Lack of coral color

Tony44

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
I have had my 60 gal set up for 7 mos. and have a variety of corals. Some seem to do fine and have good but not great color-- montis, grn leather, star polyps, acans. Others very little growth and washed out color-recordias, birds nest, palys, some zoas, xenias. My Parameters are:
CA 700
Phos .07
KH 7
MG 1200
K 401
Temp 78-80
Sal 1.026
Lighting consists of (2) 55 watt power compacts 6700k; (2) 55 watt actinic blues power compacts. These run 12 hrs. (2) Hamilton MH 250 watt 10K these run 3 hrs AM and again 2 1/2hrs PM. I know my sal and CA are a little high I'll fix that today but I suspect I may need more MH light time but how much more I don't want to burn them I upped the time about an hr couple of weeks ago but don't see any difference. Advice?
 

jahmic

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
Salinity is fine there. Magnesium is a bit low relative to the amount of Ca showing on your test kit...I'd also try to maybe get your KH closer to 8 or so. 7 isn't bad but it's borderline low...if it fluctuates and drops a little it could be stressing your tank by not buffering pH enough.

Other than that...I'd just say patience is the best advice I can give. Get your parameters in check, keep them consistent, then wait it out and don't make any other changes for a while. Any reason for the split photoperiod on the halides? Are you having issues with temperature when the lights come on?
 

DyM

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
I agree with everthing Jahmic says, in addition, going from 10K to 14K MH will make a difference in color. I may even have some double ended MH 14K's that are 9months old you can have, so you can see the color difference.

.07 for PO4 is a bit high, but not terrible. What's your NO3 levels at?
 

aztecdreams

Bat Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
I agree with everything above. Especially the K rating on bulbs. You'll get more pop with more blue. Your parameters aren't bad but could be better. Lower Ca higher alk and mag
 

asn-naso

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
If you keep your current mh bulbs, I would replace the white PC with blue bulbs

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