Really need a par meter to get the readings. Usually if it turned green that means its getting the low range of par numbers suitable for Acros (around 200 -250) since the Cyan CFP peak activate is around there.Just got a cheap staghorn frag. This is my first spa tryout. After about a week it bleached accept the parts that directly face the light. Those turned fluorescent green. My parameters are kh po4 no3: 9.0, 0.19, 9.7. My light schedule is below. Are the parameters inappropriate or is it simply not enough light?
Some would say NO3 under 10 is pretty low. My sps dominant system runs well over 10 as do many others. ULNS are not the only way to keep sps and I don't know many that still go that route.Some folk would say your PO4 & NO3 are about 3x and 2x too high respectively, and "that is why" the frag went brown in the first place. That in combination with PAR (as noted by @Dkmoo) and water movement, I believe is all part of the equation that impacts coloration of corals in our systems.
Your picture (too mee) appearrs to indicate a tank with higher nutrients, again lots of folks run their tanks with increased nutrients and it works out. Especially in the long run, with stability and ecosystem maturing the results can be amazing. HTH.
Oh, and LPS thrive with these higher numbers, ime.
Yup, no doubt. My old tank that I over feed eats NO3 by itself, no water changes and it hovers at < 5.0ppm. Tanks wiht phosphorus higher than "the old standard recommendation" of 0.05ppm generally support more algae growth and LPS love it! Yet there are lots of tanks with PO4 elevated that will grow SPS, just discussing ideas / ideals for the OPs consideration.
