brown sps!!!

[pezza50]

im just starting out with keeping sps, so i started with a small frag of acropora from my lfs, it was brown because they had it in a mainly fish system!!! but they were conviced it would come back to full colour. i brought for about £10 thought it was worth a go, since i have had it in my tank ive started to see it slightly change to green on the top of the coral, i was just wondering if it could come back to full colour??? my parameters are, salinity 35ppt, cal 450ppm, alk 8.5dkh mag 1350 nitrates at 0.25 and not sure on phosphste!!! any help cheers!!!!

 

[tpallas]

Here's a piece of mille that was browned out before moving into my tank. Changed to green, then to a nice lavendar color (slightly less pink than in the picture, chalk that up to my bad photoshopping skills).

 

[pezza50]

thats really impressive how long did it take for it to come back to full colour, would you say my parameters are up to for it to come back to colour??

 

[tpallas]

Actually not long. Within 5 weeks. I would try to get the nitrates down and check what the phosphate level is. This can make a difference.

 

[pezza50]

ok makes sense, i was dosing red seas no3 po4 x but nitrates were reduced to zero and i was confused how much i should be dosing, what do you supplement into your tank??? im considering starting to use the red sea reef care range, but as of now i only have a couple of corals. so not sure if its worth starting until i start stocking more sps, its been a confusing few weeks learning how to maintain parameters and succesfully keep sps.

 

[tpallas]

I dose Prodibio. At this point it might just make sense to keep up with regular water changes to see what affects nitrate/phosphate levels. Then when you start adding more corals you'll have a better understanding of how to control your parameters.

 

[allsps40]

No3 at .25ppm is fine leave it be. I keep mine under 5ppm. Good lighting and stability at this point is the best thing to do to color up browned sps. Your levels are really good keep them stable where they are. Then just give it time.

 

[pezza50]

thats perfect my tank is a fairly new set up so im doing weekly water changes and everything seems to be stable i have good flow around the tank and good lighting ive placed him at the top of my rock work so is receiving good ligh!! ill just stick at it, its only been in there for under 2 weeks now and i have already seen a slight change in colour, and hopefully will return to full colour and then i will start to introuduce more more and more lol,