SPS losing green color?
- Thread starter Cassian
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How old is the tank?
Hemmdog
10K Club member
Is it 1 or 2 feet? Lol. That’s a big difference
;Hilarious
Unless you are an expert coral keeper, I wouldn't expect any kind of growth or proper coloration from any corals (let alone SPS!) with a 2 month old tank. Take it slow and start with some "easier" corals.
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^THIS!
Hemmdog
10K Club member
Tank transfer or new dry rock?
Sorry if my comment insinuated that you didn't know what you were doing. I was more alluding to the fact that any "new tank" (Even if seeded with a mature tank) needs time to "settle in." I know some people can do this with little to no effort and immediately have a garden of rainbow tenuis acroporas within a couple weeks, but I've generally seen that SPS do best in a mature tank (Everything being mature within the tank).
My best guess is alkalinity swings / lack of stability with other trace elements / nutrients.
OP
OP
Cassian
Valuable Member
no worries! I was just letting you know that it wasn't a "new tank" per say and I was just starting out with difficult SPS. haha! But trust me, I know how difficult they can be at times. What I odd to me is that the green looked great for the first month, then slowly faded away.Based on the info everyone has given me, im thinking its either my low nutrients or the slight lighting change. I appreciate the help !
I've seen claims of the iron and iodine thing for some years. I believe an article with little scientific basis in Reefbuilders and Red Sea is largely to blame for this, at least they commercialized it further. I've never seen any good evidence for it, not in my own attempts to tweak corals, nothing scientific and peer reviewed. If anyone knows of one I'd love to see it! Iodine is important for certain biological processes. However, very few tanks need supplementation.
Actually, there's probably a boost in nitrogen source from water changes compared to a nitrogen starved system. When I was bottoming out water changes help color things back up, and I'm pretty sure it was from a tiny boost in nitrogen from water changes. I foolishly thought it was from bumping up some trace or minor elements that we don't test for.
I am suprised how quickly threads these days quickly always turn to people needing to raise nutrients. The op had slight color loss in the tips of the corals, generally actual 0 nutrients will pale the whole coral over time. I don’t see how the tip color fading relates to uln.
I am with Ike, in that the iodine and iron are often stated to be problems because of that specific article about coloring sps corals. That article is no good and I could poke holes in it all day. Only a tiny portion of it applies and only applies to uln tanks.
I am also suprised at how fast everyone knew what was wrong when not one picture is posted.
I would ask the op to post some even still. But from what I read I would say the color loss is from the switch to a new tank and it will come back if things transferred well and things stay stable.
I am with Ike, in that the iodine and iron are often stated to be problems because of that specific article about coloring sps corals. That article is no good and I could poke holes in it all day. Only a tiny portion of it applies and only applies to uln tanks.
I am also suprised at how fast everyone knew what was wrong when not one picture is posted.
I would ask the op to post some even still. But from what I read I would say the color loss is from the switch to a new tank and it will come back if things transferred well and things stay stable.
IslandLifeReef
Valuable Member
@LukeWolf, you could always try feeding amino's. That would be a great supplement while you work on raising nutrients. @Bulk Reef Supply just did a video on this with impressive results.
This is almost certainly a new tank or lighting issue.
People jump to N and P, but in most cases, they are just a red herring that for some reason draws focus. N is supposed to test out near zero with a cheap hobby-grade test kit. Unless you are using Hannah Ultra Low Phosphorous, then your phosphate reading it not accurate either. Don't worry about these... if you have any kind of algae or any kind of coral growth, then you have enough.
Time will work best. After this, more whites on your Radions, but eventually a lot of LED users end up with T5s to help with their colors, which work wonders.
People jump to N and P, but in most cases, they are just a red herring that for some reason draws focus. N is supposed to test out near zero with a cheap hobby-grade test kit. Unless you are using Hannah Ultra Low Phosphorous, then your phosphate reading it not accurate either. Don't worry about these... if you have any kind of algae or any kind of coral growth, then you have enough.
Time will work best. After this, more whites on your Radions, but eventually a lot of LED users end up with T5s to help with their colors, which work wonders.
All of our hobby test kits have a +- margin of error, and zero rarely means true zero. You would just have a bunch of white sticks if that were truly the case.
Bouncing around zero though, over time, will stunt growth. Without enough steady, available food, the corals don't need as much Zoox, and that is where all the color comes from. They may look OK for a while, but as the nutrient level continues to stay limited or even get closer to zero, you will lose more color.
And as noted before, you run the risk of joining a thousand other reefers (including me, twice) over on the dinoflagellate thread.
Lastly, to measuring nutrients: which nitrate test kit to use is personal preference in my opinion. I use Red Sea. For phosphate, the strong consensus goes to Hanna ULR -- especially if you run relatively low nutrient. (and you can skip nitrite tests unless you have fish death.
OP
OP
Cassian
Valuable Member
I agree with both of you here. I think it might be a lighting or new tank issue. I have run a ULN system for a while now and have great color on my SPS. I added a Walt Disney (which is green) after I switched tanks, and it has not lost its color. only the established corals lost their color. I will get some pics today though so yall can see
Hemmdog
10K Club member
I have ran my own observations, while the color saturation is negligible with the addition of trace elements, it is still quantifiable imo. I only dose them because of my fuge that needs harvested regularly.
My tank without a fuge I don’t dose trace elements due to no color depreciation without the addition of traces.
Not trying to start a debate, just my observations and justification. I haven’t seen the reefbuilders or Red Sea article you’re talking about.
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