Acro

I am having a heck of a time getting the color back in an acro frag I bought from happycoral.com.  I am beginning to wonder if I need to be using a calcium reactor to enjoy that success.  (I know it would help but, is it possible without one).  

I PM'd ya back.

Ca reactors are awesome, but not necessary until you start getting into the SPS "dominated" side of reefkeeping. Even still you can get the same results from dosing two part, but you'll be dosing a lot of it, and that gets expensive. Elite-Aquatics makes great reactors at a more than fair price. From the sounds of it, you should be able to get away with just two part dosing for now.

8 bulbs

probably browned out, at least for the most part.

I think Geissman bulbs are great and would stick with them, only setup I seen with ATI's that I like is bret's in ogden. His tank is very clean and has great growth with not alot of the blue look. If you are liking the blue look then I would say go for it. But i personally dont care much for it. His colors pop alot. I would like to see a tank side by side with the different bulbs. Not sayin ATI are bad I think they are up there with Geismann.But I doubt that is the problem.Sps are tempermental I moved alot from one tank to another about a month ago and they all browned out and were pissed. They are starting to color back now.Just putting out more info for you, not sayin bur01014 is wrong in anything he has stated. I just think Geismann are very good bulbs.
Also for flow you said two koralia 4s at the top corners. Are they pointed across at each other? or at front of tank?

could you post a pic of the acro in question?

It is also important to note : blue light does initially change the appearance of SPS corals (the pop!) but, research has shown that on many SPS corals, the actual color will change/morph throughout time when receiving high amounts of PAR from lighting that emits a wavelength between (420-520 nm).   The theory behinds this evidence is largely explained by the amount of sunlight that emits blue wavelengths due to the depth of the water.  

How often are you dosing phyto feast? How often, what quantity of foods do you feed your fish. Given what's been divulged in this thread it sounds like an excess nutrient problem. Without a skimmer, or any other real nutrient export tools in use, that's what I suspect.

I'm here in Ogden and would be more than willing to come take a look and see if there's anything out of the ordinary. Plus gives me a chance to check out your set up.

with that feeding schedule and what else you have described, sounds like a excess nutrient problem...with that much feeding your chaeto should be doubling every few weeks...

what animals are you feeding the liquid foods too? (phyto, roti, and oyster)

what kind of lights you have over your cheato?

do you run a skimmer?

My overall advice would be to place the acro high, in high flow, cut feeding in half, increase waterchange frequency, and stick to using the liquid foods (and aminos) once a week.  Those types of foods have a lot of phosphates and really only should be fed multiple times a week if you are housing sponges.  (clams also benefit, but don't need near as much)

I would also throw a 6500k cfl lamp above your cheato to get that stuff growing...

You are feeding a fair amount, cheato isn't growing, and you are not necessarily changing a ton of water consistently....so I can only assume the tank has an excess of nutrients.

Good luck and hopefully those that can personally view your tank can provide more advice.

*keep in mind, this is just my advice and others may have a difference in opinion

801-479-8226 home

I hope this is kosher, but I also have a question about acros. My tale is a tale of two acros that both came from the same place. They were actually tangled up one in the other when I got them. One was perfectly healthy, and the other had a few dead branches, several of which I snapped off before adding the coral to my tank since they were already experiencing algae growth. Here are the pics. First the healthy one.
And next, the less than healthy one.

They are both placed under a 150w 10kk metal hallide as well a my two HO T5's (full actinic and 50/50, 55w each). I originally had the sick one in the sand bed a few inches lower in the water column, but have since moved it up closer to the surface of my 26" deep tank.

I have never had sps corals before and I don't know much about them, but does the sick one look like it could recover? Is there anything I should do with it? Is there a reason the other one is doing fine but this one seem to be dying? Thanks, in advance, for your input.