Browned out acro

Alysiak00

New member
I bought a 5" frag of blue acro and after about a week it browned out. is this normal or does it mean something in particular. I've never kept acro till now, usally just mixed reef with few sps like slimers, monti, and digi. Any help would be appreciated. also, does it come back in color?
 
Generally, high nitrates can lead to this.
Poor quality lighting and too long a photo period can also lead to this.
Genreally, it is reversible if the things that are out-of spec. are corrected.
 
the light is a 2x150 mh sunpod, no2 and no3 are 0, photoperiod is 5hrs (5pm-10pm), and nutrients should be low. I run gfo, have chemi-pure elite bag and do weekly water changes. the green slimer, monti, misc sps, and stag are all doing great with decent color but this new frag is browning. should i move it down? It was under a 250 mh and i have it midway under a 150
 
nutrition Issues.

how do you know No3 and po4 are zero ? what test kit ?

Acros, require alot more care than monties do.
 
IME a simple change from system to system can cause a coral to brown. I had a nice 2 1/2" tri color valida brown out when I first introduced it and about a month later it colored up real nice and has been growing great. I would say as long as you keep your nutrients down and parameters stable you should be ok depending on the sensitivity of the coral.
 
5 hours of light per day is not that much when compared to the 10 - 14 hours that a coral receives on the reef.
 
thats very true CORALFISH, i didn't think of that. I might up my photoperiod to 7-9hrs in the near future. especially when i get a bigger skimmer for the new 65g. I'm thinking of an swc cone but im still shopping lol.

DJKMS, i really appreciate the first hand experience and it also makes sense. the coral has only been in the tank for a week or two tops. It still had the blueish shimmer to it when i got it but it seems that this week it has really started to brown. I could have shocked it as well with under-acclimating. Hopefully it bounces back like yours did!

also, i'm using all salifert test kits.
 
A couple of things I can offer...

150 watts halides are not a lot of light, maybe even at any depth. I would definitely "slowly" raise the photoperiod to maybe 8 hours over a month. Also, blue acros are some of the hardest colors to bring out. One of mine took a year before it started to even grow, let alone show its' true blue pigment. IMO they need the cleanest of water compared to some of the other colors.

Aside from this, could you let us know if this is a aquacultured, maricultured or wild acro? I've had a few maricultured pieces over the years and they seem to be a 50/50 gamble on whether or not they'll ever show their colors. My most blue coral is an ORA Roscoe's Blue. It was the smallest frag in my tank over a year ago, and now is as large as an orange. Sometimes the genes of the frag you have matter too. Most aquacultured pieces have been through the rigors and insults that we reefers make when trying to mimic mother nature. They've built up some immunity to less than perfect water conditions and a host of different lighting schemes. Over time, some maricultured and wild frags can grow to be beautiful pieces that do very well for reefers later on down the line after a few generations of frags have been established in captive systems.

Another thing that really brings out the blues is actinic lighting. Since you run 150 watt bulbs, I don't know if you'd want to lower the par of the bulbs by going to a 20k, but some supplemental actinic lighting can do wonders for making some blue and purple acros color up.
 
i actually just set up a retrofitted 2x39 t5 setup. it has an actinic and fiji purple. also, the coral i believe was aquacultured and not wild. My water is very clean and i keep up on my wc's and maintenance on a weekly-bi weekly basis. The only thing i may need to upgrade is my skimmer. but thats about it (other than what you stated with the lights)
 
i just snapped this picture with my cheap-o SLR

You can see on the right and bottoms its still blue, but on top its brown. I think i may have shocked it buy in the end it'll just take time.
DSC00627.jpg
 
I don't know, to me it seems like theres some tissue loss, but I'm not there to see what it looks like. Shipping stress and new tank parameters can cause browning out. Depending on how well your system is, you might see color again in 3-4 weeks. 150w metal halides are fine for a tank your size.

If nitrates and phosphate are really low, then just wait it out. Just received a frag that was purple on a website but ended up brown in the bag while in transit, and another frag that was green in the photo and stayed green after adding it to the aquarium.

As long as it doesnt RTN or STN i'm fine :)
 
Corals that turn brown are because of increased nutrients, low light, or just new to the tank. Since you say your nutrients are at or around 0, and that your peice came from 250w mh and you have 150w mh, I would suggest that it browned out due to either the move and/or less/not enough light. I would suggest to move it up higher in the tank. A brown condition is very reversible, actually most corals on the reef are brown (it means they have increased their zooxanthellae).
Turning white is worse...


Just looked at the pic... A millie should have PE. It doesnt look very healthy, do you keep your alk and cal steady? pH?
 
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+1 on the tissue loss. Keep an eye on the base of the frag.

What is your ALK right now?

What bulbs are you running for your MH's? Blue corals like the 420-440 nm spectrum and depending on your bulbs, you may not be giving it the right specturm.
 
lol, sorry for the delay. I fell asleep early last night (downfalls of college lol)

anyhoos, params are as follows

no2- 0
no3- 0
sg- 1.0025
ca- 420
mag- 1440
alk- 9dkh
temp- 78-80

also, these are all taken with salifert test kits.

The "tissue loss" towards the bottom is where it was snipped and glued. It was towards the base of the mother colony. I wondered this myself at the beginning too lol
 
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