Bill Murray and Fox Flame Acro Questions

[Ober_Reef]

Hey Everyone,

I have two frags I was hoping to find advice on. I have a good size Bill Murray frag that went from multicolored (mainly white at the top with nice magenta coloring as you moved down to the base) that has had a lot of the nice color area turn more green. This frag still has great polyp extension and seems to be doing well other than the shift on color. I also have a smaller frag of Fox Flame that was bright purple with a bright yellow tip that has kind of dulled out to a pinkish lavender and lost most of its bright tip color. The Bill Murray Frag has been attached to a rock three quarters of the way up in my tank and the Fox Flame is still on my frag rack. I run two AI Hydra 32s with the BRS AB+ setting over my standard 90 gallon tank.

My Nitrates as of my last weekly test were 5.4, Phosphates .03, Ca 450, dKH was 7.9 before I dosed two part to bring it up to 8.6, MG 1440, and my PH was 8.2.

Any tips or advice on these two pieces would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ScottB]

Numbers are fine. Light is fine assuming you are pushing them a bit (>70% depending on height above water line).

How old is the system? Dead or live rock start?

Pictures (under whites)?

 

[Kaneohekid]

Personally I think the frag is acclimating to your tank followed by not enough light. I keep my BM at about 420-450 PAR and it still seems to grow up towards the light. I’ll also add that the AB+ schedule vastly underutilized the power of an AI light IMO. I used the AB+ schedule on 26HD’s and got roughly 150-200 PAR at the top of my scape. You’ll also notice when looking at the schedule it’s using about 30-40% of available watts.

Currently, I’m running T5’s plus two G5 XR30’s over a 425XL which is similar in dimensions to a standard 90. I also think your parameters are fine and pretty close to what it typical of my tank (NO3, and PO4 in my tank run a little higher).

 

[Ober_Reef]

Numbers are fine. Light is fine assuming you are pushing them a bit (>70% depending on height above water line).

How old is the system? Dead or live rock start?

Pictures (under whites

Over a year old and I did a mixtures of live and dead rock to start.

Personally I think the frag is acclimating to your tank followed by not enough light. I keep my BM at about 420-450 PAR and it still seems to grow up towards the light. I’ll also add that the AB+ schedule vastly underutilized the power of an AI light IMO. I used the AB+ schedule on 26HD’s and got roughly 150-200 PAR at the top of my scape. You’ll also notice when looking at the schedule it’s using about 30-40% of available watts.

Currently, I’m running T5’s plus two G5 XR30’s over a 425XL which is similar in dimensions to a standard 90. I also think your parameters are fine and pretty close to what it typical of my tank (NO3, and PO4 in my tank run a little higher).

Hmm I guess I can check the settings and trying to increase the power of the lights on the AB+ setting but when I researched these lights before purchasing it was stated that two should grow all coral well.

 

[thewedge]

Over a year old and I did a mixtures of live and dead rock to start.

Hmm I guess I can check the settings and trying to increase the power of the lights on the AB+ setting but when I researched these lights before purchasing it was stated that two should grow all coral well.

Just wondering how your Fox Flame is doing. I have almost the same scenario with mine. It seemed to get a little faded and lost most of the green on the tips while it was on my rack. I attached it to the rockwork at the highest point maybe two weeks ago. It looks like it's still continuing to encrust on the plug, but the color hasn't improved.
I have 3 Hydra32s over my Waterbox 180.5 (133gal).

 

[Ober_Reef]

Just wondering how your Fox Flame is doing. I have almost the same scenario with mine. It seemed to get a little faded and lost most of the green on the tips while it was on my rack. I attached it to the rockwork at the highest point baby could weeks ago. It looks like it's still continuing to encrust on the plug, but the color hasn't improved.
I have 3 Hydra32s over my Waterbox 180.5 (133gal).

I actually reached out to Jason Fox directly on here but never heard back. I actually added the Reef Brite XHO add ons to my Hydra 32s and everything started to grow faster and show better color except for the Fox flame which stayed a pale lavender color. After waiting a few weeks to see if the add ons alone would help I moved it even higher in my tank and the purple color is getting darker and even the yellow tips are are returning.

The issue seemed to be lighting related. Hope this helps!

 

[thewedge]

I actually reached out to Jason Fox directly on here but never heard back. I actually added the Reef Brite XHO add ons to my Hydra 32s and everything started to grow faster and show better color except for the Fox flame which stayed a pale lavender color. After waiting a few weeks to see if the add ons alone would help I moved it even higher in my tank and the purple color is getting darker and even the yellow tips are are returning.

The issue seemed to be lighting related. Hope this helps!

Awesome! thanks very much. It's now at the same level of my other sps that are doing great so hopefully it will just take a little more time.

 

[SPS2020]

Ditto, but low nutrients here...probably the issue. Sending out an ICP on Monday and getting a Hanna Nitrate checker today. I have four Hydra 32HDs running a modified Saxby profile with T5's (Blue Plus and Actinic)...plenty of light.

 

[SPS2020]

Awesome! thanks very much. It's now at the same level of my other sps that are doing great so hopefully it will just take a little more time.

I've also had frags take over 6 months to acclimate and determine what coloration they want to adapt within a new tank.