Oregon/Cali Tort brown in color, Pink Lemonade nice and yellow

[xilez]

Hi all,

Looking for some input on my tort corals.

Oregon tort as well as a cali tort (both are encrusting and growly nicely) is literally 2 inches behind a pink lemonade but is mostly brown with a hint (feint hint) of blue while the pink lemonade is sporting a nice color. Both are getting literally the same light, and the same flow.

is it possible the torts need more light?

Alk: 9
Ca:480
Mg:1500

No3: 3-5
po4: .024

Feed reef chilli almost every night, and 3 fish twice a day with pellets.

Any suggestions on possible solutions?

 

[CoralNerd]

My Oregon Tort didn't get blue till I got t5's to supplement my leds. It needs to be high par.

P04 .24....I would stop feeding pellets and possibly reef roids till that comes down.

 

[xilez]

PO4 is .024, not .24.

 

[CoralNerd]

PO4 is .024, not .24.

That's good...what p04 test kit do you use?

 

[delv2323]

Maybe mentioning the kind/wattage of light would be helpful...

 

[Coronus]

Oregon likes good light. More so in my experience thank lemonade.

 

[Jeremy Luke]

I find my pink lemonade to be extremely hardy. I've had some issues where most corals reacted and it didn't phase the pink lemonade. I used LEDs over my previous tank with lots of blue. My California tort was one of the few corals that did really well in that tank. Color and growth. It was under intense lighting. Now I use MH/T5 everything seems to grow and color much easier for me. For my tank I find some corals losing color when my PO4 drops below .04 I try to keep it in the .05-.08 range.

 

[xilez]

That's good...what p04 test kit do you use?

Using a hanna ULR Phosphorous.. 8 ppb = .024ppm

 

[xilez]

Maybe mentioning the kind/wattage of light would be helpful...

nanobox quad running on 82% blue, 20% white. Should be about 300 par. Move it up higher?

 

[delv2323]

I've never had an OT that wasn't blue blue blue. Post a picture of it...are you sure it's an OT?

 

[xilez]

can confidently say its an oregon tort. was very blue when i got it months ago, assumed the browning was due to tank transition..


Is it possible the light is too high? Could browning be caused by high light as well? TO be fair, anytime i put a SPS frag in my tank, I put it on a rack on the side glass....it turns brown eventually.... not enough light? I upped my white %, to see if it will help at all....

 

[xilez]

Here are some photos! Turned the white a bit higher for sake of photos

 

[BoomCorals]

My gut tells me not enough light.

 

[oysterk]

Is that a Nanobox Quad you got there? What are the settings?

 

[Vaughn17]

Up the white channel some. Also, a bit more PO4 won't hurt. My Oregon tort is very blue and growing. My NO3 and PO4 average about 5 ppm and .1 to .25 ppm, respectively, and my lights are set to 100% blue channels and UV, and 80% white.

 

[xilez]

Is that a Nanobox Quad you got there? What are the settings?

Yessir, lights have been hovering around: 80-85% blue / 20% white... was worried about going too much higher because of the montis bleaching.

 

[xilez]

Up the white channel some. Also, a bit more PO4 won't hurt. My Oregon tort is very blue and growing. My NO3 and PO4 average about 5 ppm and .1 to .25 ppm, respectively, and my lights are set to 100% blue channels and UV, and 80% white.

Are you running a Nanobox quad? I was worried about going too high due to the shallowness of the tank.

 

[oysterk]

Yeah, I also run a Nanobox Quad, mine is over an 18" deep tank and I have the whites at 55, blues at 82, violet 60 cyan 70 lime 45

 

[oysterk]

I have a ton of SPS in my tank, they do pretty well of this setup

 

[xilez]

Been doing a lot of research, another interesting post I came upon... could I be over feeding coral food? Which is causing corals to be brown?

I feed fish pellets once a day, usually at night. After pellets, I feed either acropower or coral booster, then a scoop of reef chili. I usually do this most nights, at worse, 4-5 times weekly.