Help with Acros, no PE, dark (not brown) colors

[osteopth]

Parameters...
Total water volume: 240 gal display, 300 gal total

parameters:
CA 460
ALK 10.5
PO4 0.12
N03 0
Salinity 1.026
pH 8.2-8.3
Temp 78
MAG 1280

lighting
2 x 400 watt Radiums for 6 hrs daily, 2 x 54w t5 actinics

Filtration method
Algae scrubber with 319 sq in, lit by 4 - 65 watt (200w replacement) CFL's
remote DSB, GFO in reactor, carbon in sock, refugium

Dosing
Kalk in RO/DI ATO, Two-part 120ml/day, mag, strontium

test kits
Hanna checkers for PO4, Salifert for MG, API for N03...

flow
Vortech MP40w ES (2 on left wall, 1 on right wall) Vortech MP10w ES (2 on back wall), Reeflo Dart return.

Problem:
I recently got rid of my softies and most of my LPS, and started with SPS. I set up a reefkeeper elite to keek my temp stable at 78 degrees and adjusted my light schedule so my pH varies about 0.5. I use dosing pumps for C, A, M and S. I lost a few early colonies when I raised my Alk too quickly(and two colonies from that time have slowly withered from the base up despite fragging some of the good branches. ). Now I have about 20 frags that came from a stable tank. I lost one because it was in a hole where one of my old aggressive corals grew back around it. The new corals almost all have darkened to nice deep colors in my tank and are slowly encrusting. (I recently added the GFO after getting my Hanna checker that showed PO4 of 0.63)

My bird nests have great polyp extension, but I have almost no PE from my acros. I have read that happy corals don't always have PE, but I'd like to see those pretty polyps.

Should I lengthen my light time because my corals are dark? Or should I shorten it to make the corals hungrier?

Do you think the polyps will come out more if I get my PO4 down below 0.04?

Would iodine help? What type? How much?

I just revisited the tank that I got my frags from. My colors are all darker than the colonies they came from. I like the colors in my tank better. He runs 14.5K bulbs. But all of his have good PE.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance, Tim.

[SantaMonica]

Forgot most important parameter: Feeding/day.

First the easy stuff: The sock is taking food particles out of the water. When you have lots of food particles, PE is always more. It takes energy to extend polyps and hold them in a current, so if no food particles are detected by a coral, it does not expend the energy for PE. I don't think phosphate has much effect on extension. Fix: Remove sock.

What to do with the carbon? I say you don't need it. Nor the GFO, if you can find the answer to:

P = .63? This is where everything starts. This is a terrible reading that must be fixed, and if your scrubber was working at all this would be 0.1 at worst, which is still high. So plenty of pics of system and scrubber and growth is needed, especially color of the growth before cleaning. And feeding info.

Next: As P comes down, corals will brighten. I'm no lighting expert, but I would imagine that 6 hours of halides could be increased with same effect. Certainly not less hours. Polyps operate on particles, not light.

Your fuge could also be adding nutrients; if your scrubber were working, any macro there would die.

Iodine would be a function of scrubber growth; need to see it.

[osteopth]

I'm working until morning. I'll get some pictures up then. I have a 60 -70 gallon sump with a deep sand bed. The scrubber hangs above the sand bed (which was there first). I have no algae in my display, but some grows in the sump. I use a Reeflo dart pump for my return and split off for the scrubber. I have good flow down the scrubber with green growth, along most of the scrubber and some yellowing in the center. I thought the scrubber was taking care of the PO4 until I got a Hanna Checker.

[Aeros]

Same boat here, same lighting, same great growth, good PE on everything but my Millipora and 4 Acro colonies. Same Acros are a lovely shade of brown.
They were coloring up with the addition of GAC, now back to the same.

Had a freak RTN occur on my Tri-Color, the entire (large colony) lost about 30% tissue, then stopped, and except for a spot or two has all it's tissue grown back. Two week time frame. Shouldda got pics.

I'm going to continue to run GAC in small amounts via an reactor, seems to give me the best PE/color. I will experiment with amount.

[osteopth]

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[SantaMonica]

Well if the question is PE, just remove all mechanical filters, and also make sure that some of your flow is pointed at the bottom so as to kick up particles. I can control my PE by just turning up and down my liquid auto feeder.

As to your high P, after looking at your scrubber, it should be doing a good job unless you are feeding tons. Looks like it could handle a few cubes a day. You are losing half your wattage out the sides of the reflectors, which is why you have growth in the sump (which does not help filtering), but you still have 100 watts left for the screens. The burn spot in the middle is from the high powered bulbs being so close.

A simple improvement would be to switch to 33 or 42 watt bulbs, hung down sideways, with side reflectors that completely cover the bulbs and direct all light to the screens. The screen will grow more uniform, and growth in the sump will stop, and you'll use less power. You can also try letting the screen grow a few more days.

Just remember that polyps catch particles.

[osteopth]

I changed to 100 watt eq. What cubes are you feeding? and when? Maybe i'm not feeding enough. i was told my fish and fuge would feed the corals.

[SantaMonica]

I don't feed cubes. I feed blended oysters:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1153

Fish food is only a tiny percentage of what your corals could eat; a tank your size could consume the equivalent of over 100 cubes a day. It's is limited only by filtration. However if the goal is only PE, just get some particles into the water that you can see floating around... the more it looks like a sand storm (i.e., like a reef), the more PE you will get.

[Dallas reefer]

Didn't you have a DIY recipe for your food? I just thought I saw it somewhere

[SantaMonica]

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1153