Growth, But Losing Color

djr7879 · Apr 9, 2013

I have two acros (one is a tricolor acro, the other a green slimer) in my tank that are showing growth, but losing color. The green slimer shows no polyp extension until the lights are out, and then it's still pretty minimal. Water parameters are fine, although I wonder if my alk is too high. (9 dKh) Also wonder if the lighting is the problem. I run a 10 bulb t5 fixture over a 125 gal. tank. 5 white bulbs, 3 actinics and 2 pink. I have all the bulbs on 8 hours a day, and have one white and one actinic on an additional 90 minutes. Both corals are in the top 1/3 of the tank.

Has anyone run into this issue and had luck resolving it?

Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all 0, Phosphate 0.2 ppb (note-not ppm), pH 7.8, Ca 423, Mg 1275, Alk 9 dKh.

Thanks.

jmann124 · Apr 9, 2013

I don't have any experience with acros, so take this for what it's worth. Your mag could probably stand to come up some. Aside from the pink and actinics, that sounds like a very white tank. What degree kelvin are the whites and what model are they? Maybe try to add a coulpe ATI blue+ and a couple coral+ bulbs.

Reefing Madness · Apr 9, 2013

Agreed, SPS like the blues more than the whites, as it penetrates the water better. Also, how old are your lights? Is it time for a change? You may have some ALk finicky SPS, some like it higher, some lower. I'd also, leave my lighting on for 10 hours with SPS.

OurReef · Apr 9, 2013

Loosing color as in turning brown or
Turning white?

Check for aefws if you havnt already, how long have you had them, what type of lighting did they come from? (Not all lighting is the same).

Dowtish · Apr 9, 2013

What kind of flow is in the tank as well?

djr7879 · Apr 9, 2013

It's a Red Sea S-Series, and has three pumps circulating water out of the back overflow, in addition to the main return from the sump. I do not aim the flow directly at the acros, so they get what I would call a moderate flow. I actually phased in new lights over two weeks about 3 months ago. They are all either the new Red Sea bulbs or Giesemann bulbs. The white bulbs are actually Blue-White combo bulbs which are 11000k. The actinics are true actinics. That is the mix that Red Sea recommends, but I'd actually prefer a bluer look. Just wasn't sure I could get away with it for the SPS, but perhaps I had that totally backwards.

I'm not sure exactly the lighting they came from, but it definitely was more blue than what I have in my DT.

gmoney243 · Apr 9, 2013

Its not parameters and probably not flow or lights since the AC has a buncha nice sps growing in there RSM 650 stock. It might be parasites like red bugs or aefw they would loose color first then start to not grow and eventually die. Do you dip corals? Do you qt them? Have you dipped them lately? Use Bayer Advanced. Other dips just dont get it all and no dip will kill aefw in one dip because eggs will hatch.

OurReef · Apr 9, 2013

I had red bugs for years, my corals grew and held color beautifully, I've also had aefw, corals still grew but turned brown, then I started noticing the bite marks. For as big as those born out of wedlock buggers are, they are really hard to see.

djr7879 · Apr 10, 2013

I do dip corals, but hadn't thought about re-dipping. I don't QT them. I know the AC guys had a problem in their RSM 650 and have been using the Bayer. Is there any way that I'd see the bugs with the naked eye?

OurReef · Apr 10, 2013

If your eyes aren't bad yes you can see them, red bugs are small, should appear about the size of a (.) period.

The best way to check for flat worms is to pull the coral out place it in a bowl with tank water and hit it with a turkey Baster. Once you see one its easier to spot them in the tank. If you have aefws you should notice light patches all over your acros. If you have aefws, good luck.

Dowtish · Apr 10, 2013

The bugs are really mostly yellow, but you can really only see their red heads. This makes them look even smaller. This is a great macro shot of them

AEFW- Very transparent and hard to see

AEFW Eggs- easier to see than the worms themselves

Bite Marks

markalot · Apr 10, 2013

Hi,

Just a couple of things I can think of.

Could the corals be low on food and starving? Your phosphates are really really low and you mention no polyp extension, so I am thinking no food in the water.

Do you have an angel fish who is nipping and causing the polyps to close up during the day? Not a big issue, but would explain the polyps.

Dowtish · Apr 10, 2013

markalot said:
Hi,

Just a couple of things I can think of.

Could the corals be low on food and starving? Your phosphates are really really low and you mention no polyp extension, so I am thinking no food in the water.

Do you have an angel fish who is nipping and causing the polyps to close up during the day? Not a big issue, but would explain the polyps.

Also very good points and questions.

markalot, are you coming to the swap?

OurReef · Apr 10, 2013

Dowtish said:
The bugs are really mostly yellow, but you can really only see their red heads. This makes them look even smaller. This is a great macro shot of them

AEFW- Very transparent and hard to see

AEFW Eggs- easier to see than the worms themselves

Bite Marks

What he says^^^^^^^^

I had no idea about the redbugs being yellow with red heads.

djr7879 · Apr 10, 2013

Great pictures, BTW Chris! Thanks for all the help and advice guys. I'm thinking that it may well be an overly-clean tank. I've been a light feeder just because I'm a bit paranoid about algae, but I'll ramp it up a bit and see what happens.

Here are a couple of (crappy!) pictures. Not sure why they rotated 90 degrees, but oh well. The tricolor is sort of fleshy colored with some phosphorescent blue color on the new growth. The Green Slimer is a faded green, with some brownish green showing up under the right lighting conditions.

Dowtish · Apr 10, 2013

Those definitely looked bleached to me. Too much light may be the issue. I would consider going with some ATI blue+ bulbs instead of the whites. Maybe just one white bulb, and dial down your photoperiod to six hours a day.