PH and SPS

[troynel]

Does PH affect coloration? I have the following paraments and colors are just no what they should be.

ph - 7.8-8.01
po4 - .03
nitrate - 0
calc - 500
alk - 7
mag - 1300
temp - 79 - 80

Water changes 20% weekly

any idea?

[Mariner]

Anything that affects the overall health of a coral can affect coloration. Your pH is a little low, and that could be a factor if your corals don't look good. However, lighting and waste/nutrients in the water column are usually the main issues with coral coloration.
FWIW,
Mariner

[troynel]

I have 250w and 4 t5's over my 36x36x24 inch tank. Does that seem to be enough lighting? Should I add a kalk reactor to help ph?

[troynel]

forgot to mention salanity 1.026

[scaryperson27]

Does it seem as though your tan goes through a lot of calcium?

[troynel]

not really. Only have about 13 frags right now. Im getting 12 more today so we shall see what that does.

[trueblackpercula]

You say your nitrates are zero do you have any algea in your tank? To acheive zero nitrates is a real job how are you accomplishing that? Can you post a picture of your tank . Pale colors come from a lot of things and in your case it could be because your system could be to nutrient poor that's why I asked for you to post a picture: also your ph could be a little higher but I do not think this is your problem.

[arod2051]

I had the same issue with my tank in the first few months. I attributed it to heavy vodka dosing. My corals turned pastel, not bleached, but very pastel. I lost an acro frag to STN during this time. I added fish and I then fed really heavily. I achieved a very bad dinoflagellate and diatom outbreak.

After the advice of many reefers here, I dosed more bacteria and cut back both the feeding and vodka dosing. My tank is in really nice shape today. I am now at a happy medium of dosing and feeding.

I'd have to agree with the above posts that you have probably achieved a low-nutrient system but the system is probably not 'feeding' the coral effectively.

[scaryperson27]

I think that PH levels can affect the growth and how brittle the SPS are. If you see that you accidently fragment them, then you know your PH is to low. I would think that 7.8-8.0 is within reason to keep a somewhat healthy tank. If it is staying low, it is probably as a result of high levels of carbon dioxide which makes the water less basic and more acidic.

It could be Bacteria Growing, too many fish, to high levels of carbon dioxide in the house etc. You can troubleshoot from there... Are you dosing any type of buffers?

[RockDocPro]

Just my opinion, but to have the best SPS colors, you need around 8 - 10W per gallon of lighting, or even more. It sounds like you are well below that. With a 135 gal tank, you should shoot for 1000W or more. I have 2300W over my 210 gal display, or about 11W per gallon. Also, I read here on RC a lot about this issue of having too low nutrients affecting SPS. I am not sure I agree; I have zero nitrates and phosphates, and fluorishing colorful SPS. But of course, everbody's milage varies, and no two tanks are alike.

[troynel]

I do vodka dose about 2ml a day into my tank. As for algea the only stuff I see is a lime green stain looking algea on the bottom of my barebottom tank. Thats the only place it is in. Nothing else except that. I thought my lighting was suffcient enough but maybe I was wrong. I will try to post a pic but i'm not really sure how to. When i first introduced the frags they were very colorful. Then I had some alk swings and they haven't been the same ever since. Except for my caps and green slimer. Growth is also slow or atleast it seems.

[troynel]

oh and yes i have been adding kh buffer cause my alk level acually feel to 6.5 when i check last night.

[Mariner]

Your alk and pH are definitely an issue. 6.5 dKH is just too low, as is your low end pH reading. They may not be the only things causing the coloration problems but they need to be fixed.
Dripping kalk or adding a reactor will help. But whether you do that or not, you should boost your kH buffer dosing considerably. It took me a long time to learn how much buffer a tank really needs. If it were me, I'd increase the buffer dosage by 25% and test again tomorrow. Keep it up until your getting alk readings consistently in the 8-11 dkH range (7 dkH is ok, but leaves you little margin for error)
FWIW,
Mariner

[scaryperson27]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15523162#post15523162 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RockDocPro
Just my opinion, but to have the best SPS colors, you need around 8 - 10W per gallon of lighting, or even more. It sounds like you are well below that. With a 135 gal tank, you should shoot for 1000W or more. I have 2300W over my 210 gal display, or about 11W per gallon. Also, I read here on RC a lot about this issue of having too low nutrients affecting SPS. I am not sure I agree; I have zero nitrates and phosphates, and fluorishing colorful SPS. But of course, everbody's milage varies, and no two tanks are alike.

Where did you hear this? Watts per gallon is a very obsolete rule of thumb. There are usually lighting solutions more fit than that rule can suggest.

[troynel]

Increased dosage. BTW I use brightwell kh buffer. Now alk is reading a day later 7.5. PH during the day is now 8.08-8.1. I will try to raise alk a little more but since i dose vodka i'd like to keep it around 7-8.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15526580#post15526580 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mariner
Your alk and pH are definitely an issue. 6.5 dKH is just too low, as is your low end pH reading. They may not be the only things causing the coloration problems but they need to be fixed.
Dripping kalk or adding a reactor will help. But whether you do that or not, you should boost your kH buffer dosing considerably. It took me a long time to learn how much buffer a tank really needs. If it were me, I'd increase the buffer dosage by 25% and test again tomorrow. Keep it up until your getting alk readings consistently in the 8-11 dkH range (7 dkH is ok, but leaves you little margin for error)
FWIW,
Mariner

[troynel]

So does my lighting sound sufficent?


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15527797#post15527797 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scaryperson27
Where did you hear this? Watts per gallon is a very obsolete rule of thumb. There are usually lighting solutions more fit than that rule can suggest.

[scaryperson27]

Under the 250w halide should be plenty of lighting. Are the t5 High Output?

If you keep your SPS under the halide, you should be fine. People grow SPS corals under 150 watt lights and t5 bulbs.

[troynel]

I do dose AA weekly but maybe my system is just to low nutrient and the corals are starving. Just picked up some new product called Fuel. I'll give it a try.

[scaryperson27]

yeah, that's what it pretty much narrows down that.