Acros brown except for tips

[pluikens]

Hey all,

I am seeking advice with my acros. The frags I've added look great when I get them but then after a few weeks, they seem to turn mostly a brown with just some of the vibrant color remaining on the tips. I think this may be related to insufficient lighting but I am interested in exploring almost every other options to make my acro keeping successful. This has happened to all of my acro frags except for one large one that I got around Christmas time last year which looks like it actually has growth. Feel free to ask anything about my system and I will share. I'd really like to determine if I should just stay on track and maintain my parameters, add the T5 hybrid from AquaticLife to supplement my two AI Prime HDs, just increase daily photoperiod, or almost anything else!

FTS of tank today

Parameters:
Age 10 months
Alk 9
Calc 450
Mag 1450
PO4 0.06
Nitrate 6.91
SG 1.025
Temp 78
pH 7.8-8.1

Lighting: 2x AI Prime HDs, 60-minute ramps with a 9-hour photoperiod, mostly AB+ schedule

Dosing BRS two-part, iodine (based on Triton suggestion), and Aquavitro Fuel

Latest ICP test results, I'm about to send another sample in early August: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/56419/

Specific acros in question:
Strawberry shortcake

ORA Red Planet

Unknown

Aussie Spath

Unknown Milleapora

ORA Yellow Fuzzy

 

[29bonsaireef]

How high are your lights from the surface? almost looks like they may be getting too much intense light from the LEDs mixed with high nutrients.

 

[pluikens]

How high are your lights from the surface? almost looks like they may be getting too much intense light from the LEDs mixed with high nutrients.

Lights are 8 inches off the surface, about 15 inches apart.

 

[KrisReef]

10 months is a young system. I do not see much coralline algae, although you seem to have enough nutrients to grow corals & algae. How much flow do you have in the tank? Do you feed your corals (plankton or other coral food)? Are you running a skimmer? (Flow and a skimmer could increase O2 and raise pH.)

(Thanks for reminding me, I need to feed my coral while the lights are still out. )

 

[jda]

What are the tank dimensions? 2x AI prime is not a ton of light, especially if you are asking it to spread.

I nearly always think that T5s are a good idea to add to most LEDs.

 

[pluikens]

10 months is a young system. I do not see much coralline algae, although you seem to have enough nutrients to grow corals & algae. How much flow do you have in the tank? Do you feed your corals (plankton or other coral food)? Are you running a skimmer? (Flow and a skimmer could increase O2 and raise pH.)

(Thanks for reminding me, I need to feed my coral while the lights are still out. )

There's some spots of coralline but not more than a handful. Flow is provided by an XF230 on the left side and an MP10 on the right. The gyre gets up to 40% except for a 30 minute period in the afternoon where it gets to 70% pulses like nutrient transport mode. The MP10 is at about 65% reef crest. There's also the RFG on the return at about 400 GPH. I target feed reef chilli every four days. I add a cap full of Seachem phytoplankton once a week and the aquavitro fuel I dose had amino acids. I run a Vertex Omega 130 skimmer pulling air from outside through a CO2 scrubber. pH used to be quite a bit lower before the outside air and scrubber. I run a refugium growing chaeto which used to grow much faster but has slowed down in the past month. The refugium light is opposite my display lights to help keep pH up. I'm currently dosing 6ml of calcium chloride and soda ash each daily at 1ml increments hourly once the lights come on in the display.

 

[pluikens]

What are the tank dimensions? 2x AI prime is not a ton of light, especially if you are asking it to spread.

I nearly always think that T5s are a good idea to add to most LEDs.

It's a 36" x 18" x about 17" high 40 breeder. I'm estimating the PAR at the top where the acros are to be between 200-250 based on the BRS video for the single light and the multiple lights for SPS. I always planned to upgrade the lighting as my coral keeping advanced.

 

[pluikens]

My lighting schedule. The drops during the peak hours are everything UV to Blue at 70% and the other colors at 20%. Otherwise it's the BRS AB+ settings from 10 to 7. That was noon to 7 until a week ago when I was thinking a longer photoperiod would make up for the lower PAR.

 

[Reefltx]

I don’t think that’s enough lighting for sps in a 3ft tank.

 

[jda]

I think that it is "enough" based on what you have seen. I do not think that it is "enough" if you want more than you are already getting.

