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View Full Version : Acros browning during aclimation


Space heater
02/03/2015, 10:27 PM
I recently purchased some new SPS:
http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af157/marshallandtrigger/IMG_0807.jpg (http://s1003.photobucket.com/user/marshallandtrigger/media/IMG_0807.jpg.html)
The only "named" frag is the red planet. The rest are a green bushy, blue tipped branching, and blue mille. Sorry about the bad iPhone pic.

The tank they came from was a 120 with 2x actinic and 2x coral plus ~6" above the water. These corals were ~12" down from the surface.

I am running a DIY LED fixture with 3:1:1 RB:CW:UV, arranged in 4 clusters evenly spaced along the 36" of the display. I also have green and blue LEDS, but only for aesthetics. Each channel is independently dimmable, so my actual balance is more like 5:1:2. I currently have green tipped birdsnest and a green stylo in the tank, both of which have deep orange skin and neon polyps, which I used to gauge lighting intensity. My current parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrate undetectable
Phosphate undetectable
Ca 420
KH 8.75
Mg 1350
Running GFO/GAC in a single reactor, skimming medium wet, feeding heavily. This is a youngish tank, 6 months old, but I have coraline growth on the back wall and rocks (started with dry pukani/fiji dry rocks).

I started the new additions just above the sand (~14" from the surface). I have since moved them up to ~10". All of the unnamed frags are starting to brown after 1.5 weeks, and the red planet is starting to show a bit more red.

My question is should I move these new additions up more? The green tip bn in the same tank at the LFS was completely brown with only the faintest hint of green in the tips. I'm pretty sure that my lights are much more intense than the LFS, so I figured if anything I'd need a slow acclimation for these guys, but now I'm rethinking that.

tripdad
02/04/2015, 11:53 AM
The reason the corals look more brown is because the zooxanthalae are multiplying in numbers to meet the nutritional needs of the coral, giving it browner look as they are "brown". Are you feeding anything for corals? Your numbers show no nutrients in the tank so they have to get it somewhere, thus the increase in zoo'. Try feeding the corals a little , raise your PO4 to detectable levels, .02 ish, and nitrates to around 4 and see if colors improve. Also the "colors" can be a "sunscreen" produced by the corals in response to fight over saturation with light. If you are not "over" lighting them then they may not be as colorful.