I'm still relatively new to SPS corals outside on a few monti's that were easy. My current questions have to deal with lighting and supplements. I have a cheaper LED setup (Current Pro), and just don't feel like I am getting the right light intensity, or spectrum for growth and color. I've been keeping up with my water changes so my nitrate/nitrite have been zero, ammonia zero. I'm probably just overthinking this but was curious what the more experienced SPS'ers thoughts were. c Here is a stylo I got back in January. Nice pale almost bubble gum pink. Here is the same coral now. Its obviously grown(woo-hoo), but its quite a bit darker. Now its more or a rosy red, much deeper color tone. The zoom on the iPhone just doesn't caputire it well. Still a great looking coral but I'm curious if its getting enough light, too much light, or if my water chemistry just turned it this color? I moved it up the tank about once a week until I left it here in this spot where it would receive the most light and flow. I also have a monti dig, that despite being at about the same distance from the light, just keeps getting paler. Still growing just not popping like it was before. The two monti frags on the back glass are doing fine. Some growth and no color loss. In the last two months I've started using Aquaforest Probiotic reef salt. Normally I wouldn't bring up my salt, but my Calcium has been off the chart recently with no outside dosing. My Mag is on the upper level of normal so I think that's what has kept my ph stable at 8.1 (never been able to get it higher) despite the high calcium. My KH just a smidge low at 7. SG is around 1.024. I use RODI for my water changes and my top-off water all filters changed out recently. Outside of some reef-roids maybe every two weeks, the only additive has been some Aquavitro Vibrance for Iodine, and frozen fish food. I do keep a 100ml bag of purigen in the sump. I think I covered all my bases, that should be the system in a nutshell.
SPS Success is all about Alk. It's generally a bad thing to have nitrates and phosphates zero too. Personally, I think too much emphasis is placed on lighting and nuances of intensity and spectrum. My guess, your digi is suffering from low Alk and maybe nutrient deficiency. Fancy salts are cool and trendy but IO reef crystals is a solid product! If your doing regular water changes, additives outside of two-part likely are just making YOU feel good and not benefiting your tank. Unless of course you have a specific reason or your testing.
Corals change in my tank sometimes and still grow fine. I think it does have to do with light intensity. I gave a frag of a coral that changed in my tank to doc and it returned to its original color. In my experience if they go darker or green not enough light but lighter like your digi might be getting to much.
The pastel color the stylo had initially is not it's normal one IMO. I think it's color now is probably more natural. Agree with Mark, stable alkalinity is of the utmost importance. Don't raise your alkalinity much and not fast. I wouldn't go higher than 8.0 until you have a little nitrate and phosphate. High alkalinity and zero nitrate is not good for SPS. I'm aiming for nitrate of 2.5-5 and phosphate about 0.02 to 0.04. This is where my SPS usually looks the best. Don't chase pH, just use it as a barometer. If you see a big drop look for the reason.
Not really trying for zeros, but since it's a new setup it's still pretty easy to keep it low. I've tried to keep my stocking in check and feedings lite. I'll space out the water changes a little more, and see where it goes.
Just a difference in opinion, I'de skip the AA's and just feed a little more. AA's are simply clever marketing, IMO.
I will try to feed the corals more regularly, and just see where it goes. For the most part things seems fine, I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Mountain from mole hill.......I don't think so. SPS are quite easy to grow and color. They just require discipline in maintaining params. Digi are pretty tolerant to lighting types, intensity, and spectrum. IMO, the first place to start with paling acros is Alk and nutrients. What complicates SPS is the time it takes for coral to respond to change. It make take several days for coral to respond negatively to param swings then weeks to recover. This causes people to panick and begin changing many variables reflexively.
Mountain out of a mole hill as in I don't want to do something drastic and get into an endless cycle of dosing/over-dosing and endlessly chasing parameters. I'm going to add some baking soda, over the next few days and see how the Alk responds. I found a calculator that estimates how much to add given an estimated tank volume. So over the next few days as time allows I will baby step it up to the amount they suggest while checking my pH and Alk.
Pale colors is typically a nutrient issue. Bleaching can be all sorts of reasons but too much light will cause bleaching (expelling zooxanthellae) and not enough light will cause browning (excess zooxanthellae). With that said, browning can also be nutrients too high. Just remember that color is related to zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae is algae. We all know what algae needs to thrive. Clear as mud?
Got it. I think. I'm not 100% sold that its a bleaching issue, so it may be more of a nutrient issue. My reasoning is, the monti cap you gave me is fine, growing and looks to be the same color, for some reason the dig isn't as happy as I would like. I will work on adding nutrients, the KH is back up to 8, Ph didn't fluctuate at all so that's a step in the right direction. Stopped at 8 because nitrates are still not detectable. May try putting my skimmer on a timer or having some skimmer free days, to help raise those values. I've been heavier with my fish feedings, and have noticed a nasty brown crud starting to grow. I'd have to describe it as brown snot. Not saying the two go hand in hand because all my other chemistry is checking out fine, except for phosphate because I don't have a reliable way to test it currently. I think I know what it is, but I'm holding out hope that it's not.
