Washed Out Coral Colors

[bbyatv]

I have a 90 gallon tank.

 

My water parameters are very good.

 

Phosphates and nitrates at darn near 0.

 

My issue is that my coral colors seem washed out. The colors are not as rich as they should be.

 

There are two things that I am thinking might be causing the issue.

 

I have 2 250w XM DE 10,000k Bulbs 7 inches over the tank. I am thinking maybe too much UV light is getting to the tank and causing the very light coloration.

 

The other possible cause that I can think of is that I am using the Randy Holmes Farley method of Calc, Alk, and Mg supplementation. I dose using two dosing pumps that contstantly drip the mixtures in at 13ml/hr. I dose 20 ml of the Mg part per day. My water chemsitry numbers are all right in line.

 

I do 8 gallon water changes weekly.

 

I am thinking maybe a calc reactor might change things.

 

These are the only two things I can think of.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

Does anyone have any ideas on what UV might do to corals if it is getting to them?

 

I am thinking about replacing the glass in the fixtures with new glass.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Bruce

Edited December 13, 2008 by bbyatv

[F&Fmgr]

bruce -

 

What corals are affected? LPS, SPS, SOFTIES?

[F&Fmgr]

If its a lack of color it could be the beggining of bleaching...your tank may be too low in nutrients. I believe, as it was explained to me, if unfiltered UV light were to reach a coral it most likely would cause necrosion not bleaching..... somebody else might have more experience with this however.

 

Sean

[bbyatv]

Mostly the SPS. Not all of them are washed out. For instance the Pociliporas are all in good shape as far as bright color.

 

Bruce

 

bruce -

 

What corals are affected? LPS, SPS, SOFTIES?

[Jon Lazar]

Bruce,

 

You're not alone...this is one of the most common questions on the "RC sps keepers forum", but I don't think there is an authoritative answer.

 

In absence of a more obvious cause, lots of people suspect pale colors in sps is caused by insufficient nutrients of one sort or another. Mostly fish wastes, but maybe some other trace compund.

 

Jon

[ctenophore]

I think it's not caused by low nutrients in the water, but rather insufficient nutrients reaching the corals, i.e, food particles in various forms. My guess is that if you feed your fish a little bit more, particularly fine particle things like cyclop-eeze, you should see corals color up a little. Also, some people feel that amino acid additives help corals color up, but I don't use them so I can't say for sure. I think what happens with those is that they stimulate feeding response, which then allows the coral to eat more stuff floating in the water.

[DDiver]

Bruce,

I was experiencing the same effect in my 90...nutrients were fairly low with 6 fish...I recently transferred to a 120 and a higher fish load (15) to be exact and 2 feedings per day and have definitly have noticed the colors coming back...

[jamesbuf]

I would try a different spectrum bulb. I know it depends on personal preference, but I've never seen any tank with 10K bulbs where I thought the color was spectacular. The only ones I've seen with nice coloring has quite a bit of actinic supplementation. Have you been using the same 10K bulbs the whole time?? When was the last time you changed the bulbs??

 

Also, didn't you just setup that turf algae system?? Could that be cleansing the water too much?? What major changes have you made since you started noticing the change in color in your corals??

[F&Fmgr]

I think it's not caused by low nutrients in the water, but rather insufficient nutrients reaching the corals, i.e, food particles in various forms. My guess is that if you feed your fish a little bit more, particularly fine particle things like cyclop-eeze, you should see corals color up a little. Also, some people feel that amino acid additives help corals color up, but I don't use them so I can't say for sure. I think what happens with those is that they stimulate feeding response, which then allows the coral to eat more stuff floating in the water.

 

HERE HERE

[ctenophore]

I would try a different spectrum bulb. I know it depends on personal preference, but I've never seen any tank with 10K bulbs where I thought the color was spectacular. The only ones I've seen with nice coloring has quite a bit of actinic supplementation. Have you been using the same 10K bulbs the whole time?? When was the last time you changed the bulbs??

 

Also, didn't you just setup that turf algae system?? Could that be cleansing the water too much?? What major changes have you made since you started noticing the change in color in your corals??

My last tank was only 10k bulbs, no actinic supplementation. I was afraid it would look bad and planned to change to 20k after growout, but I was happy with the colors and never switched. I used XM 10k, but I've heard that the Reeflux 10k really pops blue pigments. I'll say I haven't seen any 6500k tanks with spectacular color without actinic supplements, but I think 10k is doable. I fed coral food about 3x-5x a week 1 hr after lights out which I think helped color in a low-nutrient, bare bottom sps tank.

[bbyatv]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I appreciate it. Here are some things people were asking about.

 

Actually I just put the 10ks in about 2 weeks ago. I was running XM 15Ks. The 15Ks were over the tank for about 5 months.

 

In addition to the XM 10Ks I have 2 54w ATI AB+ and 2 54w Giesman AB+ bulbs. These T5s add a little blue to the tank.

 

I posted the same question at RC and after reading all of the responces here and at RC it would seem that maybe I am under feeding my tank and I am too low in nutrients.

 

Here is how I feed.

 

I dose 3 drops of Pohl's Coral Vitalizer a day.

I dose Dose ZeoBAk 3 drops, .7 ml of ZeoStart, and 3 drops Zeo Amino Acids once a week.

 

I feed the fish once a day. I mix up the feedings where:

 

Once every other day I feed 3 pinches of Spectrum Thera +A pellets and a knife tip of Dr. Macs Total reef coral food.

 

On the other days I feed 1 cube of Spirulina brine shrimp (gut packed), one cube of baby brine shrimp, a peanut size chunk of frozen Cyclop-Eeze, 3ml of DTs and 2 pinches of Spectrum pellets.

 

I would say once every couple of days I throw in a small wad of dry seaweed for the tangs in a yellow clip.

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Bruce

[flowerseller]

Did you change the time the lights are on after replacing to 10k?

15k-10k is a difference.

I think the corals are reacting to that?

XM's are well known to allow corals to loose color if the photo period is too long or the acclimation to them is not sufficient.

[TonyB13]

Bruce did you ever resolve this issue and how? I have seen and bought coral from you and your coral were great

Thanks Tony