How does feeding you tank effect the color of your corals?

Have you noticed any changes in the color of your coral based on how you feed your tank?

  • YES (tell us in the thread)

    Votes: 102 42.3%
  • NO

    Votes: 126 52.3%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 13 5.4%

  • Total voters
    241

revhtree

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Whether it's feeding the fish, coral or inverts the amount of food, little or much, can have an effect on the colors of your corals. Along with other variables of course. But today I wanted to pick your brain about how you may or may not notice any coral color changes based on how you feed your tank. Let's talk about it!

1. Have you noticed any changes in the color of your coral based on how you feed your tank? Good or Bad with little or much food?

2. What corals do you think are effected the most, color-wise, by your feedings?


image via @Oscaror
walt-disney-acropora.jpg
 

PeterC99

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Only feeding phytoplankton now and getting great growth and color. Also found better coral coloration from cranking up light intensity. Always seems to be the simplest things that make the biggest difference!

1638286422735.jpeg
 

Lyss

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This is one I can answer pretty decisively — I recently put a Duncan in that I got for cheap and was kinda blah colors — brown stem and blue-gray heads. Since adding it I’ve also begun using AF Life Force and that coral in particular has now developed green heads with purpley blue tentacles, and the base looks much more purple now.

I also have a micro lord that has been looking more bright and vivid, as well as some blastos. But the Duncan is really a big “wow!”
 

i cant think

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Feeding AB+ every day… I think my corals have bleached more because of it instead of improve. It may be due to phosphates rising but I don’t know, my sponges are thriving and my monti caps are dying.
 

JNalley

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I'm too new to corals to have noticed a change in color so I voted other. Want to see what everyone else says so I can understand the process better
 

shakacuz

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i definitely believe food has a direct effect of growth and coloration, but personally i have not noticed much. or storage through different foods weekly so i cannot pinpoint one to be the main reason for good growth and color
 

Rocketfish

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I find this interesting because many people seem to have moved results with AB+. In my experience it.works awesome, but there is always a caveat for everyone's personal results, so here is mine:

30 gallon tank, lots of coral, Zoa/Paly's, SPS, LPS, etc. When I first started, I was advised by the LFS that if I were going to use a certain brand of one product to stick to that brand across the whole range. I had been mixing and matching randomly but at that point went all in on the Red Sea recipe for the 30 gallon tank. KH stays around 8.4, calcium around 430, and mag around 1300. The KH is dosed with make up water at about 13ml per day.

After I converted to just Red Sea I saw a mild improvement. When I upgraded the light is when things really started taking off. I have a small protein skimmer and a UV sterilizer. The UV was a big help for water clarity and I have not seen a spot of ick in 2 years.

I dose AB+ to the tune of 10ml daily because I am somewhat overfull on coral. Even though my NoPox ran out I did not see a significant rise in phosphate or nitrate. I did get a new bottle and I am dosing NoPox still to keep nitrates around 5 and phosphate readable but very low. If you use AB+, I suggest mild dosing of NoPox just to help pull excess nutrients out of the tank through the skimmer. Don't over dose it, just a small bit will help.

Over Thanksgiving I somewhat forgot about the tank among all the activities and it went 4 days or so without AB+ or even fish food. I'm sure the fish weren't very happy, but the corals all looked fine.

I have had issues with Hair Algae from time to time but a Powder Blue tang totally cured that issue. Yes I know the tank is small but in another thread I shared my experience with the PBT and a Blue Hippo tang in the same 30 gallon tank. The Blue Hippo doesn't touch the algae and the Lawnmower blenny doesn't either. I have had a sea hare in the past and they were too efficient. I had to feed the sea hare nori daily to keep it alive. I was away for a long weekend, 3 days, and he was "sluggish" (sorry!) When I got back and wouldn't feed as well. Within a few days had died.

Anyway, I say all that to get to this point. Using all one line of products did make a significant difference in keeping parameters more stable. When I added the gen 5 radion, that is when things took off like crazy. I had to increase dosing of KH especially but calcium as well. The colors were the same, but the growth is what really took off.

During the summer I had the house AC go out as well so I quickly bought a Schiller because the corals were not happy at over 85 degrees. The ice bottles in the sump were not able to get the temp down much and one of my expensive frags starter gradually dying off. After installing the chiller and a dip in lugols, it stopped dying and is still alive now 5 months later and growing.

