Brown coral recovery progress

[phurst]

So, I though this might be an interesting thread. I just picked up 8 colonies from Blue Zoo Aquatics. They sell off colonies that have browned out for one reason or another pretty cheap. A couple of other club members have gotten them and had some turn into really nice looking corals. I got 4 medium and 4 large colonies. I thought it would be cool if I posted pictures every week to see how they're progressing. Colors are pretty good in my 150 currently, so I figure I have a decent chance at coloring them up. If for some reason they are just brown corals, then oh well...

They showed up this morning, and I ran home from work and put them in my frag tank for right now. I'll put up some pictures this afternoon and then post pics every week until they've either colored up, or I've decided they'll stay brown forever.

 

[saltygeek]

Great idea, I'll be following

 

[KRAZ4REEFS]

I too will be tagging along

 

[cham]

Waiting on pics

 

[MikeandNicole]

Are you going to do anything different to them to help it along, or is it more of a wait and see approach? I want to follow along too, after my tank crashes I have some browned out pieces that I am waiting to color up.

 

[marinebarn]

sounds interesting

 

[phurst]

No, I'm not planning on doing anything special. I moved them out of the frag tank and onto the sand bed of my main display. I'll leave them on the sand for a while to let them acclimate and then try to find them happy spots in my tank. Really, only one of them is a complete brown out, the others show at least a little color, which keeps me hopeful that they'll eventually color up instead of being naturally brown.

Pics are uploading now. Hang on.

 

[phurst]

I took front and top down pics and will try to update in the same manner.

 

[phurst]

 

[Diver Dan SD]

Is there a separate section on the site for browned out SPS or are they just listed under the SPS section?

Cool pieces! I wouldn't mind trying some brown colonies for 30 bucks a piece

 

[phurst]

http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productDetail.asp?did=3&pid=2453&cid=52

 

[soulsigma]

Nice corals, Catalina's Pick are full of surprises. Following along to see the progression.

 

[phurst]

Well, the price was right

I take it you have picked up some before? How did they turn out?

 

[illal]

i recently bought a bunch of brown sps frags for $5 and one greenish brown frag i got turned bright purple with green polyps and is looking more and more like a garf bonsai everyday! also got a brown mille that is turning electic blue.... i love the mystery tho! youe never know what your guna get... btw some of those coral you got arnt so brown

 

[Diver Dan SD]

Awesome,
I saw that on the site, but didn't read the description. Definitely will be ordering some soon!
Thanks for the info
Trever

 

[motownmego]

thats a pretty sweet deal i will have to check that out

 

[ryanrid]

my mate got given a brown that ended up being a pink lemonade....

 

[elijaher]

Tagged alone

 

[aka_lal]

Hi phurst,

Those acroporas look like the ones I have in my aquarium.

Everytime I take one colorfull piece home it turns brown :sad2:

In your opinion which factors are important to bring out the color of the SPS?

 

[phurst]

IME, it's all about light, water quality and flow.

Good strong light of an appropriate spectrum, good water quality with propper and STABLE levels of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium, as well as low to non-existant levels of nitrate and phosphate, and good strong random (but not direct) flow.