acro browning

WILL2002

WILL2002

New member
this past weekend i bought 2 acros. at first they had light green on them an the polyps barely were coming out. now they are starting to turn brown. the position of my acros are at the bottom about 15" from the top, of my 29g (30x12x18) and i have the current sunpod 150w hqi fixture on it. Are they getting to much light by chance???
 
acros arent going to turn brown because of to much light...brown is due to a increase in symbiotic algae within the coral due to to much nutrients...meaning phosphates and nitrates generally.... also what is the flow in the tank.....do you have a phosphate test kit...what nitrate test kit are u using....what filtration; skimmer any phosphate removing resin?
 
i agree with reefer44, usually too much nutrients, nitrates, or phosphats. Could also be not enough light. Do you have any other acros in the tank?
 
reefer44 - my flow is as of right now, my return pump(rio-2600) and a small power head (something 212 i think)I'm not at home so i cant say for sure. my skimmer is a turbofloter 1000, filtration i have a fluval 104 carbon and bio matrix in it)and a 6x12 refuge for micro algea. i do have some brown hair algae that i have been fighting since the day i set up my tank- and i feed my tank as little as possible and i spot feed so i do not put too much food in there.
i do not know the name of my test kits but i know one is a variety of liquid test and the other is the 5-1 stick dip test that i do in between the liquid test. oh i and i noticed this morning that the polyps were out in the dark. PLEASE set me straight if i am doing somthing wrong.
 
My bet would be Nitrates and Phosphates get a Salifert test kit for each and you'll get your real numbers.

Either way the root cause is your system is storing nutrients somewhere. More flow, more aggressive skimming, and an open design should help. If it were me I would lose the fuge and fluval, they are just 2 places for crap to collect! :)
 
i thought a fuge was a good thing to have because macro algea its nitrates ? i agree with i need more water flow and i'm working on that. as for the skimmer i'm working on some new designs to help out my turbofloter since it's on 24-7. what do you mean by an open design?? as for my fluval i do major cleanings on it every other week if not every week to make sure that it stays clean
 
SPS can turn brown for various reasons. I bot a grgeous pink birdsnest - put it in my tank and immediately turned brown - I suspect it was stressed from the move - 3 days later it is brighter pink than the mother colony it came from. I have 3 other frags that are brown and after 2 - 3 months are just now starting to regain color - I put these high in th etank to maximize light. I gradually move your acros to the top 1/3 of the tank to maximize light and then be patient. Good luck with this.
 
thanks besl, i'm hopeing that is what is going to happen. i've already lost an acro b/c i changed from pc's to an hqi (at least that's what i think happened) and i didn't move it to the bottom of the tank first. i'm gradually moving these up like you said and i'm handling them with gloves so the oils on my hands don't hurt them.
 
A fug is great way to reduce nutrients in a tank. I would keep an I on it as may become a collection point for "crap to collect". I have to vaccum out around my skimmer base once a month. Right now I using a sock to see how that works.

I would check into nutrients for your problem too.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7436682#post7436682 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mikeatjac
A fug is great way to reduce nutrients in a tank. I would keep an I on it as may become a collection point for "crap to collect". I have to vaccum out around my skimmer base once a month. Right now I using a sock to see how that works.

I would check into nutrients for your problem too.
Click to expand...

AS long as you get a decent amount of flow in your fuge, they stay pretty clean IME.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7436009#post7436009 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WILL2002
i thought a fuge was a good thing to have because macro algea its nitrates ? i agree with i need more water flow and i'm working on that. as for the skimmer i'm working on some new designs to help out my turbofloter since it's on 24-7. what do you mean by an open design?? as for my fluval i do major cleanings on it every other week if not every week to make sure that it stays clean
Click to expand...

Your rock work should be open so that detritus cannot collect. As for the fluval ask yourself what its really doing for you and how many sucessful sps systems use them............

I've also never understood fuges. My tank does not even have sand and I have so many pods that I need to clean them off the glass in the morning so I can see. I also have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates.
 
well the reason why i like my fluval reef-daddy is for using carbon to help get rid of pollutants that maybe be in the tank.
 
Throw a bag of carbon in the sump and call it a day. Try this disconnect the fuge and fluval for 2 -3 weeks, and see what things look like. You can always restart them if I am full of it.

I'll bet you a slimer frag, that you'll see improvement!
 
i would take you up on that bet but i also have my skimmer in the fuge right before the live rock,macro algea and sand. i think i will disconnect the fluval and do a major clean on the fuge and main tank.

crap!! i put another powerhead in the tank to get more flow in the tank and the dang suction cups came loose and broke my frag from its base. what do i do know?:eek2:
 
not use use suction cups....

just kidding, see if you can wedge it between a few rocks, it'll encrust over time if it begins to grow
 
as far as romoving the fluval...only if it has mechanical filtration (sponges or something of the sort to collect and break waste into nitrates) in with the carbon I would remove it...also how often is the carbon changed...(should be changed weekly or bi-monthly at the very least)

I would not recomend removing the fuge i would recomend increasing the flow in both the fuge and main display.....make sure flow is getting behind and under rockwork as well as possible....if u cant get good enough flow remove live rock

increase flow using a large stream pump such as seio or tunze

I would also think of using an iron based phosphate remover such as rowaphos...

how often do u clean the skimmer?

Brad
 
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