Can you please help me with my Favia issue.

[jtroutt19]

So I have had this favia for 3 months now. It used to look like this. But it has lost a majority of the blue around the mouths and is not mostly brown. There is still some blue left just very little. There is no tissue regression and looks healthy. I have it under PC with 3 ReefBrite 14 inch 50/50 strips built onto the PC housing. All parameter are where they need to be with the exception of calcium which is a little on the low side for me 300ppm. I run a custom built 30gal sump/fuge with coralife 55 skimmer. Main tank is 29 gallon. I put Fuel into my tank twice a week along with Oyster Feast once a week. I also target feet with cyclopeze and mysis every now and again. Coral is place mid tank about 12 inches from light in a medium high flow area. Thanks for any input you guys can give.

[organism]

The PC's are probably washing out the color, you may wanna consider replacing those with something else down the line like just a full LED fixture. The 50/50 LED strips aren't helping much either since the white LEDs can also wash out your corals, but if you get some strips that have all royal blue LEDs you'll see some colors come back. I'd recommend just saving your money for a better fixture though.

[stunreefer]

Agreed with above :thumbsup:

To add... if this is a recent import from the wild it could just be getting used to captivity and shifting colors. I'm a huge fan of various Aussie prism Favias however most of them tend to shift colors over time in captivity. Some of them shift only a little, some of them shift rather drastically.

[jtroutt19]

The PC's are probably washing out the color, you may wanna consider replacing those with something else down the line like just a full LED fixture. The 50/50 LED strips aren't helping much either since the white LEDs can also wash out your corals, but if you get some strips that have all royal blue LEDs you'll see some colors come back. I'd recommend just saving your money for a better fixture though.

The blue around the mouth was there when i first put the frag in my tank. Plus one of the PC's is actinic. Personally i have to disagree with the pc's washing out the blue. If i turn the PC's off and leave just my blue LEDs on the color is still only barely there. The blue has been deteriorating since about a month after i put it in my tank. Again ive had the frag for about 3 months.

[crsswift70]

I don't think he means that the color is not showing up because of the lights you have. He is saying that the bulbs you have, over time, will change the color of your corals. Spectrum affects the colors, not just how they look, but how they develop.

[jtroutt19]

Ahh ok i misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying. Do you know of a web page that describes what you are talking about. I would like to read about this

[jtroutt19]

Also is there a way to get the blue to come back. I purchased the frag because of the blue mouths. It was a stunning coral. Also should i just stop using my PC's and just use my reefbrite strips.
I also have a hammer, eagle eye zoos, several mushies, and some star polyps that look great and are very vibrant.

[organism]

If the parts that are brown were blue, then you'll need to put it under lower, bluer light than it's in now. Basically yellower lighting like from your PC's and white LEDs will make it brown out over time. If you want to make your colors really pop for not much money and are a bit mechanically inclined you can make your own LED fixture for pretty cheap and put a 3:1 royal blue to white bulb combo in it :)

[jtroutt19]

Thanks for the info. Why is it that the favia is the only coral that is losing its color?