Brown Polyps Branching Montipora

[drmrp17]

I introduced a couple small frags of purple and green montipora into my tank 6 months ago. My growth of these corals has been incredible. The green montipora looks great. However, the purple montipora has turned brown. Polyp extension is great on both of them.

My water parameters are very good and stable. 9.5 dkh, 440 cal, 8.0 ph. I run high intensity light with a retrofitted oddysey fixtures with 2x250 watt MH and 4x54 watt T5 ho.

Does anyone know why this coral is growing so well and have the polyp extension it does but is the wrong color?

 

[JustinM]

How is your no4 and po4? Elevated levels of these may brown a coral out. Have you had any alk swings or temp swings? These are just a few of the factors that could cause this.

 

[BrassMonkey]

looks normal for a purple to me.

 

[M88A2]

+1 on checking no4 and po4. i had a german blue polyp digi that browned out when my po4 went up and colored back up once the po4 was under control

 

[drmrp17]

The no4 and po4 was my first thought also. I have checked both of them and they are good. I skim like crazy, have a well established refugium, and have all live sand and rock.

I did have some poor water parameters when I first set my tank up 9 months ago. Once I learned what I was doing and figured out how to test and dose, my parameters have been excellent since.

Is there a chance I "fried" this coral during my bad water days? If so, why has it continued to grow so incredibly fast?

 

[DustinB]

If all your parameters are normal then I would lean towards low lighting. How far above your tank are the lights? Where is the coral located in the tank? Are you running stock odyssea ballasts? They are known to very underpowered. I had what appeared to be 10x more light after I switched the ballasts out to icecaps.

 

[drmrp17]

I have the stock ballasts on the metal halides but put new workhorse ballasts on the T5HO's. The coral is near the top. Maybe it is the ballast. My buddy has an icecap running his odyssey and ours look the same. Guess I need to get a light reader and test it.

 

[droth335]

My purple digi browns when it is low in the tank but "purples up" a lot when it is near the top under 3x250W 10K MH and 4x80W T5 actinics.

 

[drmrp17]

Any recommendations for a new ballast for my metal halides?

 

[Chris Lakies]

Wow nice looking corals! How bout some fts?

 

[DustinB]

Any recommendations for a new ballast for my metal halides?

I had what appeared to be 10x more light after I switched the ballasts out to icecaps.

 

[smalltime]

Recheck your po4. Do you have temp swings?