SPS color and flourine

[Lavey29]

So I have had a little pale color on my 2 green slimers. They used to be bright green and now pale green. They have been doing well for 8 months. At first I thought to much amino dosing was browning them out but my ICP test came back today. Everything was perfect on the ICP with the exception of my fluorine trace element which was quite low. This particular trace plays an important roll in coral color and tissue growth. It works closely with calcium carbonate. I have been dosing AF Build at night to strengthen my calcium carbonate process and I guess by dosing that I significantly lowered my fourine level in my tank.

Anyone have any experience with this or recommendations? I dose Red Sea trace elements once a week and have ordered a fluorine supplement bottle to. Strange only those 2 corals out of 25 SPS frags seem affected though.

 

[SindoCanales]

Hey buddy have you changed anything lately? Light, salt mix, temp. I assume your currently dosing the major 3 in some way or form ? I just had a issue similar to that and I kepted looking everywhere except the basic my salt in the tank slowly raised to 1.030 and started burning corals.

 

[Lavey29]

Hey buddy have you changed anything lately? Light, salt mix, temp. I assume your currently dosing the major 3 in some way or form ? I just had a issue similar to that and I kepted looking everywhere except the basic my salt in the tank slowly raised to 1.030 and started burning corals.

I'm a fanatic at checking numbers and everything has been stable for quite awhile. I was dosing several types of aminos though but what stands out right now from the ICP test is very low fluorine which is directly related to coral color.

 

[sculpin01]

I'm a bit skeptical about fluorine/fluoride impacts in coral growth. In a brief google survey, at least one article indicated fluorine/fluoride elevation decreased coral growth in a linear fashion. Craig Bingman wrote a couple of articles about it which didn't indicate any clear consensus about fluorine/fluoride.

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[Lavey29]

I'm a bit skeptical about fluorine/fluoride impacts in coral growth. In a brief google survey, at least one article indicated fluorine/fluoride elevation decreased coral growth in a linear fashion. Craig Bingman wrote a couple of articles about it which didn't indicate any clear consensus about fluorine/fluoride.

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Interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm still leaning towards overdose of aminos but found it strange that just fluorine was super low on my ICP and it has association with coral color.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Something to consider is ICP-OES testing isn't very accurate for trace elements present in minute amounts. It might be something else. However, at least you have only one element variable you can "test" for so perhaps it will help.

 

[Lavey29]

Something to consider is ICP-OES testing isn't very accurate for trace elements present in minute amounts. It might be something else. However, at least you have only one element variable you can "test" for so perhaps it will help.

Good point because it never agrees with my Hanna checkers either

 

[sculpin01]

Green coloration in corals has to do with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which fluorescences due to three amino acids in the center of the protein. Fluorine is not involved in GFP at all. If your corals look pale, I’d consider other etiologies than fluorine.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Green coloration in corals has to do with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which fluorescences due to three amino acids in the center of the protein. Fluorine is not involved in GFP at all. If your corals look pale, I’d consider other etiologies than fluorine.

What is involved with gfp? sorry I am unfamiliar with this.

 

[Lavey29]

Green coloration in corals has to do with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which fluorescences due to three amino acids in the center of the protein. Fluorine is not involved in GFP at all. If your corals look pale, I’d consider other etiologies than fluorine.

Another interesting post, thanks. Yes in Google reading that does seem to be a present contributing factor of green coral coloration but I don't really are any method for testing for this protein or promoting its growth in corals?

What's wierd is my paling is only affecting 3 green corals under different par levels. They all were bright neon green for many months but seemed to pale as I increased amino supplements with red sea AB and benepets muktiple times during the week. It was mentioned to me that overdosing aminos can cause browning and pale color. So for past 2 weeks no aminos dosed. Corals still have good PE, encrusting and vertical growth. My tank has sufficient nutrients so perhaps amino dosing is a waste of money.

I dose AF build every other day after light out. This is a supplement that promotes skeletal grown with calcium carbonate. Flourine also builds skeletal growth so perhaps dosing the AF build caused the flourine to drop to low levels.

I dose red sea trace elements weekly.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Another interesting post, thanks. Yes in Google reading that does seem to be a present contributing factor of green coral coloration but I don't really are any method for testing for this protein or promoting its growth in corals?

What's wierd is my paling is only affecting 3 green corals under different par levels. They all were bright neon green for many months but seemed to pale as I increased amino supplements with red sea AB and benepets muktiple times during the week. It was mentioned to me that overdosing aminos can cause browning and pale color. So for past 2 weeks no aminos dosed. Corals still have good PE, encrusting and vertical growth. My tank has sufficient nutrients so perhaps amino dosing is a waste of money.

I dose AF build every other day after light out. This is a supplement that promotes skeletal grown with calcium carbonate. Flourine also builds skeletal growth so perhaps dosing the AF build caused the flourine to drop to low levels.

I dose red sea trace elements weekly.

I just got AF build myself. I like what I've seen from AF products so far. Only thing I don't like about it is it's very hard to get mixed into solution. The powder floats or sinks or sticks to the container but doesn't like to dissolve. I haven't used it very long yet - what's your experience with it so far?

Also it smells like sugar cookies.

 

[Lavey29]

I just got AF build myself. I like what I've seen from AF products so far. Only thing I don't like about it is it's very hard to get mixed into solution. The powder floats or sinks or sticks to the container but doesn't like to dissolve. I haven't used it very long yet - what's your experience with it so far?

Also it smells like sugar cookies.

Same, you got to shake the crap out of it. I've been using it 1.5 months. I am getting vertical growth on my SPS. But it may also be the source of my green slimers turning dull green...who knows...it's a complicated hobby.

 

[sculpin01]

Out of curiosity, what’s your phosphate level?

 

[Lavey29]

Out of curiosity, what’s your phosphate level?

ICP showed .11 I would prefer .05 to .1.

 

[sculpin01]

Anything above 0.05 and you can rule out phosphate as the cause. What concentration was nitrate?

 

[Lavey29]

Anything above 0.05 and you can rule out phosphate as the cause. What concentration was nitrate?

11 it always stays close to 10 and 12

 

[sculpin01]

So nutrients are clearly not the issue.

 

[Lavey29]

So nutrients are clearly not the issue.

This is why it was suggested to me that I was overdosing aminos because my tank was already full of nutrients via fish poop so the aminos caused browning on some of my SPS. I've stopped aminos 2 weeks ago now.

 

[sculpin01]

Maybe so. I avoid amino acid dosing, as it is a set up for a dinoflagellate outbreaks.

 

[Lavey29]

Maybe so. I avoid amino acid dosing, as it is a set up for a dinoflagellate outbreaks.

Why is that?