Acropora Color Troubleshoot

[markalot]

We have the same tank, can I see a full tank shot to see how you scaped it?

What is your lighting schedule at (how many hours at full brightness, how many hours total)?

How is your flow? I'm using twp MP40's on either side and twp RW15's in back angled a little forward to create some nice chaotic flow.

I think your acros look fantastic, good job growing them to that size!

 

[Myka]

The trouble corals do have really vibrant tips but they fade quickly into pale or almost white branches.

The tips themselves are actually colorful, and quite so. Its lower in the branches where I start to see white tissue. I can try to take some more pics later today when I have more time.

Brandon, you do realize that some species of Acropora and some color variations of Acropora naturally have white skin, right? These particular Acros are my personal favorites! I love the contrast of the white skin! The Acro that first comes to mind is Acropora desalwii which is pictured in my avatar. That's a piece I used to have, and miss dearly! A. desalwii is an interesting species because it is always the same colors - just variations of intensity from brown to beautiful! On the beautiful end it has bright purple tips, white skin, and bright green polyps. I don't see anything wrong in your photos - I see beautiful pale-skinned Acros!

Even though I see nothing wrong with your corals, I do have a few suggestions. If you're going to measure pH, use a calibrated digital pH meter rather than drop test kits which are not nearly as accurate. If you want to keep SPS then get a real phosphate kit - like the Hanna Ultra Low Range Checker HI736 which measures in PPB (parts per billion). Personally, I also like to keep some measurable amount of nitrate in my tanks. I achieve this by adding Sodium nitrate which you can buy here http://www.sciencecompany.com/Sodium-Nitrate-500g-P16240.aspx (they even ship to me in Canada!).

Here are some pics of my A. desalwii. Please tell me if you think the coral lacks color.

In all it's glory:

After I disturbed it, so it would retract it's polyps and show off it's beautiful WHITE branches.

 

[Russ265]

Brandon, you do realize that some species of Acropora and some color variations of Acropora naturally have white skin, right? These particular Acros are my personal favorites! I love the contrast of the white skin! The Acro that first comes to mind is Acropora desalwii which is pictured in my avatar. That's a piece I used to have, and miss dearly! A. desalwii is an interesting species because it is always the same colors - just variations of intensity from brown to beautiful! On the beautiful end it has bright purple tips, white skin, and bright green polyps. I don't see anything wrong in your photos - I see beautiful pale-skinned Acros!

Even though I see nothing wrong with your corals, I do have a few suggestions. If you're going to measure pH, use a calibrated digital pH meter rather than drop test kits which are not nearly as accurate. If you want to keep SPS then get a real phosphate kit - like the Hanna Ultra Low Range Checker HI736 which measures in PPB (parts per billion). Personally, I also like to keep some measurable amount of nitrate in my tanks. I achieve this by adding Sodium nitrate which you can buy here http://www.sciencecompany.com/Sodium-Nitrate-500g-P16240.aspx (they even ship to me in Canada!).

Here are some pics of my A. desalwii. Please tell me if you think the coral lacks color.

In all it's glory:

After I disturbed it, so it would retract it's polyps and show off it's beautiful WHITE branches.

just as awesome a color.

i wonder if shading plays in to it's white branches or if it truly is supposed to be white.
either way, i doubt water could change it much. great point!

 

[Fish_BowLisha]

Thank you Russ for the compliment. The funny thing is that I AM using aminos and have tried a wide variety including Red Sea Reef Energy A and B, Sachem Fuel, Acropower and Zeovit High Concentrated Amino Acids with no real results. I guess Im just concerned that some of my branches are white and food/nutrients are the only thing I can think of that may be causing such an issue, unless something like Potassium/Iodine could be an issue.

I know the struggle of a high alk water change too well. LOL

I just watched a YouTube video by Red Sea yesterday about their reef care program. The last video of the five video series talked about color. Basically they said you can aim for growth or aim for color with their program. I believe the Reef A+B is part of the growth formula. Anyway you can check that out.

 

[Russ265]

I just watched a YouTube video by Red Sea yesterday about their reef care program. The last video of the five video series talked about color. Basically they said you can aim for growth or aim for color with their program. I believe the Reef A+B is part of the growth formula. Anyway you can check that out.

id be wary of a blanket fix for all tanks. unfortunately we all hve different ones and wildly different parameters. a magic bottle is difficult to ascertain.

my .02

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Hey guys sorry for the delay in the reply! School has just started up again for me so Im a bit busier then before.

Myka that coral is gorgeous! I do know that some acros do have white skin but I didn't think that the ones that I have are meant too. I took it as a sign of too little nutrients coupled with high lighting. The polyps on mine are definitely not that colorful either. I guess I am aiming to get my acros to pop a little more in some cases or at least color fully down to the base of the coral. In person I feel like my tank has a sort of washed out kind of appearance with only one or two pieces popping in the mix of the whole thing. I was a little afraid to dose something like sodium nitrate and I thought I could just feed my tank more to up the nitrates. I will also look into the Hanna Checker, I heard they make great test kits.

Here are a few more pictures I took today but I STILL cannot grab the true color of my tank in these photos. I really have no idea how to take a photo that truly represents my tank in terms of colors.

I tried using different cameras and camera modes and this is what I came up with.

This is one of the corals I am concerned about from a side view.

