I would like my acros to do better. Some advice would b great!

[Silverfish]

Question to those giving sage advice. I would like my acros to do better. I know if I raise the light intensity they would do better. I have a smooth skin green acro with pinkish tips that is doing super great! The rest not so much. Some are browned out and look like they want to color up. However I have a mixed reef tank. It is 2.3 years old. It is running well and most corals are growing and thriving. If I adjust the light intensity slowly will my other coral adapt. Also I run about 4 hours of whites. Should I increase this as well. Thanks for the posts and for any advice.

 

[vetteguy53081]

High lighting not necessarily the answer. Many components come together to give SPS support for good growth and color. Having them is one thing, but keeping it stable without sudden +/- changes in valueable.

Alk - 8.5
Mag 1300-1350
Ph 8.1-8.3
Temperature
77-79
CA - 430-450
Potassium- moderate level
Water flow- moderate to light turbulant
Lights- Moderate to semi bright (blue 75%, white 30%, red 3% , green 4%, UV - 75% )

Here is for refernce:

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

You mentioned that some of your acros are brown, to me that is a sign of high nutrients. How did you come to the conclusion that your light is the issue? What are your water parameters and how do you maintain them?

Stability is key, small changes slowly.

 

[EW_Fish]

Can you post your parameters?

Keeping ALK stable has been the biggest thing for me.
I also run lower par then most and still have amazing colors.

 

[Legonch]

In my experience with acros, and yes I've killed thousands of $$$ worth of acros, is the best thing for them is stability. I know that sounds eh.... We all watch KH and CA. But, I've learned that of the things i tested for the most in the past, were not the big players. Yes we want KH to stay really stable. Same with CA. However, the same with nitrates, and phosphates. Basically your tank needs to reach its happy place. Right now I'm running acros at 10 nitrates, and po4 of .06, and KH of 9.1. I chased the nitrate numbers and phosphate numbers constantly. Finally, I just stopped, let the tank do its thing, and acros are super happy! Stability of all parameters in your tank is the important thing imo. Lighting is of a lessor importance I think. Ive seen acros under black boxes and under raidons.

Now in saying that....others run ulns and they are beautiful. One thing I feel in common in all successful acro and reef tanks is stability. I hope that helps you. I know all well the frustration acros can cause, and they are not cheap.

Good luck in your tank!

 

[Silverfish]

Hi, thanks for all of the feed back. As far as the thoughts on light. I have been reading some posts and many reefers who grow acros tend to use pretty intense lighting. Here r my parameters. After 2.5 years I do them every 2 weeks.

 

[Legonch]

Hi, thanks for all of the feed back. As far as the thoughts on light. I have been reading some posts and many reefers who grow acros tend to use pretty intense lighting. Here r my parameters. After 2.5 years I do them every 2 weeks.

My thoughts....your mag is low. I try for high 1300s. Ph is low. Is this tank in an area where there isnt a lot of airflow? Seems like your logs show ph pretty steady at that level. Couple things that would help. Skimmer airline fed from a fresh air source. Or skimmer air line through a co2 reactor. Or an airstone in the sump, fed by an air pump getting fresh air. Of all what you have stated, Im thinking the lights are probably down the list of things to upgrade. Id try to get that ph up without adding chemicals. Co2 lock may be causing that low ph.

 

[Silverfish]

My ph was lower and I put an airline from skimmer to the outside. It’s been steady at 7.83 for awhile. I can open windows until it gets cold. I use polyp one so if I increase to get better Mg then alkalinity goes up.

 

[ycnibrc]

Keep an eye on your salinity try to keep it at 1.025-1.026. If you can maintain your parameters and your corals still dont do well then u need to look at some others factors such as more biodiversity

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Brown and dried out looking with thin tissue has always been from over stripping the tank ime, no matter what no3/po4. Higher nutrients can lead to darker colors but not necessarily brown. I have 2 systems. My main system is usually 10-25 no3 and 0.10-.25 po4. My other system is about 50 no3 and 0.35-0.50 (last time I checked)
Here’s an acro from the lower no3/po4

and here’s that same acro in the 50/0.5. It’s actually recovering from burnt tips bc I tried to lower this system with seachem matrix, which all it did was stress and burn them. But you can see it’s not “brown” just darker and has no pop.

In fact none of these corals are brown.

 

[scabbedwings616]

i have the same problem with brown tips and things just dying. Racking my brain with this.

 

[Smite]

My ph was lower and I put an airline from skimmer to the outside. It’s been steady at 7.83 for awhile. I can open windows until it gets cold. I use polyp one so if I increase to get better Mg then alkalinity goes up.

Looks like you test about 11-noon. When do your lights turn on? 7.8 range is pretty low even if your lights just kicked on. I'd shoot for a early morning low of 7.9 at a minimum and try to get that high level (deep into your photoperiod) at least to >8.1. Some say don't worry about ph but I've had horrible time with low ph and stn/rtn issues.

Do you run GAC at all?

How many points did you gain with the skimmer line outside, and is your skimmer oversized? A good test that was recommended to me for troubleshooting whether co2 is causing low ph:
remove a gallon of tank water in a bucket/container
add a airstone to the gallon of water in the same room as tank. Did it change?
if yes, surface agitation could be a culprit

check ph after 1 hour of aeration
move the gallon of water outside with airstone aeration
after an hour check ph again
If there is a significant difference in ph indoors to outdoors you issue is co2. If there is a small difference you could have another problem going on. Do a white container/bucket test to check for yellowed water. Which was the issue I encountered. A heavy amount of dissolved organics in my water. After adding carbon I watched my ph rise and stay there. I now add GAC when I see my ph start to lower.

What is you daily uptake for dosing and how are you dosing? When are you dosing in relation to testing your parameters?

 

[Coralsdaily]

acro color may also be affected by light spectrums. If you have too much white/red and not enough blue they will also turn to less "bright" colors.

 

[Smite]

acro color may also be affected by light spectrums. If you have too much white/red and not enough blue they will also turn to less "bright" colors.

Is this actually specific to the spectrum of light, or just too much light?

 

[Coralsdaily]

Is this actually specific to the spectrum of light, or just too much light?

IMO even the coolest temp of MH bulb (currently 20K as far as I know) still emits too much white. It will boost acro growth, and give them good color. But if you want all the crazy rainbow color you have to either go with a smart T5 maneuver for a very blue/purple spectrum, or LED. You can combine MH with T5 or LED, but to me at that point why even bother. plus, the energy bill .... ugh.

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

Or go with all 3 like I did, because I'm a nut.

 

[Silverfish]

Good morning and I do appreciate all of the help.
I dose Polylab polyOne 14 mls every night before bed and Redsea trace elements every 2 weeks.
I Run a Deltec 600ix skimmer with airline to the outside. I do 10 percent water change every 2 weeks. I change carbon at that time as well, basically 3 small scoops. (1cup).
You can see the brown nubs of acros in various places.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

What Model hydras are those?

 

[Zeal]

acro color may also be affected by light spectrums. If you have too much white/red and not enough blue they will also turn to less "bright" colors.

I run AB+ but the BRS recommended settings... idk who to trust WWC, BRS or Ecotech version of AB+..............
Is this a thing? I run a G5 Xr15 Pro at 100% all blues, 15% Red and Green, 20% warm white and 50% Cool white... could this be hurting my corals?

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

Do you dose any amino acids? I've found that aminos definitely upgraded my color game.