Green Birds Nest SPS color

[jaustin]

Well, started dosing iron, i also picked another bottle of snow, i haven't been feeding latley....well like two months. I was in Africa and there was no way the Wife was going to remember to feed at night.

I'll be keeping you all updated on the color of the SPS.

thanks for the help

 

[cameron]

It is virtually impossible for you to tell how bright and good a bulb is without a PAR meter. Your eyes cannot see the spectrum a coral wants very well. I bet your lights are putting out poor PAR. Hamiltons are known for this problem and I can only guess no-name ones have a similar problem. Iwasaki in the 175w variety is the way to go IMO.

 

[jaustin]

I understand that i need a par meter. My corals are growing fast though. I would love to take the pepsi challange with these bulbs but i do not have a par meter.

If anyone has a par meter i could borrow i would pay shipping both ways.

 

[jaustin]

Well i think i found my problem. I checked the TDS and it's in the 40's ugh.... How retarded can i be to not check the TDS output of a used RO unit. Well anyway i ordered a new mambrane and new 1 micron sed and 5 micron carbon. That should take care of it.

I'll keep this thread updated with any results.

Jason

 

[wbholwell]

JAustin;142940 wrote: Well i think i found my problem. I checked the TDS and it's in the 40's ugh.... How retarded can i be to not check the TDS output of a used RO unit. Well anyway i ordered a new mambrane and new 1 micron sed and 5 micron carbon. That should take care of it.

I'll keep this thread updated with any results.

Jason

You'll probably need new DI resin too. If your unit does not have a DI chamber, you can purchase a seperate one.

 

[jaustin]

I don't have a DI chamber hooked up now, i'll check the TDS of the RO with all the new filters and membrane. I'll get the DI if i need it, i saw a few on ebay for $40 that come with resin.

 

[jaustin]

would 45 TDS water for sure cause some corals to brown?

 

[dannybradley]

To get coral to green up they need a lot of U.V. exposure. Try taking the glass shields off your halide, at your own peril. Coral produces a green pigment in response to protect itself excessive U.V. rays.

This is according to the talk Dana Riddle gave us on coral pigments. Also take into consideration Phillip Root saying that his finger leathers getting 1000-1200PAR green up all the time. I don't think it's because of the high PAR, but more so because of the unprotected exposure to natural sunlight in his greenhouse.

 

[jaustin]

I wish i could remove the galss shields, they are SE Halides. I would have to brake the glass tube to remove the glass shield. Has anyone done this to a SE bulb?

 

[krb]

i haven't read all of this thread so forgive me if what i am about to offer has been stated already, but my purple polyp pink birdsnest started to turn green with purple polyps when it was being blasted by some serious flow. now that i have put my powerheads on a wavemaker, they have returned to their pink color.

 

[humptrax]

color change is usually a sign of stress. i've read that corals will frequently brown if the light is changed.

brown signifies that the coral's tissue is producing more zooxanthellae, i think? where did you get the coral and what kind of lights were they under?

 

[jaustin]

The coral is ORA, don't know what lights they were under. It sat at my LFS for a month under alot of VHO bulbs and it held color. My LFS had trouble with the other Green birds nest, it turned brown too. Plus my German blue acro is mostley brow with very little green in it....and no blue. I do not have any problems with the digita...it's bright purple or the two monti caps.

I have switched to 20K lighting and lowered my halides from 14" off the water too 8" off the water, hopefully that improves my par and helps the corals color up.

I also have a new mambrane, carbon filter, and sed filter coming for my RO unit. It was producing mid 40s TDS water....not good.

 

[humptrax]

i've read that improperly acclimating corals to light will cause corals to brown. the corals will start producing excess zooxanthellae to aid photosynthesis.

also, some people over at reef central talks about dosing SPS systems with potassium for color restoration?

might want to look that up somewhere. i have no experience with potassium dosing.

 

[humptrax]

oh and pics would help too.

 

[wbholwell]

JAustin;143070 wrote: would 45 TDS water for sure cause some corals to brown?

I have heard that high phosphate levels will cause corals to brown. At any rate, 45 tds is not good- that's higher than my tap water. Your new filters and membrane should be able to take it down to roughly 10 tds, but you'll need a DI chamber to take it all the way down to 0-1 tds. It's definitely worth it, IMO. I also wouldn't spend 40 bucks on an ebay unit. Here's a quality chamber for 36 bucks from a reputable vendor: