Colt coral health

[mburke]

Hello and good morning,
My tank specs are as follows:65 gallondisplay,CPR aqua fuge pro with culpera and live rock rubble,mag 9.5 return pump and two maxilet1200 circulation pumps. Parameters temp 78-80, PH 8.3,specific gravity 1.o24,ammonia,nitrite,and phosphate 0,nitrate 5ppm,alk 9-10dkh,calcium 480,mag1500. Lighting 4 96 watt bulbstwo are10k/67k twin tubes and the other two are420nm/460nm twin tubes. Photoperiod is 420/460 for 10 hours,10k/67k 8 hours.
My problem is I cannot keep a colt coral for more than a month.
The coral just gradually wilts away over a mobnths time this is the second one. Even though it is drooping still have good polup extension which does not make sense. Other corals include pulsing xenia,waving xenia,plating montipora and several zoos.
Everything else is flourishing.
HAve tried low to high placement as well as several different areas of flow to no avail. Ifeed DT phytoplankton and cyclopeeze to the tank every third night after lights out with skimmer off. Any help?
Thanks Mike

 

[cdangel0]

The colt coral requires medium to high lighting (as per liveaquaria.com) although 4x96w PC are fine for GSP, Xenia, Mushrooms etc. these are all low light corals.

The polyp extension you see is the coral trying to stretch out further to absorb more light. I would reccomend either placing the coral very high in the tank, or upgrading to at least T5 lights (but not necessarily in that order).

 

[mburke]

Coral is within 6 inches of the lamp. I just purchased a 6 bulb t-5 fixture but bulbs are listed as 54 watts. 6x54=324 watts,4x96=384 watts. Is watts notwhat I should be looking at for lighting?

 

[cdangel0]

WPG (watts per gallon) is rapidly becoming considered out-dated. There has been more of a focus on PAR value (how much useable light reaches at depth).

T5s have a much higher PAR value then PC lights, of course it is seriously diminished if the fixture does not have individual reflectors on each bulb.

The T5 bulb is skinny enough to allow most of the light to be reflected i to the tank, whereas PC lights (due to their twin tube design) block most of the reflected light and keep it from being useable in the tank.

I do not know all of the figures to be exact (check the lighting forum if you want the headache of reading too much about lights and PAR value) but I believe a 39w T5 is brighter then a 96w PC.

I think you will find yourself able to keep the colt alive lower in the tank when you put the T5s on. I run a 6x39w T5 set-up and can even keep some SPS alive 20 inches below the surface.

 

[cmondo]

T-5's are great. You should have no problem keeping sps anywhere in your tank once you have those up.

Also, what are the dimensions of your 65g, because I had one that was 3' long. The 54w T-5's correspond to a length of 4' so are the lights you are talking about 39w's?

Chris

 

[cmondo]

Also cdangel0 is right, par is a more accurate way of looking at lighting.

For a quick example 2 150w halides is only 300w's but is much brighter than pc's.

 

[Jocephus]

I'll be the voice of dissent. It's not the light. I had a Colt that thrived (Probably five times the size of when I got it) for two years under PC's. And old bulbs at that. I don't know what would cause it to melt, maybe acclimation/pH shock? A month isn't long to kill a colt, usually they're pretty tough.

 

[zippopunk1]

i have a 400 watt hd had my colt for about 4 months and it just started withering yesterday. ive been looking for advice on here and some people say reef predators other people tell me that colt coral just do that sometimes and then recover so im not sure who to believe all i know is that it sure is getting enough light. i looked for parasites on it and didnt see any.all my other coral is doing great and so are my sponges

 

[mburke]

Swapped out lights last night and left them on for 3 hours no real difference. Will look again this evening after lights are on for 8 hours. Did not see any types of predators either

 

[icy1155]

I doubt its your lights... most corals are alot more hardy than we give them credit for in that regard. Do you have any leather corals by chance or is any of the xenia touching the colt when it opens up?

 

[mburke]

No xenia touching it but I did notice some growing at the bottom of the frag plug very small. Possibly a Problem? I also moved it too a lower spot in the tank with less flow last night. End of day yesterday showed no improvement