How to color up brown SPS corals? I will pay big money for the secret!

Xerxes_Zoanthids444

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Hey reefers,

I been witnessing a lot of people online coloring up brown SPS corals and making them look like rainbows, I know they are dosing something into the tanks and I want to know what it is? I will pay BIG [emoji383]money to know the secret?

Thank you
 

nautical_nathaniel

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Proper water chemistry, good lighting, adequate coral feedings, amino acids and vitamin supplements.

Photoshop helps too :rolleyes:
 

joseserrano

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I think it is important to also understand/point out that you cannot get any coral to be a rainbow. With what is mentioned above, you can get better colors, but a coral has to have that in its genes for it to come out of brown.
 

outeastreefer

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Where can I get some magical unicorn pee. Lol good one. But seriously there are no magic potions. Just good ole reef keeping skills and tank husbandry.
 

nashorn

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Xerxes_Zoanthids444

Xerxes_Zoanthids444

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Where can I get some magical unicorn pee. Lol good one. But seriously there are no magic potions. Just good ole reef keeping skills and tank husbandry.

No such thing as some magic potion to dose to get sps to rainbow status, unless you can get some bottled unicorn pee.

Water chemistry and lots of time
Also pick one method that is known to work and stuck with it.

View attachment 20170918_001609.jpg

I think it is important to also understand/point out that you cannot get any coral to be a rainbow. With what is mentioned above, you can get better colors, but a coral has to have that in its genes for it to come out of brown.

+1 to the above and I'll add that you win some, you lose some.

Proper water chemistry, good lighting, adequate coral feedings, amino acids and vitamin supplements.

Photoshop helps too :rolleyes:

Hahaha love the comments lots of humor! Ok I will just do good ol reefing like I have been! Thank you for your help! [emoji817][emoji95][emoji817]
 

Bpb

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+100. No secrets at all. It's simple. Not easy. But simple. All major and minor elements in their appropriate ranges and stable. Tons of flow/turnover, lean water with not too much inorganic N&P waste products but lots of actual food available (high input and export), light in the appropriate par range and spectrum. No secret magic formula or snake oil product will suddenly prove the winning ingredient. Gotta be firing on all cylinders
 

Kyler

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For me starting with a bright coral really helps then consistently and giving it time. Any time I get a fire piece they slowly fade as they get acclimated to my tank conditions and then after 3-6 months colors come back strong. I've also noticed as colonies grow bigger colors seem to get more prominent
 

James Johnson

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Either buy something you know is rainbow or buy like 50-100 brown ones and there is a chance one will turn out rainbow
 

Bpb

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Ah yes. And the obvious...obviously. Buying rainbow corals. There is nothing you can do to make a Oregon Tort look like a WD. You will not turn a green slimer into a homewrecker, ect. You gotta buy a known rainbow morph to begin with, naturally
 

aquavista99

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Hey reefers,

I been witnessing a lot of people online coloring up brown SPS corals and making them look like rainbows, I know they are dosing something into the tanks and I want to know what it is? I will pay BIG [emoji383]money to know the secret?

Thank you

The secret for me is being very patient and maintaining stable water parameters. Sometimes it takes years for SPS to color up...in my experience, wild acros take longer than captive grown sticks, but if you are willing to wait, you will be rewarded with colorful corals overtime.
 

Dana Riddle

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First of all, the coral must be predisposed to 'color up.' The rest is due to lighting and water motion. We didn't have all these 'magic potions' back in the 90's and had to manipulate light, water chemistry, and water motion in order to induce coloration...
 

nashorn

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Want rainbow colors. Buy high dollar corals... and good chemistry is a must.
I wouldn't buy high dollar till I can get low dollars one to color up.
Most if not all browns will be a color.
Greens may just stay green or have highlights
Just about all these are $10 frags
Except the blue OT

View attachment 20170918_001609.jpg
 

Brian W

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I have had a hard time keeping sps alive and colored up since I started in this hobby in May 2016. I could only keep 1 coral colored up and alive called a CandleLight Acro. All others browned out and eventually STN's.

Fast forward to April 2017 and I ordered five frags from FHC and to this day they have lost a little color but for the most pat they are coloring back up.
I placed an order with Aqua SD and got 10 sps frags to see if my tank could handle them. Some were already brown but most were green.
Some lost color but they are starting to color back up ive noticed.

I believe how you keep sps colored or color up brown corals is you need to:
1. Have good lighting. (T5, MH or Radions)
2. have clean water (low phosphates, low nitrates, etc
3. Keep a steady water change schedule (I change 10-30% weekly)
4. Keep your parameters stable (Alk, Cal, Mag)
5. Test daily or weekly. (With a Hanna checker you can do this in 5 minutes) Its not tedious

(I know there's more, but i'm still learning myself)

I'm by no means an expert or have nice amazing frags. I have seen some results by doing all things above so far.

frags on the clear rack are the frags Ive worked on coloring back up. some are still brown
frags on the black rack are new frags I just got yesterday.
you can see the difference.

1.jpg


2.jpg
 
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stylaster

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this was a brown out that turned out awesome, the thing that caught my eye originally was the red polyps on the brown body. As for the secret to getting them to color up... Stable system parameters and usually for SPS par rating around 300 give me the best colors
exquisite.jpg
 

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