corals not keeping color

[george albert]

ok
Im new to sps i bought a frag of blue milli,and green slimer but the colors have dulled out a great deal.Within a month. The take size is
30 x18x4ft 110 GAL. I have 2 400w mh and 2x96watts atc to much light maybe?
salt 1.026
mag 1300
alk 7
cal 420
nitrate 40 im working on this 25% water change 2 times a week
the brown monti is growing great and the caps are doing good also.
Any ideas?
Thanks

[george albert]

ya and one more thing i just use tap water with prime not r/o

[ghostman]

The nitrate stands way out as a problem. You should get that number a lot lower maybe through the use of more live rock, deeper sandbed, a fuge with deep sand, or increased protein skimming. I would bet your PO4 is also high, contributing to the browned out corals. The lighting seems great, as do the other parameters that you posted. How is the flow in the tank? HTH

[george albert]

ghost
i have about 100 lbs of live rock 2 in sand bed don,t have a fuge
but skim constly not sure last time i checked po4 was 0 the corals
haven't browned out but they were so bright when i bought them and now there no where near it.
I have 2 tunz not sure what size but i see pleanty of movement.
Do u think its where i'm not using r/o water?

[Ziggy953]

The Nitrates could easily be coming from the fact that you are using Tap instead of RO/DI water. I would switch! I have added corals that looked amazing in the LFS tank and dulled out when added to my system too. The cool thing is after about 2-3 months they started growing and color improved and now they look as awesome as when I got them.

It could be that they just need time to adjust to your system and lighting.

[acrodave]

if you are useing tap then im sure you have po4.How old is the tank

[george albert]

ziggy
i hope this is the case i may just need more time
thanks

[george albert]

acrodave
my tank is about 1 year and 3 months now.
thanks

[acrodave]

what kind of lights did they come from

[george albert]

almost the same as mine except i have coralife mh and he had ushiro
not sure if i spelled right

[unbreakable]

nitrates and phosphates and use ro/di.

do you have any macroalgae in a sump?

[george albert]

nietz

no i have no microalgae in my sump should i get some?

[aastretch64]

Use RO water, start running a phosphate remover, add some cheato and mangroves in the sump...and maybe start a DSB. That should pretty much take care of the phosphates, but if your nitrates are still above 15-20ppm after running the system with all the above for a while, you should consider doing more frequent water changes.

[george albert]

thanks aastretch64 ill try the cheato and mangroves in the sump and try to get a ro system going thanks for the help

[george albert]

i just checked again my po4 is .5 and my nitrates are 60 now nitrates were 40 so ill try the fug plants and extra water changes.
thanks

[george albert]

ok i checked mu tap water and the nitrates were at 20 ppm so ill try a ro system thanks for the info everyone