Purple Montipora, Blue Staghorn, Green Acro, Pink Millepora...that are all mostly brown. 9-29-06

I decided that I was going to try and get these corals to "color up". I have some idea of the requirements of SPS and wanted to make a quick list of "the things that I know I know" as far as SPS are concerned. I would like to take these corals to another level and see if I can recover some of the color that they originally had.

The first few things that I wanted to work on improving was the basic environment for the corals:

• Lighting
• Flow
• Water Quality
• Feeding

Lighting
The tank that these SPS corals are in is about 24 gallons with the dimensions 24L x 18W x 12H. I originally had a single 150w HQI fixture with an XM 20K lamp.

While this light setup provided a nice color for most of the corals in this tank the SPS did not seem to be getting enough light. The Rose Bubble Tip anemone would also "stretch" toward the light. The Zoanthids, Mushrooms and Brain Coral in this tank seemed to be doing well as far as growth and coloration but are much less demanding as far as light intensity.

I upgraded to a Sundial fixture that has a 150w HQI 10K lamp and two 32w Actinic Lamps. The Sundial has two built in timers and only a single plug! This freed up about 4 outlets on one of my power strips. It also has a nice industrial look matching my stands nicely!

The increase in light intensity is obvious. The 10K lamp is much brighter than the 20K I had before and the two dual actinic lamps help to balance things out with a little blue. After checking Sanjay Joshi's reef lighting website I estimate my PAR (Photosynthetic Active Radiation) has gone from about 45 to up around 150! I will measure it as soon as my PAR meter arrives. 

Water Movement
The flow in this tank was originally provided by a Mag 5 return (split between 3 tanks) and a single 150GPH powerhead. After I got the anemone the powerhead had to go. I had a SCWD laying around and an extra Mag 3 pump (350GPH) complete with closed loop intakes and directional return nozzles. I added all of this to the setup and estimate I now have about 440GPH of flow.

This is probably not enough. I am thinking of upgrading my closed loop pump to about 600 GPH. Maybe an Ocean Runner 2500. I want to try and avoid using anything excessively large to keep down any added heat.

Water Quality
I do test Calcium, Alkalinity and pH about twice a month in this system. I was having a problem maintaining calcium so I decided to add a Kalkwasser doser as part of my top-off. This was a DIY project I found on Reef Central and decided to try myself.

This unit works quite well and keeps up with my calcium demand in this system very efficiently. My calcium and alkalinity before the doser was always a bit low around 360ppm Ca and 7dKH for Alk. Now the test are always around 420ppm Ca and 9dKH for Alk.

The other problem I have is with water changes. I had gotten a bit sidetracked with my 2 freshwater aquariums, putting together my new 125g reef and then decided to add yet another 7g Minibow Nano Reef at my office.   I basically slacked off on maintenance as a whole by not changing the carbon bag, cleaning the skimmer cup less frequently and was only doing water changes about every 6 weeks or so. I know have stepped up the maintenance and am back to every two weeks for water changes (10% of the total volume).

Water changes are one of the most effective ways of maintaining aquariums. You are taking out old water that has been depleted of trace elements and built up pollutants and replacing it with newly mixed saltwater that is rich in trace elements and has virtually no pollutants. I started using Tropic Marin Pro Reef a time ago and have been very pleased with the consistency of this salt mix and the calcium, alkalinity and magnesium levels in a newly mixed batch.

Feeding
I have been feeding this system with mostly Phyto-feast Live. This has kept the pod population quite healthy and seems to benefit the soft corals in the other tank and the clams directly. I have recently started feeding Roti-Feast which is a zooplankton feed that will likely benefit the SPS corals. Feeding ties in directly with balancing the corals energy budget and may help with coloration.

Coral Coloration
I don't want to oversimplify this but...

How do we perceive color? Objects are seen as being a certain color when light is present. Light represents the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Three things are needed to see color: a light source, a detector (e.g. the eye) and a something to view.

A 'red' apple does not emit red light. Rather, it simply absorbs (or filters) all the frequencies of light shining on it except the frequencies we call red, which are reflected. An apple is perceived to be red only because the human eye can distinguish between different wavelengths.

Is a coral with blue pigmentation simply absorbing all the other wavelengths of light and reflecting blue?

The color of a coral is also determined by the balance or blend of it's symbiotic algae (photosysthetic corals) and other pigments. The symbiotic algae zooxanthellae is always a hue of golden brown.

Photosythetic corals have two possible sources for food:

There own symbiotic zooxanthellae by using light and CO2.
or
They can feed on plankton and suspended food in the water.

In most of our aquariums we do not supply the level of food that is present on the natural reef. It makes sense that corals will produce more zooxanthellae (brown) to make up for this loss of food. Increasing available food for your corals may shift the balance towards the coral producing less symbiotic algae and will allow some of the other pigment colors to show.

The Quick List
After all of that discussion here is the quick list on the things that I know that I know about SPS and keeping them:

• Intense lighting
• Lots of flow
• Consistent water changes
• Use a good salt – Tropic Marin Pro
• Test – Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, pH weekly
• Keep Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, pH levels around NSW values
• Dose Kalkwasser or use a calcium reactor or use a two-part like b-ionic (or all three if needed!)
• Keep nitrates very low and phosphates at zero
• Keep your skimmer clean and working
• Use Carbon
• Use a refugium for a natural food source and to help reduce nitrate/phosphate
• Feed – Oyster eggs, Phytoplankton, Roti-feast, Cyclopeeze etc.