"superman" and rainbow montipora

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Does anyone here have "superman" montipora? If you haven't seen it, it is AMAZING. Blue with flourecent red polyps. VERY VERY expensive for a tiny frag.

I was about to order a tiny frag when I figured I might as well ask here. I'm also going to order some rainbow montipora. For the price on both of them, I certainly hope they thrive and grow very fast. ;-)

-Alfred

 

[gforce6]

I am getting rainbow monti next spring.
Here is the mother colony

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

WOW, amazing coral. I'm glad I am upgrading to 400W, now all of the colorful corals that turned brown may actually start coloring up again. ;-)

-Alfred

 

[alrha]

:bigeyes2:

wow, that's nice!

 

[jackson6745]

WOW, amazing coral. I'm glad I am upgrading to 400W, now all of the colorful corals that turned brown may actually start coloring up again. ;-)

-Alfred

This is not because of the lighting, it's a nutrient issue.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Some corals lose their bright coloration because of lower intensity lighting. Nutrient as in they are not being feed foods with carotine?

-Alfred

 

[heuerfan]

This is not because of the lighting, it's a nutrient issue.

Aren't there many factors involved besides lighting and nutrients. Like calcium, alkalinity and PH? Is nutrients the number one problem that causes sps not to color up? I don't have any SPS, but asking for my friends tanks.

 

[jackson6745]

nope nutrients as in you waste levels are too high. What are your phosphate and nitrate readings? How long does it take before you get an algae film on the glass?
Lighting really means very little to the color of SPS compared to water quality.
Corals turn brown because the excess waste in your water fuels the symbiotic algae living insides the coral (which is brown)

 

[jackson6745]

Aren't there many factors involved besides lighting and nutrients. Like calcium, alkalinity and PH? Is nutrients the number one problem that causes sps not to color up? I don't have any SPS, but asking for my friends tanks.

PH...IME I have had my PH from 7.7-8.4 and color never changed and I know this to be true in many other colorful reef.

Cal and alk, while they are extremely important to the health and growth structure for a coral, I have not noticed a DIRECT link to coloration from fluctuating levels within the norm. What I have noticed is if your cal and alk are very low, corals will start to RTN for "No reason"

 

[heuerfan]

Thanks Rich, i'll tell my friends to get rid of some fish!

 

[jackson6745]

Thanks Rich, i'll tell my friends to get rid of some fish!

or they can always get a bigger skimmer

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

nope nutrients as in you waste levels are too high. What are your phosphate and nitrate readings? How long does it take before you get an algae film on the glass?
Lighting really means very little to the color of SPS compared to water quality.
Corals turn brown because the excess waste in your water fuels the symbiotic algae living insides the coral (which is brown)

I have to disagree. I had an ETS-1000 and was running activated carbon on my system, meaning that I had as close to ZERO Disolved Organic Compounds in my system but I had 175W MH, yet my corals would turn brown or lose their color. Each time I would give a frag to a friend with or without a skimmer but 400W MH and they would get their color back. I know people that come from the camp of no water changes AND no skimmer with 400W MH and they have some amazing corals growing in their tanks.

Most SPS corals and some LPS corals that have vibrant coloration come from areas of the reef where they were exposed to high intensity lighting. On the other hand, if you take a brightly colored mushroom it will lose it's coloration under intense lighting most of the time.

-Alfred

 

[jackson6745]

I have to disagree. I had an ETS-1000 and was running activated carbon on my system, meaning that I had as close to ZERO Disolved Organic Compounds in my system but I had 175W MH, yet my corals would turn brown or lose their color. Each time I would give a frag to a friend with or without a skimmer but 400W MH and they would get their color back. I know people that come from the camp of no water changes AND no skimmer with 400W MH and they have some amazing corals growing in their tanks.

Most SPS corals and some LPS corals that have vibrant coloration come from areas of the reef where they were exposed to high intensity lighting. On the other hand, if you take a brightly colored mushroom it will lose it's coloration under intense lighting most of the time.

-Alfred

Alfred what are your phosphate and nitrate levels exactly? Which testkits do you use? How often does an algae film growing on the glass?

 

[NYPDFrogman]

I'll jump in here I agree with Rich I use Lamotte test kits and I have zero phosphate, undetectable nitrate my alk is 10+DKH and Ca is 480

I'm running 3 250W 10K XM bulbs and I have great color on my corals and I have 14 fish in my 180gal more than half the fish are 4" +
I'm not running 400w MH

I'm up grading to a 450 gal tank and I still plan on using the 250's the only difference will be I'm going to use luminarc reflectors.

I compared the reading I got from my salifert test kits and the lamotte test kits and there is a difference.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

those are some nice corals damn i have to get me some.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

250W are good enough. My I use Salifert and Lamotte testkits, all parameters at the time were undetectable. As for algae film, it would take several days for a film to start to develop on my glass, but to be honest the snails and limpets would take care of it before I really noticed.

I sure miss my limpets, they all died in the first blackout. They used to keep my tank spotless.

-Alfred

 

[jackson6745]

Alfred it could very well be the lighting like you said but I've never seen a low nutrient tank without colorful corals under ANY lighting even PC's.
Perhaps you took it to the other extreme. I noticed in my old tank as well as a few others that when nutrients are kept extremely low, and the tank is fed very little, most SPS coral colors fade and certain corals (thicker branching acros, some stags, and efflos) seem to turn a light brown color Not dark brown but more of a tan color. It's hard to tell exactly what is is since I don't have any info on your tank or pics.
Regardless of what the problem, IMO 400w halides aren't the answer. Like you said 250s are good enough. In my 120Gal which is a low nutrient tank (no3, po4 undectable) I am only able to run my halides for 3hrs daily(VHO's for 8) or else I fade the deep colors on my acros. Here is a pic of the color I get with less than 3 hrs of 250w halides just so you know I'm not talking out of my ass

You can actually see a coral with that tan color in the right center of the pic (purple bonsai) the purple color was brought back by lowering the frag 6" more from the light.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

what are limpets???

 

[marrone]

Keyhole Limpet Snail

Keyhole Limpet Snail

 

[Tonyscoots84]

thanks marrone