More colors in my corals

[Silent_FatPanda]

My 29 gallon reef tank has been up and running for about 5 months now. I haven't had that many issues due the very knowledgeable staff at my LFS. I have been noticing a steady decrease in the colors of my corals. I'm still fairly new to the hobby and want my tank to be as vibrant as possible. I haven't invested in any expensive species yet as I want to know what I'm doing first. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!



Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Gonna need all your water parameters, and lighting used for the tank.

 

[Silent_FatPanda]

Thanks for the timely response! Unfortunately I am at work and do not have my log been on me, I'll upload it later this afternoon.


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[dylan p]

The difference in light from where they came from could be your problem. If they are in a dimmer light then where they came from it could cause the zooxanthellae to be building up to get more light. This would make them look more brownish and noticeably less vibrant under actinic lights


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[Silent_FatPanda]

Sorry for the delayed response, the test kit from my LFS measures ca, mg and kh
Mg-1600
Kh- meq/L 5.0 Dkh 14.0
Ca- 500 ppm
Like I said I'm still quite new to the hobby so I'm not entirely sure of the norms and if I should be testing for other stuff. My corals have been growing and all like in the tank seems to be happy. The damsels are little bastards, eating my goby, jerks. But the only thing I have noticed is a noticeable decrease in color.


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[Sniperhank]

Color won't be affected by those elements. It is either phosphate levels or not having a good color spectrum in the lighting.

 

[Silent_FatPanda]

What kind of lighting is needed?


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[Silent_FatPanda]

Here's what came with the setup


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[Sniperhank]

Those are colors that I'd suspect out of 10K bulbs as they are white bulbs. Your colors will 'pop' and stand out more by having blue lights in there as well. This might help some.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/media/PDF/ColorGuideSW.pdf

 

[Silent_FatPanda]

I thought that one of those lights was a blue light, should I switch to LED?


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[Sniperhank]

I'm not saying that, though I know I had to replace my coralife unit when I wasn't able to keep the coral I wanted under it and the unit would only fit coralife bulbs rather than opening the world up to the high end ones like ATI for example.
I didn't notice the one being coralife's actinic bulb, thought they were all 10K.
Either way, I would still point to the fact that the lighting is why your corals don't pop like you think they should. The coralife actinic bulb is a far reach from an ATI blue + for example. If yours is a unit that can fit standard T5HO bulbs I would replace them with a different color spectrum to reach what you are looking for, which would be one 10k bulb, two actinic, and one purple in the 4 bulb unit. If it is the same unit that I unluckily wasted my money on, you might want to research a different unit so you can meet your goals.

 

[dylan p]

Do you have the coralife biocube? If so that's the problem. The stock lights are junk mine only supports low light corals. They make some nice retrofit kits though. But they cost about as much as it would be to buy a good light. I just left the stock lights and bought a light for my 44 gallon instead I keep mushrooms a Kenya tree coral and a toad stool in my biocube and leave the higher light corals for my 44g


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[Silent_FatPanda]

I do have a 28 gal bio cube, I'll invest in some new lights to start I think. Is there anything in a chemical level that could be causing this?


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

 

[dylan p]

I do have a 28 gal bio cube, I'll invest in some new lights to start I think. Is there anything in a chemical level that could be causing this?


Humanity is akin to the ocean, a few drops of dirty water will not cause it to loose its beauty.

It's the light. The only thing that keeps its color really nice are mushrooms. Rapid led, and Steve's LEDs has some nice retrofit kit but it's just as expensive to upgrade a biocube as it is to set up a larger aquarium

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[Animal-Chin]

My daughter has a biocube and her coral look exactly like yours. Its the light for sure.

 

[chefbill]

you can add the blue LED lunar bars all the empty spots that really makes the colors pop. you also need to make sure your light bulbs are being replaced every 8 to 10 months.