SPS colour tweaking

[Da8]

Maybe it is an issue that has been many times talked, but no matter how hard I search information or talk with masters, none wants to give some hint on how the reach to those crazy colours.

Read Dana articles (hardly undestand nothing due to the hyper technical language and complexity of the subject) and tried all the seach on the internet my imagination could.

But apart for the all known methods of having great illumination, stability, strong flow and a good feeding routine (ohhh that could be another neverending thread) I have no clue on what makes an SPS go from the most normal colours to the most fantastic. Because ULSN is not even the clue for this. Seen incredible colurs and tweaks in both sides.

In my mind , tenuis like WD, JD and many more have shown that the technique exists, but none of the masters, which is undestood, have revealed their secrets.
I've got a tenuis frag, which came with few colour details, that is slowly becoming a multicolor moster (sorry , no pic. It's not a photogenic acro )
But I've got no clue in what I'm doing to change its colour.

I suspect that it mostly all has to do with micro and macro elements, and traces. But how can we tweak colours with them? Cromoproteins are a must in this. But , I don't know which products or foods have them in.

I also have some certain doubts that mostly all of us have our illumination programs, most randomly set.
I will explain myself.

Got Radion G4pro , with a custom program. (Hate that blueish colour most people love. I preffer a more white light)

But the sunset, mid day and dawn durations in my case where quite randomly set.

I'm sure that the duration of all this , the intensity, and the more or less duration of each led presence can lead to the change of the corals appearance.

As you can read, I got no clue in all of these. Just doubts and more doubts.

Can we give some mora light this?

Thank you for your time!

(sorry for my English, hope, is at least, understandable. )
2(If this issue is being treated in depht in any other thread, sorry, could someone post it so I can go on there)

 

[DesertReefT4r]

As formthe Radion I would set it to the Coral Lab AB+ program, thatbhas been proven to grow colorful sps corals. Sounds like you have done your homework. Intense lighting, heavy ramdon flow and keep llw but detectable no3 and po4 2-5 ppm no3 but anything under 10 is good. Po4 .05-.03 but under .9 is good to. Dont worry so much about trace elements your salt mix and regular water changes will take care of them. Just keep the big 3 stable, cal, alk amd mag. Dont over look temp stability either, keep daily swings under 3°f +-, constant increases in temp will effect coral color and can even cause browning or bleaching. Not as important but having a higher ph will help color a bit, more so increase calcification growth in corals but increase growth can lead to better health and color.

 

[Da8]

Yes. Totally agree.

But I don't want to place my trust in water changes. As you know every new salt bucket is like a Russian roulette

You never know how is going to be...

And I'm sure that people who know how to tweak colours are much more exact. Collocation in the tank, height.. I'm sure a lot of people have got special tricks.
Hope they are enough generous to share at least the little ones

 

[29bonsaireef]

Well, first thing I'd say is don't be afraid of water changes. I would change 50% weekly on a nano I had, and did this for about 4 years straight. Less WC will take more HW and testing. Which I guess is up to you? and your salt mix should not vary too much if any..

Second, lots of time and patience. Some people get into the hobby and go right into SPS, and maybe they get lucky and things work out for them. But a few years down the road they run into issues and that's when you see them posting up on these boards. I've made every mistake and ran into every issue possible over the years, but I'm thankful for those experiences because they've all turned into lessons learned. I'm in the boat that not one single tank is the same as another. I've never once tried to mimic someone elses tank, because what works for them may not work for you. There are of course tips and tricks, but in the end TIME and experience will yeild the best results (colors/growth) for your own system.

 

[Da8]

I'm very interested in the effects of excess trace elements in the colour of the corals.

Also I'm sure equilibrium on nitrates helps a lot on the perfect colour.

Well, first thing I'd say is don't be afraid of water changes. I would change 50% weekly on a nano I had, and did this for about 4 years straight. Less WC will take more HW and testing. Which I guess is up to you? and your salt mix should not vary too much if any..

