Tenius Acro going brown from blue

[Susan Edwards]

I have a tenius acro I just added to my new 125 tank. Removed it from my 66 as it isn't getting any PE after 6 months. In the frag tank for several weeks no change, yet a new tenius I just got was full of PE. Even put the new one in the new tank and it is still fully polyped.

So I added the blue, older one in and now it is looking more brown. Frag tank it was still blue. So do I need light adjustment to get the blue back or is it more of the lighting appearances.
Original tank: T5's
Frag tank: hydra 26's
125 tank current ic marine pro (2). Right now they are on brackets 7 inches above and I'll be dropping them down to either the 5 or the 3 inch levels. As it is a bit of a pain, might go all the way down and lower intensity for a while

I've got them set at
blue 100
white 40
green and red 50-55

Does this tenius need more of a certain color? Lowered lights (other sps beside it doing great--another tenius and a stylophora). Would less white make a difference in color appearance? Strange that one tenius is doing good and the other not as good. I figure it might take time for the polyps to return to full PE but don't like losing the blue

Another Question: is it better for corals to have more white or less? Is it mainly just what you like the looks of? That the corals will get what they need from the other colors, mainly the blues?

Is my light setting good for corals (micros, duncan, torch, monti's, some sps high up)
any thoughts on this?

 

[29bonsaireef]

My guess would be the change in lighting has stressed it out. It may be getting too much light. Can you get par readings? White light is not a bad thing, but sometimes too much of white LEDs can be harmful to corals. Don't know how deep your tank is but 7 inches seems low to me for an LED fixture.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I put it back in the frag tank which has hydra 26's (red sea max e170) and can see a bluish cast but not as much as before. Maybe I should leave it there a while to see if it develops some pe. No par meter. A lux but don't get good results

The light uses brackets so that's as high as I can go.

 

[markalot]

It is reacting to the light change. You can either supplement with T5 or try and slow adjust it to the new lights. Some acros treat lighting like they treat Alk, very sensitive to changes. You can imagine they have no adaptation to spectral changes other than depth so moving from one to another can be quite a shock. In my opinion, not being adapted to something means the response will be rather random. Some won't miss a step, others will get very upset.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Stop moving it around. Leave it the tank you want to keep it in and just let it be. Tenius are picky ime and dont like change, require stability.

 

[Susan Edwards]

had it under t5's in my 66g for 5 months and no PE so put it in the frag tank as the new tenius I got had outstanding PE even weeks after getting it. Moved the new tenius to the new 125g tank and it retained it's PE which is why I thought maybe conditions were good so put the older one in there next to it but it lost it's blue coloration so put it back in frag tank. I'll leave it there for a while unless you think I should return it to the display and just wait it out. Right now the original 66 gal display is going to get a change in lighting as 4 out of 6 bulbs went out--electrical issue or 2 ballasts and am switching to led's so light right now if way low with just 2 bulbs so don't want to put it back in there.

 

[markalot]

Can't say on what to do, though my general rule when things go bad is not do do much of anything except make sure things are stable.

As far as the switch, for LED you will need coverage and a good spectrum or you will have issues with some acros.

 

[Susan Edwards]

The led switch is a retrofit to the tank hood--Red sea hood. Went with it as it will be so much cooler, and the electrical or 2 ballasts went out within minutes of each other. Figure by the time I took hood off, possible replacement of 3 ballasts and new lights scheduled to be replaced next month, and then lights again in 8 months, it would pay for itself within a year.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I will also say I have had many sps do nearly nothing for up to a year. No growth, poor PE and brown or just muted colors. Then all of a sudden for no real reason they will do a complete turn around and exploded with growth and color. I got an acro frag that was all brown, grew slowly and would not color up. Then it started to grow pretty fast, turned a green color, after more time it developed a pale green base with ice blue tips, blue coralites and bright neon green polyps. Point is some sps just need time to get happy, they go through a lot before we get them in our tanks in most cases.

 

[Susan Edwards]

good to know @DesertReefT4r Will pick a spot and just leave it. I have one brown acro, been brown from day 1 with great pe. Be nice if it turned color... Maybe the new led's will be magic...