And this is an example of a coral that I am pleased with.

 

[Russ265]

bump nitrate to 2-5 ppm and see if the tips of your problem coral's color deepen. take note though. the corals that look nice may deepen in color as well.

another option is to drop him lower...however that may not be feasible.

i know many who would kill for your colors though.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

bump nitrate to 2-5 ppm and see if the tips of your problem coral's color deepen. take note though. the corals that look nice may deepen in color as well.

another option is to drop him lower...however that may not be feasible.

i know many who would kill for your colors though.

I will definitely try to raise the nitrates a bit. If I can feed the tank enough then I will try the potassium or sodium nitrate next.
Most of my corals are encrusted already and moving would probably do more harm then good unfortunately.
Thank you again for the compliment. I guess after all of the time I spend on the TOTM forums I have my standards set a bit high

 

[Russ265]

I will definitely try to raise the nitrates a bit. If I can feed the tank enough then I will try the potassium or sodium nitrate next.
Most of my corals are encrusted already and moving would probably do more harm then good unfortunately.
Thank you again for the compliment. I guess after all of the time I spend on the TOTM forums I have my standards set a bit high

if i was going for totm. there would be a ton of post processing. just my .02

this is just using apple store filters


all fixed

 

[Brandon McHenry]

if i was going for totm. there would be a ton of post processing. just my .02

this is just using apple store filters


all fixed

Do you not believe that those TOTM tanks hold true in real life?
Photoshop can work wonders Im sure though.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I am also wondering if my particular lighting spectrum could also be washing out the colors in my tank.

 

[Russ265]

Do you not believe that those TOTM tanks hold true in real life?
Photoshop can work wonders Im sure though.

if i was intent to win. yeah. there would be some touching up

 

[Brandon McHenry]

if i was intent to win. yeah. there would be some touching up

I can see that for sure. Touch ups or not though Im sure their tanks come close to the pictures they post. That being said Im sure my tank has some room for improvement.

 

[Russ265]

I can see that for sure. Touch ups or not though Im sure their tanks come close to the pictures they post. That being said Im sure my tank has some room for improvement.

while i can see you strive for perfection... i think you have a totm tank. my .02

 

[Brandon McHenry]

while i can see you strive for perfection... i think you have a totm tank. my .02

The struggles of being a perfectionist. Well I truly appreciate the compliments and reassurance that I actually do have a nice tank. Its nice when people admire it so I know Im doing something right.

 

[Russ265]

The struggles of being a perfectionist. Well I truly appreciate the compliments and reassurance that I actually do have a nice tank. Its nice when people admire it so I know Im doing something right.

nothing will be detrimental upping nitrate to 1-2ppm. see how it works and then let us know.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

nothing will be detrimental upping nitrate to 1-2ppm. see how it works and then let us know.

I will definitely keep trying and I will keep everyone updated in the progress.

 

[ReefBum]

My .02 cents.....colors look pretty good to me but here a couple of points....

-I have never used UV on my tanks so you might want to consider eliminating that piece of equipment. It could be eliminating some beneficial bacteria.
-agree about getting your nitrates up a bit.
-Aim to keep your Alk rock solid stable. Sounds like you had a big swing before and that can make SPS very unhappy.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

My .02 cents.....colors look pretty good to me but here a couple of points....

-I have never used UV on my tanks so you might want to consider eliminating that piece of equipment. It could be eliminating some beneficial bacteria.
-agree about getting your nitrates up a bit.
-Aim to keep your Alk rock solid stable. Sounds like you had a big swing before and that can make SPS very unhappy.

The UV was purchased to help clarify water and to help prevent an inch outbreak as I have lost fish to it before and I am unable space wise to set up a quarantine so I figured this was the next best thing. I can however see how it could reduce my bacterial population in the water column. As far as I understand though, most of the bacteria is concentrated on the rocks and in the sand which should still be intact and unharmed by the UV. I have considered taking it off but from all of my reading it seems almost 50/50 between people who believe it is okay and those who do not. I am working on the nitrate still and looking into the sodium or potassium nitrate that was suggested to me earlier. As for my ALK I may have been misleading. My original ALK was 11 dkh for quite some time, very stable to match my water changes with the coral pro salt. As my corals grew and my nutrients remained at zero I started to have ill effects of the high ALK on my sps. I then gradually dropped the ALK to 8 over a period of a few weeks to match my new salt and it has been very stable ever since. My damaged sps have recovered and are doing very well. I wouldn't classify the drop as a swing since it was intentionally and very carefully done.

 

[Myka]

I will definitely try to raise the nitrates a bit. If I can feed the tank enough then I will try the potassium or sodium nitrate next.

Be wary of an increase in phosphate if you choose the "feed more" method. IME, phosphate will increase more than nitrate (not in ppm, but will become a problem more than nitrate). Or at least the phosphate will increase before the nitrate. Phosphate certainly won't help your cause.

I see a lot of softies in your tank pic. I also see a large colony near the center of the FTS that look to be brown Palys maybe? Softies in general are chemically aggressive, and SPS in general are particularly sensitive to this warfare. Leathers and gorgonians are particularly aggressive and I've found brown Palys to be so as well (relative to other Z&Ps) since they slime up so much. Do you use carbon? In a reactor or passively? A good brand? How much/how often do you change?