Frags turned brown after introduction to tank, no polyp extension
- Thread starter anen
- Start date
Alex T.
Active member
If you can rule out pests and parameters are all still in check, I would focus attention on lighting. When I ditched my 10K xm halides and went to Radiums, the color got a little better from brown and polyp extension returned, but not overly exciting. After reading through some threads on photoperiod, I came to the conclusion that I had plenty of intensity but duration was too long. I no longer run any 10k t5 supplements either. I have 2 ATI Blue Plus with Two ATI Purple plus bulbs that are on for 10 hours per day. My 400 watt Radiums I started running 6 hours instead of 8 and things improved. I experimented with dusk/dawn affect with t5's and eventually reduced the radium halides all the way down to 3.5 hours per day. Once I decreased the halide photoperiod to this duration, coloration was better than ever, growth has not been inhibited and polyp extension is close to 24/7. I think I remember reading that once sps corals reach photosaturation, any more photoperiod is useless and a waste of electricity. If blasted with too much light for too long, the coral may fight or flee. Fleeing is the equivalent to losing their symbiotic host and bleaching. Fighting is producing more zooxenthelae (sp?) which is brown. By adjusting the photoperiod in weekly increments down in intensity, the coral's suntan defense mechanism is not needed, and in a low nutrient system, its' true pigment is able to reveal itself...whether it be blue, red, yellow, green or purple.
OK I wanted to give you guys an update. Noticing more of what looked like bite marks, I decided to eliminate pests from the range of possibilities.
I pulled all my sps out of my main tank and dipped them in coral rx. A lot off stuff came off, little dark red bugs, little black ones, and some things that looked like AEFW but I'm not totally sure. They were the same shape as the pictures online, but these were an opaque white with black squiggly looking lines on them, not like the translucent color I've seen in pictures.
I have another tank that was finishing cycling so I put them all in there and did an interceptor treatment. This was all about a week ago. Some RTNed and the others look really stressed. They are bleaching from the tips down. The past few days I have noticed better polyp extension though. I hope this means they are on a comeback run!
I pulled all my sps out of my main tank and dipped them in coral rx. A lot off stuff came off, little dark red bugs, little black ones, and some things that looked like AEFW but I'm not totally sure. They were the same shape as the pictures online, but these were an opaque white with black squiggly looking lines on them, not like the translucent color I've seen in pictures.
I have another tank that was finishing cycling so I put them all in there and did an interceptor treatment. This was all about a week ago. Some RTNed and the others look really stressed. They are bleaching from the tips down. The past few days I have noticed better polyp extension though. I hope this means they are on a comeback run!
