Coral Colours and Amino Acids

[Ron99]

Things in the 75 gallon are going so so right now. I am finding that the zoas are not doing well and slowly withering away. Also my SPS is not very colourful and browning out in some cases. I have an 8 bulb sunlight supply T5 fixture so I don't think light is an issue. Most of the bulbs are only a couple of months old. Parameters look to be in the normal range (i.e Ca, Mg, Alk all look okay, nitrates and phosphates unmeasurable etc.).

I did a bit of reading and am thinking maybe i don't have enough fish poop/amino acids in the water. Currently there are only 3 fish in the tank, a six line wrasse and a true perc/false perc pair. So maybe the bioload is to low for 75 gallons (plus 11 or so gallons in the sump) and I need to supplement the amino acid content somewhat? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[shrimpchips]

If your corals are brown, chances are that there's an overabundance of nutrients right now as opposed to a dearth of them.

Have you tried a different test kit?

Also do you have a skimmer attached to the system? Any media reactors?

[Ron99]

Yep, running a Coralife 65 skimmer which pulls a cupful of nasty dark green/black skimate every 5 to 7 days and a phosban reactor. Also growing cheato in the sump. Tried two different test kits. I don't have an abundance of nuisance algae growing so I don't think it's high nitrates/phosphates. From what I was reading corals need a certain amount of nitrogen in the form of amino acids excreted in fish poop and this is a different form then the nitrates etc. you get from breakdown of uneaten food etc.

[Ron99]

I also forgot to mention that the SPS is all growing and noticeably encrusting over plugs an rock so its not like they are dying or appear to be suffering in growth, just dull and brown.

[hockey nut]

I use amino acids and would say it makes a difference. I find it helps with growth and colour. It will take some time but you should see a difference.

[bigblack]

Hi ron, don't add aminos if corals are brown, they will just make them more brown. You need to give us some more info about your system before anybody can really help, i.e lighting duration, how stable are your parameters, salinity etc most importantly how stable is your alk as that is key for sps. Flow thru the tank? How long has the tank been up, how long have the corals been in there? What test kits are you using to detect p and n, even the really good ones dont' do the best at measuring in the lows.

from what you've written about the coralife pulling out that much junk i would assume that nutruients are most likely the issue, so just take your time, feed a little less and let your system clean up, the best advice i can give you is make changes one at a time so that you can identify the problem.

[lorenz0]

I only have 5 fish in my 60 gal (slightly shorter than the 75) and haven't had a crazy issue with color. out of curiousity, what is your bulb choice?

[Ron99]

Tank has been running since last May, was set up with established and cycled rock from other tanks so there was no cycle to speak of. Lighting runs 10.5 hours each day. Some corals have been in there since last may much of the others have been in 5 or 6 months. Salinity is stable as I run an ATO. Other parameters seem a fairly stable as well although I don't check every day. But they are similar when I do test. Flow is about 300gph through the sump and I have an MP40 running about 2/3 full power which gives plenty of water movement. Test kits are a mix of Elos and API. I have also tried some hagen test kits too for phosphate and ammonia/nitrate/nitrite. But all read zero or very close to it when I test so I don't think I have a major nutrient issue as I can't see getting false negatives all the time. I'm also not seeing any algae blooms; just the normal dusting on the glass that needs to be cleaned every few days.

I didn't think a cup of skimate per week was that much. I see others pulling that much in a few days.

As for bulbs I have 3 x actinics, 1 x fiji purple, 2 x 75.25 and 2 x 12,00K actinic white. Lorenzo, what kind of fish are the 5 you have? Some eat and poop more then others. I have 3 fairly small fish in a large tank so that is why I am thinking low biolad as a possible issue. I was reading these:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

http://glassbox-design.com/2008/amin...-do-they-work/

[fishytime]

It could be your bulb choice....if the actinic bulbs you are running are a "true" or "pure" actinic then four out of your eight bulb spread are "color" bulbs...meaning they dont produce as much usable par as 10000-18000k bulbs...

as far as dosing amino acids goes...I am all for it....everything in the tank seemed to perk up when I started dosing it...

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by fishytime

as far as dosing amino acids goes...i am all for it....everything in the tank seemed to perk up when i started dosing it...

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