A. cerealis browning (pics)

[scyphozoa]

My frag sits halfway between two 400 watt 15K & 20K XM MH bulbs.
Here is a pic of what it looked like when I bought it (sorry about the bad camera work).

Here are current pics.
Pic 1 looking thu back of tank (it is lit the best on that side)

Pic 2 looking from the front

Pic 3 looking from the side

I'm sorry I don't have a Feb pic...it was mostly all brown then.

 

[Leopardshark]

AFAIK, reefermadness buys from Walt Smith, and WS aquacultures every coral they have, but they "aquaculture" them in the ocean, which means they do not harm the reef but they are wild colonies indeed, so they all brown out.
I used to buy from Walt Smith directly, and all their corals browned out.

 

[gflat65]

Haven;t read through the thread, but had a similar problem. I have an A. cerealis from reefer madness. Under 250DE AB 10K's, it developed nice purple tips, but lost them when I upgraded the other two lights from 175W to 250 DE AB 10K's. Just realized over the last few weeks that all of my corals that lost color around the time of the change over have AEFW. Hit the vcoral with a baster really good and see if any clear looking flat worms come off. Hope it's not that, but it was in my case. Give me red bugs anyday...

 

[Milleme]

Leopardshark:
It makes since now that it came from the ocean b/c the frag has a small bandit crab in it.

gflat65:
Ill check.

 

[gil716]

they "aquaculture" them in the ocean,

FYI, I believe the proper term is mariculture.

Also, could it be phosphates? High levels will easily turn sps brown.

 

[Bebo77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7011193#post7011193 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Leopardshark
AFAIK, reefermadness buys from Walt Smith, and WS aquacultures every coral they have, but they "aquaculture" them in the ocean, which means they do not harm the reef but they are wild colonies indeed, so they all brown out.
I used to buy from Walt Smith directly, and all their corals browned out.

BUYS????? try bought out.. reefermadness is walt smith, he sold the coral distribution to them...(so a little birdy told me)

 

[Chicago]

i dont think its phosphates... many people here have got WS corals... and most of them go through this brownig process....

i have shipped many and have had this occur... the coral a year later may look tottallly different... many go brown then purple.

 

[twon8]

so i have been thinking what i thought was a valida might be a cerealis.

what do you think?

 

[Milleme]

It looks similar to reefermadnes' picture.
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMDF_A_cerealis_tri.htm

 

[gflat65]

I would guess (as that's pretty much what most of them are-guesses) that it is a valida since the coralites are so long. My cerealis has really short coralites (shorter than the pic from reefer madness), but it is 3" or so from the water level and 8 " from the light...

 

[gflat65]

I would guess (as that's pretty much what most of them are-guesses) that it is a valida since the coralites are so long. My cerealis has really short coralites (shorter than the pic from reefer madness), but it is 3" or so from the water level and 8 " from the light... My cerealis is much flatter/denser (could just be another argument for reticulate evolution, though).

 

[Sk8r]

Well, I now know why my acropora cerealis was looking so smug and growing so well: it's an idenity thief---it's not a cerealis, it's a purple acropora valida, mis-tagged. The good part is that I now have an iron-clad promise from the person who sold it to me that the next true cerealis that gets fragged, I get a real one. The other good news is that the identity thief is ringing its base with polyps and trying to branch out, and it really is a strong, pretty specimen.