How to improve SPS color?

wranodj · Apr 24, 2019

Just pick a salt with a lower Alk and do more frequent water changes. You can adjust the sg and alk over time that way, slowly. Your fish must be starving.
Go slow, that tank is new

Cassian · Apr 24, 2019

wranodj said:
Just pick a salt with a lower Alk and do more frequent water changes. You can adjust the sg and alk over time that way, slowly. Your fish must be starving.
Go slow, that tank is new

ill consider that. also, my fish are actually very fat and happy. I only have two clowns and a goby, and I was told by my LFS to feed every two days

Cassian · Apr 24, 2019

Dkeller_nc said:
Luke - Went back and read your initial post. Unless you've a really weak/small return pump, I seriously doubt that it only has 150 gph flow. That'd be a really tiny pump, such as the Sicce Syncra 0.5. What would make more sense is that you have a 1500 gph return pump, and you're probably getting about 1/2 - 3/4 of that rated flow once head pressure is factored in. That's more than enough for a 100 gallon tank.

You initial post doesn't mention anything about in-tank flow. As others mentioned on the thread, this is absolutely necessary for SPS, though you can get away with just the return-pump flow for LPS in some cases. When thinking through this (if you don't actually have in-tank flow), keep in mind that more and smaller powerheads is much better than fewer and bigger powerheads. The reason for this is that there's a limit to how fast the flow can be over even SPS before you're impacting the coral's health, this is even more true for LPS. Most DC-powered pumps like Tunze's Stream, Ecotech's Vortech, and the Maxspect Gyre are easily capable of coral-blasting force if aimed directly at them. And where the pump is not directed, you can have "dead" spots. So you can see that if you had, for example, only one Vortech MP40, you'd have a lot of flow in the general direction of the pump, and not much elsewhere. And if you crank the velocity of the pump to get OK flow "elsewhere", the direct stream from the pump will be way too much.

There's no doubt that more and smaller pumps costs more than fewer and bigger pumps, so there's a trade-off. And at some point you don't want to go completely overboard and populate your tank with 20+ powerheads. Because you've LPS in the tank that will not tolerate really high flow levels, I'd suggest something fairly modest, like starting with 2 Tunze 6040 nanostreams (on sale at the moment), or 2 Vortech MP10s. Don't be fooled by the small size of either of these pumps - they put out massive amounts of flow. And at some point later, you can add two more for a total of 4 - that will easily give you more than enough flow for a 100 gallon SPS tank, and give you 4 flow points to even out the flow field and avoid the blasting/stagnant issue that comes with having only one, bigger pump in a tank.

ok, finally found my pump's box. it is a Mag pump 950 GPH. My tank is a 3 foot by 18 inches to give you and idea of surface area.

Dkeller_nc · Apr 24, 2019

That makes a lot more sense; you probably are actually getting around 500 - 600 gph considering head losses, which should be fine for a tank your size to ensure adequate temperature control and movement of water past mechanical filtration. However, it won't be enough for the actual tank itself; you'll need propeller pumps for that.

Cassian · Apr 24, 2019

Dkeller_nc said:
That makes a lot more sense; you probably are actually getting around 500 - 600 gph considering head losses, which should be fine for a tank your size to ensure adequate temperature control and movement of water past mechanical filtration. However, it won't be enough for the actual tank itself; you'll need propeller pumps for that.

Ok thank you! I'll consider investing in the Tunze heads you linked me to when I can.

Cassian · Apr 29, 2019

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to give yall an update. it was definitely a Kh problem because all my sps are getting their color back. thank you all so much for your help! im going to invest in some powerheads soon

DesertReefT4r · Apr 29, 2019

Water flow is very very important to sps health. Get some power heads asap.

mshonk · Apr 29, 2019

DesertReefT4r said:
Water flow is very very important to sps health. Get some power heads asap.

100%!!!!! With the varied flow rate of a sine pattern and less flow at night, my max flow in a 40g breeder without the return is abot 90 -95 times an hour.

Cassian · Apr 29, 2019

mshonk said:
100%!!!!! With the varied flow rate of a sine pattern and less flow at night, my max flow in a 40g breeder without the return is abot 90 -95 times an hour.

very nice tank! thanks for the info!