Second, lots of time and patience. Some people get into the hobby and go right into SPS, and maybe they get lucky and things work out for them. But a few years down the road they run into issues and that's when you see them posting up on these boards. I've made every mistake and ran into every issue possible over the years, but I'm thankful for those experiences because they've all turned into lessons learned. I'm in the boat that not one single tank is the same as another. I've never once tried to mimic someone elses tank, because what works for them may not work for you. There are of course tips and tricks, but in the end TIME and experience will yeild the best results (colors/growth) for your own system.

Thanks for your reply.
I'm not very fond of water changes. Just change the necessary so to prevent accumulated unwanted materials
I totally agree that it's not a good idea to mimic nobody's tank but it's good to follow good advices.
Experience is the best, yes I agree. But there are a lots of good tips to boost color,, health aid growth. I'm sure of this when I see the crazy stuff it's being made to tenuis family.
What are those tricks you comment ?

 

[dave57]

I ran an experiment on dosing phosphates to my system and noticed huge changes in color, polyp extension and encrusting on my sps coral.. I upped my phosphates up to 0.2-0.3 ppm. I was having to dose so much Neophos from brightwell that I became scarred and stopped the experiment. I found that I had daily growth and vibrancy in my corals and believed I unlocked that “secret” you’re talking about. I have two bottles of Neophos left and want to attempt it again but I’m afraid of doing so.. so far I’m just dosing some potassium nitrate and trying to maintain my nitrates at around 2-5 ppm. I do have some color coming along however it’s not like that vibrancy “wow” that I saw with elevating my phosphates. Hopefully someone can chim in on this???

 

[Da8]

Yes. I also observed that

In my almost ulns I'm unable to have detectable levels of nutrients due to the massive amount of consumption. Tomorrow will start dosing potassium nitrate to try and level my 0 nitrates to my 0,05 phosphates. That equilibrium is hard and difficult to achieve.
Thanks for your reply

 

[Sherman]

I ran an experiment on dosing phosphates to my system and noticed huge changes in color, polyp extension and encrusting on my sps coral.. I upped my phosphates up to 0.2-0.3 ppm. I was having to dose so much Neophos from brightwell that I became scarred and stopped the experiment. I found that I had daily growth and vibrancy in my corals and believed I unlocked that “secret” you’re talking about. I have two bottles of Neophos left and want to attempt it again but I’m afraid of doing so.. so far I’m just dosing some potassium nitrate and trying to maintain my nitrates at around 2-5 ppm. I do have some color coming along however it’s not like that vibrancy “wow” that I saw with elevating my phosphates. Hopefully someone can chim in on this???

Interesting. What is Neophos?
Is it a brand or a product?

 

[dave57]

Interesting. What is Neophos?
Is it a brand or a product?

Neophos is from brightwell aquatics, it’s basically phosphates liquid form

 

[Sherman]

Neophos is from brightwell aquatics, it’s basically phosphates liquid form

Thank You dave57 for the fast reply.
So higher PO4 can help color up?

 

[dave57]

Thank You dave57 for the fast reply.
So higher PO4 can help color up?

Yes but I would experiment with caution. There are many reefers getting “amazing” colors with 0.03 phosphates...

 

[Sherman]

Yes but I would experiment with caution. There are many reefers getting “amazing” colors with 0.03 phosphates...

Thank You Dave57 for sharing

 

[29bonsaireef]

I'm very interested in the effects of excess trace elements in the colour of the corals.

Also I'm sure equilibrium on nitrates helps a lot on the perfect colour.




Thanks for your reply.
I'm not very fond of water changes. Just change the necessary so to prevent accumulated unwanted materials
I totally agree that it's not a good idea to mimic nobody's tank but it's good to follow good advices.
Experience is the best, yes I agree. But there are a lots of good tips to boost color,, health aid growth. I'm sure of this when I see the crazy stuff it's being made to tenuis family.
What are those tricks you comment ?