 

[pluikens]

I think that it is "enough" based on what you have seen. I do not think that it is "enough" if you want more than you are already getting.

Is that generally what I'm experiencing then? Parameters seem ok, I'm just losing vibrant colors in the entire coral where light is insufficient? Corals should still survive in their current state? Will they grow like this? Can the photoperiod be extended longer to get more color out of them until I can add supplementation?

 

[jda]

They can degrade as the grow and start to shadow themselves more. ...but for the most part, more of the same with perhaps a slight decline over time.

More photo period will not help with shadows, but can help with growth.

 

[pluikens]

I run 10 tablespoons of GFO in a reactor swapped every for weeks to keep phosphates where they are. When chaeto was growing better and I trimmed weekly phosphates were closer to 0.02 as indicated in the ICP test. Should I be shooting for that lower phosphate number even if I keep alk at 9?

 

[jda]

I would not chase .02P either higher or lower... that is enough to have great looking coral with great growth but also not enough to have any issues.

If you do decide to go lower, then I would get the alk to NSW level.

 

[pluikens]

I would not chase .02P either higher or lower... that is enough to have great looking coral with great growth but also not enough to have any issues.

If you do decide to go lower, then I would get the alk to NSW level.

Phosphate leveled out at .06 so I'll keep this. So is insufficient light intensity from just two pucks my issue and not only the increased PAR but the additional light source of T5 will truly help me get more vibrant color throughout the coral?

 

[jda]

More PAR, less shadowing (better spread) and better spectrum.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

More PAR, less shadowing (better spread) and better spectrum.

Can you explain “better spectrum”? Is there a certain spectrum you recommend?

 

[Big E]

The frags were all colorful because you're buying growing tips/branches which always have the most color. When a frag starts to base out the original branch can brown out in many cases because it's not growing.

Before I make any light changes I would monitor the base growth and new sprouts coming from the base for color. If the new sprouts have good color then you just need to be patient. If the actual original frag branch is growing ........common with staghorns for example ...........you should see color.

I do agree with others that your lights are probably inefficient but you should still be able to see some of the frags color up based on their position to the lights. Either way, you're going to need to beef up your lighting as the corals get larger but waiting for the frags to grow a bit more can give you clues on what you need to do to upgrade.

 

[pluikens]

The frags were all colorful because you're buying growing tips/branches which always have the most color. When a frag starts to base out the original branch can brown out in many cases because it's not growing.

Before I make any light changes I would monitor the base growth and new sprouts coming from the base for color. If the new sprouts have good color then you just need to be patient. If the actual original frag branch is growing ........common with staghorns for example ...........you should see color.

I do agree with others that your lights are probably inefficient but you should still be able to see some of the frags color up based on their position to the lights. Either way, you're going to need to beef up your lighting as the corals get larger but waiting for the frags to grow a bit more can give you clues on what you need to do to upgrade.

Thank you so much for this explaination. So when you're cutting tips for your frags, you're left with something that's more brown as the tip on the colony until it grows back? I guess not many people are taking those pictures of just fragged colonies so I haven't seen that but it makes sense.

What I have noticed is colonies for sale that only have the vibrant colors at the tips. It makes sense that when these are in an aquarium packed together with other colonies you only see the tips so the aquarium is filled with color. Beneath is all is probably a lot of brown as the bases have stopped friend and are not getting nearly as much light.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

My lighting schedule. The drops during the peak hours are everything UV to Blue at 70% and the other colors at 20%. Otherwise it's the BRS AB+ settings from 10 to 7. That was noon to 7 until a week ago when I was thinking a longer photoperiod would make up for the lower PAR.

I am no expert in leds by any stretch but your UV is way high. Get that down to like 10-15%. Reds and greens I would run at no more than 5%, white leds have plenty of red and green spectrum already. Too much UV can brown out sps, its a reactoin to keep some of the UV off them, like natural sunscreen. I would just run the AB+ coral program as it is since its known to be successful, set it at about 60-70% for max power and give your corals about 8 weeks to respond. Run the light for 7-8 hours wirh around 3-4 at peak power. Keep an eye on them and see how they respond, lower insenty if needed. If after 8 weeks all is going well slowly increase to about 80% intensity. I personally think 2 AI Primes is enough for sps placed high and under the leds, not enough spread for high light corals at the edges of the tank though.