My SPS colors suck! Help!

[Squiers007]

Yea, I'm thinking now that my skimmer may be slightly to big for my tank considering my light bio-load. My test kits should be here early next week so we will know more then. Tex, what lighting do you have on your tank? I really love the colors you have and wish mine looked that good!

[Texreefer]

Yea, I'm thinking now that my skimmer may be slightly to big for my tank considering my light bio-load. My test kits should be here early next week so we will know more then. Tex, what lighting do you have on your tank? I really love the colors you have and wish mine looked that good!

It is the 120 watt ecoxotic LED with two white/magenta stunner strips on each side.. very basic and simple but i really like it

[Squiers007]

Got my Red Sea Pro Colors test kit in the mail yesterday. Plan on running chems either tonight or tomorrow night and will post the results once finished.

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[Big_Pun]

have fun with that 45 min potassium test, they all take a lil practice to do.

[Squiers007]

Haha, I'm sure I will. Hopefully it won't take too much practice considering I do water testing everyday at work!

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[profntbtr]

here is an article i discovered a while back detailing what colors are indicators of deficiency in what trace elements. it should help you out. http://reefbuilders.com/2008/09/03/g...-vivid-bright/ i have been using sealab no.28 blocks with part one B-ionic, and also been dosing the last bit of reef plus i had in the fridge from years ago, but colors have been perking up, and growth is awesome as well. The purple bonsai i have is actually turning purple, as opposed to neon brown. At the lfs i discovered that they had discontinued the reef line and now were focusing on the aquavitro line, so i picked up some fuel and am waiting to see how that will affect my corals

[rrasco]

I think I'm starting to have this problem too. I don't have many SPS, just a red planet and an efflo, but neither have shown much growth or colors. The red planet has grown just a bit, but I can see the colors have started to recede. I can see new branches forming, but they are solid white. I'm thinking I'm missing some trace elements. Not to say I have been neglecting my tank, but I have been kind of leaving it alone to run it's course while I have been building the 210.

The article linked above leads me to believe I am low on potassium, but I'm not convinced yet. I don't check params often, but when I did 2 weeks ago everything was spot on and nitrates were undetectable. Maybe the tank is too clean as some have mentioned in previous posts?

Tank rundown: 29g, marineland 100 skimmer, 96W T5 with10K/actinic bulbs. Sumped with fuge, emperor 400 in DT and a few powerheads. Not currently dosing any trace elements.

[Squiers007]

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while. Anyway, got my Red Sea Colors test kits and low and behold, my Iron, Iodine, and Potassium were all low! So, I have decided to switch up my water change schedule(which I was not very strict about) from 20gal ~ once per month, to 5gal every week. I'm hoping this will enable my trace levels to remain higher without the need to dose any extra chemicals. I will probably do this for 1-2 months and try to test at least every 2 weeks to see how the levels are doing. If this does not get the colors to where I would like then I will add in some supplemental dosing. I am also planning on adding at least 1 strip of LED's to my lighting which should increase my PAR values as well. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks and wish me luck!