Coral color fading

[rj ripetide]

I am looking for a reason why the color is fading from some of my zoas and polys. I have tried moving up and down on the reef with no change. I have 6 t-5 s run by 660 icecaps ,which keeps the monti and acros just fine. It seems to be just polyps that fade.
Any help?
Thanks ,
Rj

 

[Peter Eichler]

Overdriven T-5s are a a lot of light for zoanthids. I had some color loss at first with 6x39w T-5s that were not overdriven.

 

[rj ripetide]

"Overdriven T-5s are a a lot of light for zoanthids. I had some color loss at first with 6x39w T-5s that were not overdriven."

Did your zoas color come back? You said at first.
Rj

 

[Peter Eichler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10198095#post10198095 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rj ripetide
"Overdriven T-5s are a a lot of light for zoanthids. I had some color loss at first with 6x39w T-5s that were not overdriven."

Did your zoas color come back? You said at first.
Rj

Yes, but in some cases it took quite a while and I even pulled a reflector for a few weeks. Some zoanthids loved the light, others took months to adapt. There are a few corals/zoanthids that need to be shaded since even at the bottom of a 24" deep tank it seemed like too much. The bulbs getting older and me feeding the tank heavier to increase nutrient levels probably helped as well.

 

[rj ripetide]

Thanks for all in-put.
Just to fill in some of the blanks....The t-5 tubes were new in Feb 2007. The feeding and water quality is the same as is the light cycle. The coral were placed in the tank and held the color for about 2 months and then slowly faded. I keep a log of everything about the tank, water changes, parameters, new additions, any and all changes to the systems. There were no changes other than the new t-5 tubes and a new skimmer. This has not affected all zoas. I have talked to others that had this problem but they had no explanation. Oh yea, I have place some in different areas of the tank to shade some of them and to give others more light. I have seen no change so far in about 7-8 weeks.
Rj

 

[rj ripetide]

Anyone else have any ideas????
Rj

 

[Iconz]

I'm currently experiencing some color fading on these as well...

<img src="http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o101/iconz_reef/My%20Animals/4-28updt013.jpg" border="0" alt="" />

It seems the fading is running from adjacient polyps...

PS... RJ... not tryin to hijack.. just thought it was relevant..

Picture now:

 

[mdspsman]

Think light problem.. Turning brown means need more intense light.

 

[melev]

Actually, brown or green usually means the water has too many nutrients it. Tanks with less nutrients tend to have more colorful colors, ime.

 

[lfduty]

zoa's like not so good water what your seeing is do to needing more intense light (I think) you can never have to much light for zoa's I love my T5 and they are Overdriven all 8 of them with 2 250MH's 15k on a 90g tank

 

[Iconz]

by the way, those 2 pix are about 3 months apart...

I've got 4x24 T5's on them... 2 10ks and 2 true actinics..

So, is it time for new bulbs already? after 6 or 7 months of use?

 

[melev]

I doubt it. I know T5's are sold to last 18 months to two years, but I heard some european reefers are changing them at 10 months.

Tell us about your water quality. How often do you do water changes, how often and what do you feed (and how), and how often (and how) do you run carbon?

 

[Iconz]

Water quality is good!... but i'm scared of false negatives on PO4 and nitrates...

po4 - 0
nitrates - 2
nitrites - 0
ammonia - 0
sg 1.025
calcium - 390 (started dosing weeks ago to bring it up, it hasn't moved much.. It started at 375)
Akl - 9.2
temp - 79

I'm using IO salt and doing water changed weekly now as I am also fighting some Cyano... There is no cyano on the corals, nor has there been...

I am not running carbon right now, and have not for about a month.

I'm running a coralife superskimmer constantly that's set to wet-skim.

I'm feeding ever-other day.... alternating frozen (thawed) mysis and
Spectrum Optimum flakes ( just 2 small pinches about a minute or 2 apart)

My bioload is small... just a pair of True Percs ( 4 months), a strawberry Pseudocromis (3 months), and a LMB ( 2 weeks).

 

[melev]

All the numbers look good, really good.

With all the water changes, I doubt using carbon would make much of a difference if the water clarity looks good to you.

It could just be a morph, or perhaps the corals are lacking a little food. You might try some frozen Cyclop-eeze, as that food is smaller and corals can eat it more readily.

 

[Iconz]

K, i'll try that! Thanks Marc!