SPS that change color drastically when growing?

b4tn · May 1, 2020

I picked up this unarmed frag from my LFS bargain rack. I think it was like $5 and just a nub. It’s probably my fastest growing frag even faster than my stylo. The first pic is from Feb 15th vs now. But it’s turned very brownish with light blue tips compared to to grayish with green polyps. I feel like it’s not happy but it’s getting maybe 200-220 par in its spot with lots of flow so maybe it’s just growing? Anyone get unarmed corals that completely changed?

ndrwater · May 1, 2020

Definitely.
I have had corals change color completely.
This often happens if you are getting "browned out" corals in the bargain bin.
That's kind of the fun part if you ask me. Seeing what colors we can coax out of a browned out coral..
Just for the record... What we all know and love as Walt Disney was a bargain bin brown out originally...we all know how that turned out .

JCOLE · May 1, 2020

Yes. For what it is worth, named corals also change colors as well. I have over 70 pieces of SPS and I have watched all of them change colors as they grow. Flow, light, nutrition, placement, etc all have an affect on color.

zoomonster · May 1, 2020

Yep that's where a lot of the high end corals come from. Get them, bake them under light and hope for the best. Between that and the use of different additives that's why a corals color may be totally different in your tank and lights not only initially but when grown out. From what I understand most of the bounce shrooms initially came from baking them with light and additives. I have a brown SPS colony now waiting on to see what pops.

Daniel@R2R · May 4, 2020

Those changing corals are sometimes the best ones!

Rich Klein · May 5, 2020

b4tn said:
I picked up this unarmed frag from my LFS bargain rack. I think it was like $5 and just a nub. It’s probably my fastest growing frag even faster than my stylo. The first pic is from Feb 15th vs now. But it’s turned very brownish with light blue tips compared to to grayish with green polyps. I feel like it’s not happy but it’s getting maybe 200-220 par in its spot with lots of flow so maybe it’s just growing? Anyone get unarmed corals that completely changed?

I've experienced this when my nutrients were too low for a week.

DesertReefT4r · May 5, 2020

b4tn said:
I picked up this unarmed frag from my LFS bargain rack. I think it was like $5 and just a nub. It’s probably my fastest growing frag even faster than my stylo. The first pic is from Feb 15th vs now. But it’s turned very brownish with light blue tips compared to to grayish with green polyps. I feel like it’s not happy but it’s getting maybe 200-220 par in its spot with lots of flow so maybe it’s just growing? Anyone get unarmed corals that completely changed?

Wow pretty drastic change in color and not in a good way imo. A brown acro is normall not very happy. Its good that it is getting color on the tips but something is off. PAR is ok but it may want more to get its best color. What type of lighting do you have? What are your water test numbers? It might have just been adjusting to the new environment or your tank and is on the verg of a color explosion.