coral changing colors

[sgwill122]

I dont think lights are your problem but I do not have the answers either. I also had a frag tank plumbed into the main and my frags would dull over time, they grew just as vigorously as in the main. I spent a bunch on different MH bulbs but never found anything that helped. I even bought a new dimmable ballast that let me over or underdrive the various bulbs. I changed bulb heights and added T5 actinics but no real difference. I think flow is probably just as/if not more important than lighting for vibrant colors. Adding strong random flow to the frag system seemed to help but was still not the same coloring over time that I had in the main. But I did not completely replicate the random flow I had in the main, I had 4 rotating K4's in the main and I put one rotating K4 in the frag system. Good luck.

 

[justforfun]

my main tank has 1 mp40 and 1 k 1200gph
frag 1 tunze 6045 i think....and 1 k1200gph
i repostion the frag tank flow all the time for random flow..
both tanks are bb with little to no detritus build up... there are no dead spots in tank that i can see.
maybe ill try and rehook up my seaswirl on the frag tank( had it on there but powerheads i had on it were to strong of flow....)
i believe i have enough turnover in tank & flow but maybe not a good "wave"

i have tested water parms from fragtank(tried to get water sample from lowest flow spot) vs display tank ...no diff

 

[justforfun]

I dont think lights are your problem but I do not have the answers either. I also had a frag tank plumbed into the main and my frags would dull over time, they grew just as vigorously as in the main. I spent a bunch on different MH bulbs but never found anything that helped. I even bought a new dimmable ballast that let me over or underdrive the various bulbs. I changed bulb heights and added T5 actinics but no real difference. I think flow is probably just as/if not more important than lighting for vibrant colors. Adding strong random flow to the frag system seemed to help but was still not the same coloring over time that I had in the main. But I did not completely replicate the random flow I had in the main, I had 4 rotating K4's in the main and I put one rotating K4 in the frag system. Good luck.

were they the same ballast or hood setup on dt & frag tank?

 

[mojoreef]

Ok something else to keep in mind. The pretty colors we all love ore pigment with in the corals actual tissue and dont belong to the zoox, in reality if their are an abundance of zoox these cover up the pigments and they become the dominant color..

So with all that in mind, if you end up with corals that are browning up it comes down to one of two things or a combination of both. So zoox is algae and excess nutrients will allow for zoox population increase, but since you have both tanks plumbed together and only one tank is showing this its going down to lights. Now this is not say that your lights in your main are bad they just dont put out as much of the pur you are getting from the frag tank, and thus the corals have to adapt. SO if it were me and you were satistifed with the color you are getting in the frag tank I would just swap out the lighting from one tank to the other to avoid having to spend money, if you want to do more then add another mh.

SGwill you make a good general point in overall care for corals. Good random flow is critical to keeping corals. This will keep detritus/food in suspension in the water column and thus get it out of the tank but also gets it to pass on and by the coral many times for it to be able to get some.


Mike