Well, like I said all tanks are different, and great coloration/growth can be achieved at many different levels. There is no true "secret" to this, just time and stability. Maintaining a high bioload (lots of fish, LR, corals, etc) with a good nutrient export system. I prefer natural methods like skimming, WC or a Refugium. It's not hard to get there, but it really does just take some time and patience. Many hobbyist want shortcuts, and in the long run they will run into issues. Those colors you want.. they will come with time, and good husbandry work. FWIW, don't trust all the photos you see, especially Tenuis. Some of those colors may never be possible, and others are there, but only under actinic lighting.

 

[bonomo53]

I recently started feeding oyster feast to get my nitrates and phosphates up. As a result my sps just look much better and get much better growth.

 

[jda]

I am going to assume that your tank is a year+ old with coralline popping up everywhere with new spots on the glass all the time. Before this, then some things are just a crapshoot.

If you are stripping the water of building blocks, then stop... you need to have some. This would be organic carbon dosing, GFO, etc. This can help with color. The only exception to this is if you are running Zeo, or the like, which are actually very rich with building blocks, with heavy export and import that keeps residual (test) levels low. Having some, but not too many, is critical... but throughput is better than a number on a test kit, but also harder to quantify. .2 to .3 phosphate is more than enough.

Most of what you are seeing with WD, JD ect. are done with gel filters and photoshop. This is why a lot of people spit on these photos and you get the online flame wars. You need RB-only LED to begin with, then the trickery comes. This is not true color rendering what some (myself included) call trick lighting... like Glamor Shots from the 1980-2000s for High School kids when you never want to date somebody who just shows you a glamor shot and you always wanted to see a normal photo. The ones who swear that these look like this "all the time" are usually selling something.

95% of what you need for more/better color will come from lighting. This is why people add T5s to their Radions. If you search long and hard enough, you will get here... so just start here. People stress over "nutrients" for their coral, but the true nutrient comes from the zoox and lights, not nitrate and phosphate, so treat lights as paramount... "feed your coral" is right... with high quality light.

As for salt, I have been using IO for decades and never had a bad or inconsistent batch. I know that there are some out there that have been inconsistent, but blame the bad choice of mix and not all salt in general. If you do not want to change water, then don't, but referring to salt mix as russian roulette is either a bad choice, or just inaccurate.

 

[Da8]

I am going to assume that your tank is a year+ old with coralline popping up everywhere with new spots on the glass all the time. Before this, then some things are just a crapshoot.

If you are stripping the water of building blocks, then stop... you need to have some. This would be organic carbon dosing, GFO, etc. This can help with color. The only exception to this is if you are running Zeo, or the like, which are actually very rich with building blocks, with heavy export and import that keeps residual (test) levels low. Having some, but not too many, is critical... but throughput is better than a number on a test kit, but also harder to quantify. .2 to .3 phosphate is more than enough.

Most of what you are seeing with WD, JD ect. are done with gel filters and photoshop. This is why a lot of people spit on these photos and you get the online flame wars. You need RB-only LED to begin with, then the trickery comes. This is not true color rendering what some (myself included) call trick lighting... like Glamor Shots from the 1980-2000s for High School kids when you never want to date somebody who just shows you a glamor shot and you always wanted to see a normal photo. The ones who swear that these look like this "all the time" are usually selling something.

95% of what you need for more/better color will come from lighting. This is why people add T5s to their Radions. If you search long and hard enough, you will get here... so just start here. People stress over "nutrients" for their coral, but the true nutrient comes from the zoox and lights, not nitrate and phosphate, so treat lights as paramount... "feed your coral" is right... with high quality light.

As for salt, I have been using IO for decades and never had a bad or inconsistent batch. I know that there are some out there that have been inconsistent, but blame the bad choice of mix and not all salt in general. If you do not want to change water, then don't, but referring to salt mix as russian roulette is either a bad choice, or just inaccurate.

Thank you very much for your answer.

I'll have to reread it a few times before answering you back.

But I will. If you want go to my tank thread to spy it and maybe you have another useful comment Thank you for your help