Blue SPS turning green

imranh

imranh

New member
Anyone have some solid advice on keeping blues blue? All my water params are good and I'm running the reef breeders light (photon 24). All my blues are really healthy with great polyp extension but are green. Moved one of the "blue" pieces to a position in the tank today where it gets little exposure from the green led. Waiting to see what happens.

Thanks!
 
When you say your Params are good what phos and nitrate levels are we talking here ??

Do you know for sure that the actual piece in question is supposed to be blue ?? ( named piece ? Which one?? )


sps turns brownish green when the nitrates are high along with too much white light is my opinion.
 
Nitrates 5ppm, Phos undetectable.
calcium 460
Alk 10dkh
temp 79



Yes, I have 3: Blue dragon, blue dream and the Palmers. All three are mostly green but otherwise look really healthy. All other color SPS corals (yellows, reds, purples) are fine and displaying their correct vibrant color.

Running whites and blues at 34% on light.
 
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Some corals just skin up green in a healthy tank with good lighting . A couple of mine started out light color with baby blue tips then turned deep dark green. On a positive note I also have blues that turned to an even better knock out blue .
 
madjoe said:
Most likely lighting
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ding ding ding......#1 reason why corals do NOT look like they did in another system IMO... ;)

I have placed frags of the same coral in different places of my tank and the color differences are very noticeable......I will not be surprised to hear that the frags in other areas of your tank will color up different....and FYI, give it time. it can take weeks for lighting to affect coral coloration...

GL :)
 
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Lighting is the cause but I also think 5ppm nitrates are also in question ..

I can't see the pics but if it's more of a greenish Brown.. Wouldn't lowering the nitrates also help ?
 
tinman said:
Lighting is the cause but I also think 5ppm nitrates are also in question ..

I can't see the pics but if it's more of a greenish Brown.. Wouldn't lowering the nitrates also help ?
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Not sure if he is new to the game but baby steps until he learns!!! I like his picture of his tank in "My little frag city" 5ppm is nothing unless you have soft tissue SPS.
 
Slight clarification on the nitrates: I use the API test kit and my reading (color) was between 0 to 5. When in the middle like this, I tend to go with the higher values for nitrate.

I really do think it's lighting and with the reef breaders lights, the light at mid-level or higher isn't very diffused (blended) and I can clearly see the colors. Given this, the frag(s) in question was under primarily the green led.

I have repositioned the frags and will take pics and monitor as I see changes. Will be updating this thread with my finding over the next few weeks/months.

Thanks for all the feedback.

BTW - Yes, I'm still fairly new at the hobby but have been learning a lot and continue to read as much as I can. For those interested in learning more about lighting and reef Aquaria, this article is a MUST read: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature
 
Lil BamBam said:
Yup on the light!!! Be happy that it doesn't turn to a very rare color "white"
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Lol i have one its completely white been that way few weeks still has polyp extention so its ultra rare ps sorry for side track. I still say most likely light imo 5ppm isnt that much and would turn brown if it was water issue. Turning green usually not enough light . Or wrong spectrum of light. Purple and blues i get best colors in 350plus par again everytank diff but thats been my experuance with sps
 
I'm with Madjoe. acros usually turn green if not getting enough light. what percent are you running your LED's right now? what optics?
 
I think more important it's the type or specific coral. My light isn't a problem and a frag from aqua pros probably from a wild colony did a complete change to dark green and it's healthy and growing like a weed. Now if it's a known coral with a known look that's a different story.
Every set up is different and has its own character depending on a vast number of factors. Too many times people jump to conclusions and start to mess with things and crash the tank. Key here is how many corals are doing what. If you been Reefing long enough you should be able to read you parameters by what's going on in your tank without a test kit though it's good to use them once in a while anyway to confirm. . Some lights do suck though .
 
Hey Nino, I'm running the reef breeders/evergrow I picked up from you :) Have them at 34% for both blue and white.

ColaAddict said:
I'm with Madjoe. acros usually turn green if not getting enough light. what percent are you running your LED's right now? what optics?
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Yup. Definitely need to ramp them up, slowly though. Get the blues up more. You can ramp white very slowly, but the blue needs to be at least >50%. It has 120 optics for great spread, but needs to be ramped up more to get better light to corals.


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Ok. Cool. Will plan on slowly ramping up (1% a day or 5% a week) till I'm about 60% blue and maybe 40-45 on white. Will watch for bleaching as well.

Thanks for the advice!

ColaAddict said:
Yup. Definitely need to ramp them up, slowly though. Get the blues up more. You can ramp white very slowly, but the blue needs to be at least >50%. It has 120 optics for great spread, but needs to be ramped up more to get better light to corals.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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