to get up to 10 on NO3. I also left the skimmer off for 9hrs while I was at work. When I got home that afternoon, I was immediately taken back by the coral colors. It was a dramatic increase in color depth and contrast, to use a photography term. The below picture (as poor quality as it is) shows the dramatic color variations I’ve witnessed. This coral is normally mostly green with some hints of pink, yellow. Look at all the incredible color spectrums coming out in it. I’m blown away

It’s still early, but I believe this particular amino is having a dramatic effect on my colors....
This is the Windy City Reefs Rainbow

I actually use a Red Sea Product called Coral Colors A and B... My corals thrive on it...

 

[aquavista99]

Looks very colorful to me. Nice work, Jesse!

 

[aquavista99]

Looks very colorful to me. Nice work, Jesse!

I experimented with various aminos for about 4 months last year. I abruptly stopped on 12-26-19. I wanted to witness any adverse effects to my SPS tank. All that I noticed, at the time, was that the extremely vibrant green on the ORA Red Planet and the Walt Disney seemed to fade a bit. Which was kind of good because the pinks on the RP were more pronounced. So I just didn’t dose anymore.

Fast forward to this week...I have had really good pH and a consumption increase over the last couple weeks. This has caused a near ULNS environment which I do not want. For 3 days I dosed NeoPhos and nitrate to keep my numbers at .03 and 5+ respectively. I noticed no differences in the coral health or color. Wednesday I remembered that I had some Red Sea Reef Energy A&B Aminos still in the fridge so I decided to dose a bit over the recommended amount for my system because it also increases NO3 and my goal was to get up to 10 on NO3. I also left the skimmer off for 9hrs while I was at work. When I got home that afternoon, I was immediately taken back by the coral colors. It was a dramatic increase in color depth and contrast, to use a photography term. The below picture (as poor quality as it is) shows the dramatic color variations I’ve witnessed. This coral is normally mostly green with some hints of pink, yellow. Look at all the incredible color spectrums coming out in it. I’m blown away

It’s still early, but I believe this particular amino is having a dramatic effect on my colors....

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Looks very colorful to me. Nice work, Jesse!

Thanks Tim! I forgot to mention what it is....this is the Windy City Reefs Rainbow

 

[aquavista99]

For me, I keep it simple and consistent with SPS. Stability (water parameters) is key.I do notice most of my corals really pop under 20K spectrum. Place the same corals under 14K and they look different, everything else being the same.

 

[sfin52]

I mean, realistically, if I wanted to make the joke more accurate, I would have said bulls instead of goats as historically that is what Ancient Greeks (especially Minoans) sacrificed to Poseidon. But for the purposes of the silliness, I thought goats would be better lol

Unfortunately I couldn't find a silly meme to go with it!! >.<

 

[Anchor]

Why do you think my tank is polluted?

HEHE.. The tank I moved it to was less polluted..

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

Hi everyone, it’s a tricky one this, each tank has there ups and downs, I have a mixed reef, could not keep zoa’s at one time but all off a sudden they are growing well, the few Sps‘s that I have are at the moment growing slowly maybe because of my quite high nitrates, that’s why I think my zoa’s are doing well, but saying that my sps montipora plate is thriving and colouring up nicely, my lps some good growth others a little slower, in this hobby you are very lucky if you can have everything flourishing at the same time i think that’s your parameters play a lot as they are forever changing be it however small, also there’s your chemical warfare that goes on, but besides that you do enjoy this hobby and you are forever learning.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I actually tried a free sample of that when I got a big saltwater aquarium order. I didn’t like it because it didn’t mix well with water. Reef roids stays suspended and almost dissolves but the benpets stuff either floats or sinks depending on the time of day.

Benepets. I was using reef roids but have switched. You could try that

 

[hllb]

I actually tried a free sample of that when I got a big saltwater aquarium order. I didn’t like it because it didn’t mix well with water. Reef roids stays suspended and almost dissolves but the benpets stuff either floats or sinks depending on the time of day.

I spot feed reef roids so I mix outside of the tank and feed the corals with a syringe. Do you think the benepets would mix well that way?

 

[Snuggs]

For me it’s zoas And plays They grow like stink. But tend to develop a deep blue color . My armor of gods turned completely navy blue!

 

[45ZoaGarden]

That’s how I feed. It didn’t for me.

I spot feed reef roids so I mix outside of the tank and feed the corals with a syringe. Do you think the benepets would mix well that way?

 

[Reefer40b]

For me it’s zoas And plays They grow like stink. But tend to develop a deep blue color . My armor of gods turned completely navy blue!

ZOAS can be tricky at times, some love high flow, some high light some low light. You can easily morph colors by just changing the light intensity.

 

[ScottB]

No matter what the color, every zoanthid I put in my tank will end up looking the same brown color after a few weeks. They don't die, just grow long stalks and lose color. I thought I was doing good keeping PO4 below .15 but guess I need to try to keep it close to .1 (may need to auto dose Phospate-Rx to keep up with it!).

I've seen my zoas get long stalks when they are getting shaded out by corals above them. Perhaps you can move them up a little toward the light and see if they do better after a week/two.

 

[Snuggs]

That’s how I feed. It didn’t for me.

That works for me

 

[tiptontl]

Looking at doing a 40b reef.....What filtration and lighting are you using? Thx