Acropora and low lighting

Acroporaaddict · Jan 24, 2017

Is it possible for acros to be pale from low light? Some of my acros are on the pale side. I assume it's not from low nutrients. My tank tests at 5ppm NO3 and .015ppm PO4. I just tested par on the pale acros and they are around 200-250 par. Any suggestions?

Diesel · Jan 24, 2017

Acros turn green if the don't get enough light.
200/250 par should be enough for not turning green
Pale is low nutrients, your Po4 is pushing it at 0.015
No3 is good at 5ppm.
What kind of light do you use?
Can you post a closeup pic of the acros and a FTS?

Acroporaaddict · Jan 24, 2017

Diesel said:
Acros turn green if the don't get enough light.
200/250 par should be enough for not turning green
Pale is low nutrients, your Po4 is pushing it at 0.015
No3 is good at 5ppm.
What kind of light do you use?
Can you post a closeup pic of the acros and a FTS?

I'll tare some pictures tomorrow when I'm off work and the lights are on. Should I take my GFO offline?

Diesel · Jan 24, 2017

You can but reduce it slowly as you don't want to do it overnight.
Just reduce the flow about 50%.

LakeCityReefs · Jan 25, 2017

What color is the acro supposed to be? Could it be depleted K or Fe related?
Sometimes acros will pale for a little while after they've been added to a new tank.
Keep parameters stable with a slightly dirty tank and it should color up with some time under 200 PAR.

Acroporaaddict · Jan 25, 2017

Here's the fts and one of the acros that is pale. It's a Cherry Bomb. Supposed to be blue with red polyps. It's pale grey with light pink polyps. I have other blue acros such as Oregon Tort that have deep blue so I'm not sure if it's a element deficiency or not

View attachment 20170125_091342.jpg

View attachment 20170125_101144.jpg

LakeCityReefs · Jan 25, 2017

Well dang. Everything looks OK to me. Give it some time keep things stable.

I actually have a blue tenius that's a little pale as well. I think it's because I've placed it so high in my tank it's encrusted a base several inches in diameter that is actually a deeper blue. Most of the other corals are happy so I don't see any benefit in changing things for 1 coral.