Red Ink Selago

[tuberider]

Anyone have any info. to help keep the red? Mine shifted to more of a light green/yellow than a deep red as I had purchased it. My experience tells me to lower it in order to bring out the deeper colors as it's under 10k, but I thought I'd check in before moving it as I don't like moving corals around too much.

One side note, the way this thing is puddling everyone in the club will have a piece once it starts to branch. This thing looks like a champ grower.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

My guess would be to lower it also. No direct experience though.

 

[northbay-reefer]

In my experience, red seems to like medium blue light, your 10k probably is blasting it so I reccomend lowering it also

 

[tuberider]

cool

 

[tuberider]

OK I'm about ready to throw this stupid coral out the friggin' window. It keeps laying down a base, other than that it has not grown at all, it remains yellow with rust colored polyps. Now before everyone says oh me me me, please give it to me, realize that is not going to happen. It sits about 15" down from a 250w 14k (I'm normally a 10k guy, but all my 10ks are old and I'm trying a generic bulb for fun). I've had the coral for seven months now, and am thinking about moving it back up a little b/c it looks bored. I was also thinking about blasting it with flow, my tank has a ton of flow, but I'm thinking maybe this guy really needs it as it is a selago, and I know they are from areas with lots of water movement.


Ming mentioned "Chroma-plex" in a sort of shrugged shoulder sort of I dunno vibe. I hate putting stuff in my tank, but I really like this coral a lot, it's the reddest stag I've seen so far. At the BACFM where I bought it (from Eric), it was sitting next to the Red Robin, and the selago was a deep rich red, the Red Robin was more of a rust color, I'd be happy with rust at this point though.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Ask Eric what the secret is!

 

[tuberider]

I did, he didn't have much to say really.... That was pre Zeo, pre T5 for him too, I'm just at a loss.

I figure if I kill the thing trying to get color out of it so be it, I'm really angry at this coral right now. I was cool for a while, but the last week or so I've been saying really mean things to it. I was thinking maybe it's just the fact that it and I are having a disagreement about what color it should be, and it's just as angry at me >. If I give it a little :-* it might perk up. I was also thinking of clipping the tip off and seeing if it grows after it heals, I've done that with a few corals and it seems to work especially with stag type corals.

 

[nash]

I have a whole colony that was brown for over a year and then it turned in to a nice shade of red.But when I went on a trip I and lost power it's brown again. Can seem to get the color back. :'(

 

[tuberider]

Thanks for the heads up Wayland, I had a feeling it might be more than flow/light, and that it might just be a tough one to get to color up. It was soooo metallic red it seemed too good to be true.


So I think it goes back to the discussion you and I had at the frag swap about adding more water volume to my system to stabilize it. A 40 gal crammed SPS tank is a ticking time bomb really, I think if i plumbed in a 30-40 gallon tank filled with liverock it could help to keep things stable.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Yeah you got yourself a very sensitive system there, I think for a small tank when the PH changes the buffering material(sand and live rocks) aren't not enough to keep it stable so some sensitive corals will brown out to protect itself. If you were to plumb another 50 gal to that system with some new sand, I bet your whole tank will color up. If I remember correctly, you are running bare bottom right ?

 

[tuberider]

Bare, yes, I'm afraid of sand, so I might just use liverock. My pH is pretty stable, it's the Alk shifts that I think really do it in my system I loose ~1.5 dKh a day. In reality if I don't dose my tank for 2-3 days everything dies, hence the ticking time bomb, not to mention temperature....


I really need a bigger tank, first I need to increase the size of my wallet. :-

 

[northbay-reefer]

Theirs nothing to be afraid off, just take off your thong and step on the sand ... you will love it

I don't think your stuff will die if you stop dosing, they will just slow down

 

[Mr. Ugly]

1.5 dKH per day X 3 days = 4.5 dKH = 1.6 meq/l

I've seen stuff RTN going from 3.6 meq/l to 2.0 meq/l