why can't I keep a green colored SPS?

[jeremy K]

Every time I buy a green-colored SPS coral, the color changes within a few weeks. Either it fades to a yellow-ish pastel color, or else it turns blue! I don't seem to have this problem with pinks, purples, or blues. Just green. My lights are 4x54W Tek fixture (1xfiji purple, 2x blue plus, 1xUVL actinic white), 2x48" Reefbrite LED strips (1 blue, 1 white) - for a 90g tank. Flow is 2xMP40 ES, 1xK4, return pump. I vodka dose and dose MB7, and dose amino acids. recently I also started dosing iron and potassium supplements to see if they could improve my coloration - for about 1 month - so far no change.

[CleveYank]

I kicked carbon dosing and it took 4 months for my corals to return back to normal colors. So to dose things back to where they should be it will take a while. I'd not do any radical changes and be patient.

[Whisperer]

Get a green slimer and see if it turns blue, they have been raving about blue slimer. It is not the same specie, IMO.

[t4zalews]

I seriously started doing less and my colors are coming back full swing..I was running carbon and GFO and completely removed them back to my original configuration, just skimmer and UV. My tank has made a full 180 and all the sps color I lost is coming back

[iap]

Weird. I just put in a white with purple tip frag and it immediately turned green on my frag rack. Even a powder blue tenius turned fully green in my tank.

Oh and I was sold some tri colOr acro that turned green but within the last two weeks just one branch turned white, which I thought was stn, but the bumps on it where the polyps come out have turned purple.

[Marklu]

Its a commonly held opinion that green pigments need either A) more nutrients or B) less light in order to stay their best compared to other pigments. Iron is also said to help.

[wickedfish]

Jeremy, man you are singing my song all my green guys turn brown or a not so green olive from being radioactive green, is it the carbon?? I am out of ideas?

[allsps40]

I cant keep any blue, purple or green acros in my tank lately. They all turn a brown green or just brown. My scrips milli also turned all brown on me. Why water is perfect, just had it tested at the local reef shop. My alk was a bit low at 7 but ph was good. I does 2 part and Fuel amino acids. I was dosing kalk but just stopped as I think it was burning some of my sps. My lighting is good also 2 150 watts over a 40 breeder with new 20k bulbs. I also run carbon and phos remover in a reactor.

[Reefobsession]

Dose iron

[wmilas]

Marklu hit it right on the head. Enough iron, and less light and/or more nutrients.

[Nate R]

if you aren't dosing vodka, try maintaing ALK @ 10, research placements on specific species your having issues with and keep in mind that once you get your tank to hold ALK at 10 color wont immediately come back but i have good luck with just feeding sps a variety of foods twice a week, skimming, small amount of phosgaurd and a decent fish count.

[wickedfish]

Okay if you dose iron is there a test for that, also what is the natural level for a reef setup what is the ppm? I think in my case talking to folks with healthy sps reef colonies is that my skimmer is too weak and I need to upgrade and thats why I have all brown greens and no PE.

[Alex T.]

I've also heard that sps colors in the red/green pigments respond better to a 10k bulb as opposed to a more blue look. When I switched to Radiums, my yellows turned slightly green and greens took on a brownish outline with a darker green. Nothing electric like they were under my 10k's.

[jeremy K]

I do dose iron. Have done so for the past month. No visible change in coloration as yet, and I worry that I am overdosing the tank. I don't want to reduce my lights, as I think strong light is good for most SPS. I will try to increase the nutrients in the tank further, since with my vodka dosing I have zero measurable nitrate and phosphate, and that may not be helping.

[ingtar_shinowa]

does GFO leave enough iron in the water collumn? My tank has some nuisance GHA but my greens are the best color in the tank. My blues don't look so hot however

[jeremy K]

I doubt that the GFO adds much if it is rinsed prior to use. If your greens are good but blues are not, it may be a lighting issue - either insufficient light, or insufficient light in the 20K range.

[kaserpick]

It sounds like your N and P could be too low. It reminds me of what happens to the colors for some zeoVit users. I've heard that the greens will go yellow with extremely low nutrients.

I should preface this by advising you to not make any quick and/or drastic changes. Try feeding the corals more. Carbon dosing is great, but, as you've said, if you get too low and you're not feeding enough, the colors will definitely suffer. I might try that first before cutting back on you carbon dosing. It's a fine balance with low nutrient systems. :p

[ingtar_shinowa]

I doubt that the GFO adds much if it is rinsed prior to use. If your greens are good but blues are not, it may be a lighting issue - either insufficient light, or insufficient light in the 20K range.

not to hyjack but I agree with you. Also i dont feed much