Calling all Elegance experts!

[Duc1098]

Hi all,

So six months ago, I got loucky and snagged up a healthy pink tip elegance coral. Afterward I heard that Elegance corals were very difficult to get lately and most die within a couple weeks of getting it. Mine has been very healthy and has grown quite a bit since I got it. However, it doesn't really have that same color it had when I bought it. The green has mostly turned brown but the tips are still pink. I have it in my sand bed (24" deep tank) under 250w 12k Reeflux MH's that are 17" above the waterline. I know what your thinking, 17"?!?!, but these are the large Lumen Bright pendants that put out a ton of light and in fact I have had to move some of my SPS to the sand bed since I installed these about five weeks ago. I also did properly acclimate the lights starting at 4hrs and raising it 30mins a week until I got to 6.5hrs. I am going to drop it back to 6hrs cause now even my Mille's and some of my Monti's are starting to show signs of stress.

So I looking to see if anyone else has had the same issue with a elegance and what they did about it. I target feed mine mysis 2-3 times a week and fend of the cleaner shrimp, wrasse and yellow tang for about 15minutes until it's done eating.

Tank parameters:
ph 8.2
alk 7dkh (trying to get it pack up to 8.4)
phospates .06ppm (trending down back below .04, was like these even at 0.0)
Nitrates 0.0ppm
Calcium 420
Mg 1335
Temp 76.6 day / 75.6 night
Salinity 1.025

I was dosing Red Sea Reef Energy A/B until PO4 got out of hand (0.07ppm) now I am backing off until my GFO reactor shows up and get the PO4 back down below 0.04ppm. It has decent flow but not to much to cause the tentacles to retract.

Any thoughts?

 

[usmc121581]

Are you dosing strontuim? I have an aussie pink tip which is under 250w MH XM's the lights are roughly 12" above the water and coral is in the sand bed 24" below the light. I have read that these corals are became harder to keep lately. I bought mine 6 years ago, only time mine has had issues is when I added a GFO reactor, I had to remove 75% of the GFO because the tentacles became really skinny. Only thing that I have different is my lighting is 20K not 12K and I never feed him, I have tried in the past but fish end up ripping it, so I stopped. One last thing are you by chance vinager dosing, I dose this everyday I have heard of some LPS's turning brown. My didnt but just a thought.

 

[Duc1098]

I am dosing vodka which has the same affect as vinegar. I have back off somewhat do to other issues I was having and I had run GFO recently but removed it. I think I added to much to fast which is why I am going to go with a reactor so I can control the amount more closely.

 

[usmc121581]

I am dosing vodka which has the same affect as vinegar. I have back off somewhat do to other issues I was having and I had run GFO recently but removed it. I think I added to much to fast which is why I am going to go with a reactor so I can control the amount more closely.

I would say back of the vodka, and when you use a GFO reactor dont dose the full amount at once. I did that and of all LPS corals I have the Elagance suffered the worse. I believe the green turning brown is being cause by the vodka dosing.

 

[Duc1098]

Once I start the GFO up I am going to back off the vodka dosing more until I stop dosing it all together. Also, I was dosing strontium up until about three months ago and I'm looking into starting that up again cause the growth I was getting on my SPS was insane.

 

[Duc1098]

Any other thoughts?