The Color Green

[paveking1]

[trueblackpercula]

is your tank Barebottom? and do you have po4?

[paveking1]

I have 0 po4 . 1.5 in sand bed . 75 gal refugium ,with plenum& 6" sand bed. thanks for question good thought . but tried that .Thanks

[Briankook]

Your birdsnest looks pink. I really can't tell with the others.

What do you have for flow? I see the loc-lines. Also, is that a Tunze?

[lionspride]

Thanks a, hey ycnibrc, the yellows i am talking about are all starting to get turqouise pretty color actually. The only thing i am upset about is my efflo and Ora German blue/ green

[Kolognekoral]

From my own experience with green acros, they require nutrients to remain green, too much and they will turn brown. When I started working with zeolith filters, the corals turned yellow. Quite beautiful, but I missed the green. Apparently the zeolith removed an important nutrient. Whether this is simply nitrate or phosphate I cannot say. It may well be a specific element, such as iron or chromium, both of which are associated with green pigments. My water has relatively high iron from the tap. The purer I make my water, the less green I get in the corals.

Turqouise, on the other hand, seems to be okay. In general, as we move toward extreme low nutrient systems, the colours are changing as the zooxanthellae become less dense in the tissues. I have a few aquarist friends that actually dose nitrate and phosphate to their reef tanks to supplement the colours. They do not have many fish, therefore the nutrient cycle is pretty low.

Another factor is light. I am not convinced that the spectrum is so important, as the intensity. With less intensity corals are forced to harbour more zooxanthellae and tend to become greener or browner.

On the subject of spectrum, I have a frag of a Montipora danae in my main reef under HQI (13000K) plus actinics and the colour is dark brown-green with a light blue tinge. The same coral in my attached refugium, which has T5 lighting, is a soft, fresh green with the verrucae verging on white. This colour change occured in 4 weeks! Same water, same temperature, same nutrients added, less current, brighter light in a different spectrum. The colour would lead you to think it was another clone of the species, but it isn't. This lighter frag grows quite a bit more slowly than the mother colony.

Just some food for thought.....

[Canarygirl]

Interesting remarks, Kolognekoral.

Do you still use zeolith in your system and have you used them successfully at the same time as your refugium? Or is it necessary to do one or the other to lower nutrients?

[Kolognekoral]

I run the Zeovit system with a DSB in a 300 litre refugium. The total system is about 800-900 litres. I find the system works well and has the advantage of adding many small food animals to the main reef. The refugium is higher than the reef and has a gravity flow, which prevents the organisms from being puréed by a pump!

To be fair, such a system is not for the 'weekend' aquarist, as it requires constant supplements for optimal results. It is not a fragile system, however, simply one that benefits from constant observation and maintainance. Weekly water changes and testing are, for me, requisite. I have tried many other filter systems and have always managed to wring out the desired results, but this system allows one to actually play with the colour of the corals via supplements to fine-tune the look. Many people run it with T5 lighting, which I do not particularly like, as the colours are too grell for my taste, but to each his own.

As is often said, there are many valid roads to a beautiful reef aquarium.

[Briankook]

paveking, do you have a refugium?