Purple plasma staghorn care

Kehaulani · Feb 6, 2016

I'm new to sps. I have a setosa and a green stylophora that are doing great in my tank. However, I got some type of sps (not sure what it is) for really cheap and a purple plasma. Both new frags are about 3 inches in length. They are both brown at the moment but the purple plasma, I've notice is bleaching out. Can someone tell me what kind of care it needs. I researched it, everything I read says moderate to high lighting and moderate to high flow. I have it towards the top of the tank but maybe it's too close to my lights. I'm not sure. I have a 75 gallon with two kessil a360 we on it. I run my lights at 85% intensity. My other corals (lps, softies, and my setosa and stylo are doing great. They both have really nice color and polyp extension. It's just the new frags, we're brown when I dropped them in yesterday and my plasma was starting to turn white this morning. Maybe they don't like the lighting? Just looking for some guidance. Thanks

~K

CoralNerd · Feb 6, 2016

Do you dose your tank with calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium? If yes, what do they test at? What's your nitrate and phosphates test at?

Kehaulani · Feb 6, 2016

CoralNerd said:
Do you dose your tank with calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium? If yes, what do they test at? What's your nitrate and phosphates test at?

I do dose. Ca is 450ppm, Alk is 8.0, magnesium is 1380. Phosphates are at 0 and nitrates are about .5 I got a green staghorn today and it's been open and happy all day. Just not sure about the other two that are browning out. I'll post some pictures too.

timkenagy · Feb 6, 2016

I have a blue stag along with pink setosa. They both seem to be similar in growth.. I haven't really noticed anything special in care vs. any of the other SPS in the tank.. It's dead center so it gets a pretty good blast from the gyre on one side and the wave maker on the other side.

MontiFanatic402 · Feb 7, 2016

I keep my purple plasma up in the top 1/3 of my tank, about 2.5" under the water, so about 11" from 6 bulb ATI sunpower. alk 8.2, cal 400, mg 1340 I would also say its in medium flow.....enough to get the polyps moving and fluffy, but not blasting them with direct flow. Also, if you have just added a new frag, I would expect some sort of color shift due to your water chemistry, or adjustment to your lights......Ive had corals brown out pretty quick when adjusting to my tank. So just give it time, and try not to move them around too much. I find that sps do much better when I keep my hands out of the tank. Good luck