Cali tort STN

[Potatohead]

I have about a 3.5" tall "frag" of Cali Tort that has been in the tank about 2.5 months. Upon introduction it browned out for a couple weeks but then came back and is nice and blue now, then another few weeks later it started getting real nice polyp extension. Then last week I noticed it's starting to get some white growth tips, so I thought the coral was quite happy, but last night I noticed on the back side at the base is some skeleton showing. It doesn't get much light in that area, I am wondering if this is kind of normal in that area or if I should frag the top half. I have other acros in the tank, some are doing great (ones that have been acclimated and in the tank for a couple months) and some are kinda stagnant, but they've only been in there a few weeks. Basically the longer it has been in the better it is doing, other than a red digitata recently introduced that is growing like crazy.

Calcium - 430
Alk - 8.0 - 8.1, very stable
Mag - 1370
Nitrate - Seachem test says 3 - 5, Nyos says 7 - 8
Phos - .025

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[nmotz]

My experience with branching SPS is that they are difficult to light evenly. Whichever regions of the coral don't receive light usually turn white and lose polyp coverage. Your parameters look fine.

Just curious, do you use LEDs? This seems to be more of an issue with LEDs.

 

[Potatohead]

My experience with branching SPS is that they are difficult to light evenly. Whichever regions of the coral don't receive light usually turn white and lose polyp coverage. Your parameters look fine.

Just curious, do you use LEDs? This seems to be more of an issue with LEDs.

I was using LED alone and added T5 supplement about five to six weeks ago. That was really when the coral started to color back up nicely. I have been continuing to slowly ramping up my LED's, but still only running the T5's two hours a day and increasing about ten minutes every 3 - 4 days. I will go to about four hours and have about 20% left to go on the LED but going very slow. Maybe this is a result of too little light in that area, likely so I would think.

 

[nmotz]

Yeah I think if the rest of the coral is showing improvement/good PE and you know that the white areas are not lit well then I would suspect its a lighting coverage issue. I have similar issues with my corals. My birdsnest often have branches at the very bottom turn completely white because they are shaded. I've seen the same thing with acropora.

 

[Potatohead]

Alright thanks, I will keep an eye on it and only frag it if it keeps getting much worse.