Trick to color up sps

[PhantomHalo]

For the pros that are brining in wild colonies or even just turning brown pieces into the rainbow masterpieces, what is the method you use to bring those colors out? Specifically, multi colored polys like on tenuis’s. I have some in my tank that have great body color, but the polyps just look brown. One is my cherry bomb. When I got it was a picture perfect red polyped frag. However, my nutrients got low and it lost color. Now my nutrients are back up PO4 .05-.13 and NO3 2-5, but some are still pretty dull in color or just plain green.

 

[KrisReef]

Good, stable water quality and if that fails;

Coral View Lens V2

Take professional pictures of coral and fish directly from your phone! Using a phone to take pictures of a saltwater aquarium can be difficult with the high amount of blue that is emitted from the light and the glare off the glass from external light sources. Taking a decent picture usually...

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[TheDragonsReef]

Alot of patience lol. It usually takes 4-6 months for my wild colonies to settle in and reach their final color.

Stable parameters are key and lighting will affect colors alot. In my experience higher light (400+ par) will often produce lighter and/or more flourescent colors while less (250-400par) will produce darker but more full and opaque color. High nitrates and phosphates tend to cause greening or browning while too low will usually cause faded or dull colors

 

[PhantomHalo]

Good, stable water quality and if that fails;

Coral View Lens V2

Take professional pictures of coral and fish directly from your phone! Using a phone to take pictures of a saltwater aquarium can be difficult with the high amount of blue that is emitted from the light and the glare off the glass from external light sources. Taking a decent picture usually...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I do have the lense kit, but was hoping to actually see it with the naked eye under blues or an AB+ type lighting spectrum.

Alot of patience lol. It usually takes 4-6 months for my wild colonies to settle in and reach their final color.

Stable parameters are key and lighting will affect colors alot. In my experience higher light (400+ par) will often produce lighter and/or more flourescent colors while less (250-400par) will produce darker but more full and opaque color. High nitrates and phosphates tend to cause greening or browning while too low will usually cause faded or dull colors

It seems that some of my sticks like the higher nutrients and others the lower nutrients. Hard to balance them out to get optimal colors for all. Lol Do you find this to be true too or do some just take longer than others to color back up after a green out? (Turning green due to higher nutrients.)

 

[TheDragonsReef]

It seems that some of my sticks like the higher nutrients and others the lower nutrients. Hard to balance them out to get optimal colors for all. Lol Do you find this to be true too or do some just take longer than others to color back up after a green out? (Turning green due to higher nutrients.)

My sps dominant tank is about 15 years old and the nutrients stay pretty stable. Nitrates are usually between 15-30 and phosphates between 0.06-0.12. But it takes a few months for any color changes to happen. Just focus on keeping your parameters stable and everything else will come in time. Alk and phosphate swings seem to affect them the most.

 

[PhantomHalo]

My sps dominant tank is about 15 years old and the nutrients stay pretty stable. Nitrates are usually between 15-30 and phosphates between 0.06-0.12. But it takes a few months for any color changes to happen. Just focus on keeping your parameters stable and everything else will come in time. Alk and phosphate swings seem to affect them the most.

Gotcha. I’ll just focus on that then. My PO4 is now finally above .05 so hoping to dial in usage and dosage to keep it around .08-.1. Have been running lower nutrients closer to .03-.05 and just more seeing the vibrant colors. Just upped it over the last few weeks to the .05-.1.

 

[DIYreefer]

I'd argue that flow is probably as important as any of the other factors that have been mentioned here. It is imperative to the coral's ability to clean itself (shed detritus, slime, etc..) as well as it's ability to catch food. Flow, IMO, is even more important than lighting in regards to SPS.

 

[PhantomHalo]

I'd argue that flow is probably as important as any of the other factors that have been mentioned here. It is imperative to the coral's ability to clean itself (shed detritus, slime, etc..) as well as it's ability to catch food. Flow, IMO, is even more important than lighting in regards to SPS.

I agree. I added more flow about 3 weeks ago. I had two gyres, one on each end of my tank, but have since added 2xMP-40QD’s and 1 more gyre against the back wall to help break up the flow and add turbulence to the water column. This is a 300gal DD btw.