I am attaching a fairly recent pic. From about 2 months ago.

The green birds nest grows so rapidly I have to prune it back to keep it from over growing everything. The GSP on the back wall seemed like a good idea at the time but does.cause me concern now. I peel off fairly large pieces to keep it away from the overflows and away from rock.

I think my lights are a bit bright at 60%. I noticed a piece of bubblegum digi that had broken off and was low in the tank. When I pulled it out it was colored up better than the rest of the colony up on the rock!

So, what affects color the most?
KH and Calcium? yes
Light intensity? For me not color so much as growth
Temperature? Not really that I could tell, but at high temps not good.
AB+ Food? Absolutely yes. But use NoPox to keep nutrients in check and don't overdose either AB+ or NoPox!

The devil is in the details. If you don't have the right flow in the tank, that may cause color issues. I don't know in the reef tank, but my daughter wanted a planted tank and had horrible results for 6 months and thought she tried everything. I added a reef tank power head to circulate water for better oxygenation, added a few small algae eaters, and the algae died off and the plants started growing. The results took about 2 months to really show though so if you are having issues, don't expect any one fix to give immediate results! That is the same in fresh water or my reef tanks anyway.
 

christianscorals

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This is one I can answer pretty decisively — I recently put a Duncan in that I got for cheap and was kinda blah colors — brown stem and blue-gray heads. Since adding it I’ve also begun using AF Life Force and that coral in particular has now developed green heads with purpley blue tentacles, and the base looks much more purple now.

I also have a micro lord that has been looking more bright and vivid, as well as some blastos. But the Duncan is really a big “wow!”
I haven’t been able to find AF life source anywhere! mind sharing the link where you got it from?
 

Lyss

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christianscorals

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I think this is where I got it. I know that at the time I googled and managed to find a couple random places that had it: https://aquatic-sealife.com/aquafor...DhcH5Hx0jz9bBzXCaROYy99xYNvkBbJ0aAkqnEALw_wcB

A little goes a long way. I discovered that half the recommended dose once a month works best for my system.
thank you:cool:

what factors helped you determine when it was too much and when it was the right amount? also, i have a 30g tank. are you working with that much water as well?
 

Km2830

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I use aquaforest life source weekly and think it has helped with colors and think it helps my phosphates and nitrates to stay in check. My lfs keeps it in stock.
 

LPS Bum

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I broadcast feed zooplankton twice a week. Been doing that for 6 months or so. I don't notice any real difference versus before, but my LPS and softy corals look full and healthy.
 

thatmanMIKEson

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Feeding AB+ every day… I think my corals have bleached more because of it instead of improve. It may be due to phosphates rising but I don’t know, my sponges are thriving and my monti caps are dying.
Crazy, im having the exact opposite effect minus sponges idk about those i keep em in my sump.....
 

Lyss

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thank you:cool:

what factors helped you determine when it was too much and when it was the right amount? also, i have a 30g tank. are you working with that much water as well?
Well, I have a max nano, so a small system and my sump is in the back -- 20g total. I was dosing the full amount weekly into the display over the return nozzle and my fish were not tolerating it -- lots of irritation and flicking. There was silt and mud everywhere -- all over the rocks and sand, filling up my skimmer and filter socks daily, and when I went to change out my carbon the bag was caked with mud. So I did a few water changes and dialed it back w/the life source. No issues since.
 

Forty-Two

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I’ve observed a correlation between feeding frozen rotifers and the colour of my Acan and gonipora. A lot more colour and pop out of them after feeding frozen rotifers.

overall I find feeding frozen phytoplankton and frozen rotifers appears to make a big difference to the colour of my corals.

I say appears because it could just be a correlation and not causation.
 

newportreefey

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Feeding AB+ every day… I think my corals have bleached more because of it instead of improve. It may be due to phosphates rising but I don’t know, my sponges are thriving and my monti caps are dying.
I am currently having this same problem . I don’t have any sponges but my monti looks a lot less vibrant now . I’m thinking about stopping ab+ I’ve been using it for about 6 weeks .
 

atomos

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I think keeping up with a combo of proper dosing/supplements and live foods seems to help them color-up---or it could be the booze that's talkin here...j/k
 

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