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#1
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what is up with my tort!? :) [poor coloration]
this is my tort as it stands today, very washed out, brown body with purple/blue tips. although it has been growing.
my tank is 40gallons with (2) 150w DE's (1 20k radium, 1 10k blv). i use NSW and dose strontium, bionic and kalk. light duration is currently about 10 hours. the piece is high up in the tank, maybe 5 inches from the surface, and the halides are currently 12inches above the tank as im still lowering them from my acclimation process. the tort used to look like this: (this was in a very shallow prop tank with a single aquaconnect 14k bulb over it) it started developing alot of green on the body. now it looks more like the ORA fiji purple tip LOL maybe they switched the baby's at birth any ideas? my recent thinking is that its not getting enough light, so ive been slowly lowering my halides.
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Aquaculture - lead, follow, or get out of the ocean. |
#2
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Looks a little bleached IMHO, I would lower it to the bottom and give it good flow and see what happens.
Cheers, Henry
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"Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules" |
#3
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If I remember correctly ORA recommends lower light for the the best coloration of their torts. The higher the lighting the more washed out it looks.
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Lanikai, kahakai nani, aloha no au ia 'oe. A hui hou kakou. |
#4
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It's just adapting to different lighting and intensities. The ORA tort's do seem to loose color to shipping "stresses".
These are some that I picked up a couple weeks back, straight out of the shipping box from ORA. This is the first one I got. The "turd brown" tort, rather than blue. Boy, was I unhappy about it. And finally, several months later (second from the bottom in the pic) |
#5
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Chin, approximately how far is your tort from your lights? And of course, what ballast and bulb(s) are you using?
What do you feed your tank? I'm experiencing the same thing as unsped with my tort, and suspect it's actually a form of bleaching. It's a very slow process that doesn't seem to kill the coral, but seems to keep it from thriving. This can go on for many months. I've got tons of light (2x250w Giesemann 14.5k), flow (Stream pumps), excellent CA/dKH, etc. Sometimes I'm tempted to put my lights up much higher to see if it makes a positive difference in coral coloring. |
#6
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They are in trays in about 2" of water within maybe 8" of a 250 watt 6K GE bulb and maybe 12" of a 400 watt 12K Sunburst (don't like any of these bulbs but am going to use them up first). The ballasts are the ASM "green HQI" ones, both 250 and 400 watt versions.
I don't really feed anything. Just whatever the tank produces. The tank is bare bottomed, excessively skimmed (ER 8-2), intensely lit (2 -250 and a 400) and heavily circulated (2 -6000 and 2 -6060 Tunze Streams). It's dimensions are 30" X 30" X 24". |
#7
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IMO, The side of the tort facing the light seems to have more color. I would think it needs more light
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Richard |
#8
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IMO I would opt for more light as oppossed to less light:
Here is the most recent pic of my ORA tort: Here is some torts shortly after receiving them from ORA: These are about 6" below the water in a 60 gallon with 2 x 175 W SE Halides (one 20K 0ne 10K) this is just off center more under the 10K side. Lighting IMO is poor in this tank becaues of a poor reflector setup and limited space. Here is the tort from the original picture shortly after its arrival in March. In the first and third pics, the tort is an average of 6" below the water. Lighting is 2 x 250W DE 14K hamiltons and 1 x 150 W DE 20 K Ushio/Hamilton. Lights are usually 4" above the water and this coral is right between a 250 and the 150. IMO fairly intense lighting. Color is awesome. With that said some ORA corals do lose color in the shipping process. Chip's Acro is one that is notorious for that. They are however extremely hardy and color up fairly quickly. Consisitency is key, and I believe for Unsped's tort it is showing this discoloration because of the recent changes in lighting and aquariums. I have only tinkered with my tort (1st and 3rd pic) to reglue it down a couple times. I keep the ORA pegs on alot of them to help lift the coral away from nearby corals (to prevent aggression) and also to designate which are ORA and which are not. Todd
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Todd Phillips |
#9
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Todd, I see a bunch of red X's
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Richard |
#10
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still?? They are loading up fine for me
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Todd Phillips |
#11
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me too... IMO my ORA tort colored up really low in my tank, maybe 10 inches down, and when I only had 175 W as well... go figure
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I don't even like goats! |
#12
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Here is the thread where Dustin Dorton from ORA shows the different coloration from different light levels.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=366259&perpage=25&pagenumber=2
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Lanikai, kahakai nani, aloha no au ia 'oe. A hui hou kakou. |
#13
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High light and low light, I've seen torts do well color wise. It's your water quality.
Let's talk about water movement in an SPS tank
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-Joe |
#14
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Quote:
The funny part is that when I was waiting for my new lighting system (Giesemann 230 Plus), I used about 200w of T5 lighting (Tek Light) only and my corals colored up considerably better! My tort turned solid blue again. My Efflo. turned purple/green. This is over a month period. This seems to go against the "need more light" theory. |
#15
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I would second JB's comment. You didnt post your alkalinity. If you didnt check it today it has probably changed. Is it a new tank? Check the trinity (Ca-Alk-NA)
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#16
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-Joe |
#17
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Quote:
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. |
#18
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I am guessing he meant NO3 -Nitrates?
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Todd Phillips |
#19
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No one has mentioned phosphates, unless I missed it. If yours are high it will inhibit growth and subsequently coloration. Strontium in high counts isnt good either. Do you test to see that it is need or just dose?
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#20
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NA=salinity. Bob
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#21
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doh.. I am a bad guesser =)
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Todd Phillips |
#22
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Todd, I would not have guess it either but for the trinity thingy. Bob
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#23
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lol,
i use NSW from the college, I have no fish in the tank, I do not feed the tank, and I have a euroreef 5-3 that does a very good job. so i really doubt its phosphates/nitrates. although i do use carbon in the sump, which i guess could be poor quality and adding organics. the rock also came out of a sump where it had been cured for at least 2 years. the alkalinity is not the highest, but i generally try and avoid really high alk (12dkh) i try and keep it around 9dkh or so. however it was my understanding that alk based color problems manifest very easily in green cap. right above the tort in the picture is a nice green cap with good coloration. yes the tank is very new, maybe 2 months uptime total, like i said though the rock was completely cured. i appreciate your comments. my CA = 405-410 my NA = 1.0275 my TEMP = 79-80 i am thinking about switching over to a mixed salt, the NSW is pretty unfiltered, low in buffers etc..
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Aquaculture - lead, follow, or get out of the ocean. |
#24
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bring the salinity down and what is your mg level
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it gets easier each time you do it !!!!! |
#25
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the salinity is what the NSW is, i could bring it down but would require me to thin all future waterchanges.
i dont test magnesium currently
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Aquaculture - lead, follow, or get out of the ocean. |
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