All acros turning green

[Flippers4pups]

What's the link there Flippers other then you're obviously suggesting increased iron = green corals. Got a link or something?

There's a advanced aquarist article that speaks to color and what effects their colors. Iron is one of those that promotes "green" colors. I can't find it right now.

 

[Mattrg02]

The triton test maybe worth it but you know something is wrong just by looking at your tank. Start inspecting all your pumps, probe holders etc to see if anything has rusted out. One thing that jumps out is a 15% water change every week on a 17 g tank. Are you making sure your new water parameters are identical to the tank water. That could cause a spike in alk and explain why your mag is high. What salt are you using? Acro like stability and WCs can make your parameters unstable. I would let your tank go for about 10 days, do nothing and see how things are doing. Only add top off water. No dosing, no WCs. What % do you have your lights at?

No rust. Just have a heater and an mp10 in the tank.

Using reef crystals.

I match salinity, temp, and alkalinity when I do water changes. I had been letting the tank go two weeks, but the detritus just piled up so much.

Now that alkalinity has been dropping so much in between water changes, I keep the water change water alkalinity higher so I don't have to dose as often. I test alkalinity daily now and dose when I see it go from 8 to 7.7 on my salifert test.

No sump or skimmer. Nutrients are a problem for the opposite reason. I dose nitrates every few days.

Lights:

Blues at 100% and whites at 45%. The others at 35%. I recently put them back into acclimation mode since I saw the fox flame start bleaching. PAR shouldn't be higher than 250 or so at the highest point. If I see the vivid rainbow frag start coloring up, I guess I'll drop the light intensity some

 

[Flippers4pups]

I forgot to mention that I'm using reef crystals. Seems to mix high in a lot of things, maybe a trace element is too high?

If there is excess nutrients, they would "brown out" first, or bleach out completely. Too little they typically go pale and then bleach.

 

[Mattrg02]

If there is excess nutrients, they would "brown out" first, or bleach out completely. Too little they typically go pale and then bleach.

Yeah, they were getting pale and bleaching before I began dosing nitrates. That's when the green began showing up.

 

[Mattrg02]

Ok, so I've been reading that people feel that iron can cause greening of an acropora. I also read that iron is nearly impossible to detect in a hobbyist test kit. How would one remove iron from the tank? Let's just say that reef crystals is high in iron. Rather than try to test for it, why not just remove it? Seems that iron levels needed are extremely low.

 

[jda]

Green is usually the first color on the way back from brown.

 

[jda]

Also, if Reef Crystals or Instant Ocean are high on iron, then this is the first that anybody has heard of it. It is the most trusted salt in the industry to be on-the money every time.

 

[Mattrg02]

Also, if Reef Crystals or Instant Ocean are high on iron, then this is the first that anybody has heard of it. It is the most trusted salt in the industry to be on-the money every time.

It sure isn't on my money for alkalinity and calcium. Mixed to 11dkh and 500 plus for calcium. Before my tank began using alkalinity, I had to use acid to drop alkalinity.

At one point, it was mixing to 18dkh at 1.026 salinity. That caused me to lose all my corals once.

 

[jda]

I add Muratic Acid to my IO too, but it is the same exact parameters every time out of the bag. That is all that I ask for. It the mix had too much iron in it, it would be widely known.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have been systematically turning the corals in my tank with placement and light for several months now.
IMO. Yes. It's light.
If you want I can show you pictures. And no , not all of them do this. I have frags of the same species in different spots.

It's not par imo. It's a specific NM in the spectrum. I am wagering it is either one in the blue or the UV if you have it.

Par fwiw , is all the colors measured and averaged. A singular Nm overdose won't be cought by a par meter. I.e. , I can get 200 par with a fresh water light and reef light.

I just lowered the UV in my tank, so I don't have an answer to that yet.

So. What's you're photo period?
Do you have UV?
What's your color ratio?

 

[Mattrg02]

Photo period: full power at 12pm and then lights out at 11pm. There is a 1 hour ramp up to full power. Then there is a two hour ramp down to light out, with only blues for the last 2 hours.

UV peaks at 80%.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Photo period: full power at 12pm and then lights out at 11pm. There is a 1 hour ramp up to full power. Then there is a two hour ramp down to light out, with only blues for the last 2 hours.

UV peaks at 80%.

How long is the peak time?
What is the color ratio?
How long is the ramp on either side of the peak?

And how long is the blue only? If you have one.

For me, I stopped a majority of the greening by lowering the overall peak time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'd be very surprised if iron is detectable in a tank not dosing any iron.

 

[Mattrg02]

How long is the peak time?
What is the color ratio?
How long is the ramp on either side of the peak?

And how long is the blue only? If you have one.

For me, I stopped a majority of the greening by lowering the overall peak time.

My peak time is actually 12:30pm to 6:50pm. Ramp up is for an hour and ramp down, all blues, is for 2 hours. 2 hours of pure blue.

Blues at 100%, whites at 40%, uv at 80% and red and green at 25%.

 

[GoVols]

How long is the peak time?
What is the color ratio?
How long is the ramp on either side of the peak?

And how long is the blue only? If you have one.

For me, I stopped a majority of the greening by lowering the overall peak time.

 

[Mattrg02]

So, I should start dosing some koolaid?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So, I should start dosing some koolaid?

Yes. I prefer sbreeflight koolaide. Freddie is a kessil kool aid guy.

 

[Mattrg02]

Ahh, did I mention I'm running a hydra26hd? Par should be around 150 on the bottom, 250 where many acros are, and 300 where the top ones are sitting.

I just dropped my uv channel down by 50%. Maybe it's too much uv as the problem? Never had this problem before and never had uv leds.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

That's probably a good place to start. I'm waiting a couple weeks on mine , it's usually close to three before i saw real change , then perhaps change a color or overall intensity.

One of my acros is clearly a deep water variety. At the top of the tank it goes green in a week. At the bottom it's yellow with slight pink tips.

 

[spscrackhead]

I would wait a month after making any changes. When did you start dosing nitrates? Give things some time and don't change too many things at once.
I don't think lab grade testing is a bad idea. We can speculate alllllll day about this or that. The testing will either give us an answer or eliminate water from the list.

What is your RO water testing at before mixed?

And just to clarify... You got the frags, and they turn green after you add them to your tank? Or have you had them, they look fine and then something happened and they started to turn green together? This information will help.

After things have been given a chance to settle and if there is no sign of improvement, try moving the green pieces around the tank. I have multiple pieces of hawkins in my tank at different heights and the two pieces look like different corals color wise.