Getting my colour back.

[stubbsz]

So my Bali green slimer got caught in my Red-bug fiasco and lost a lot colour, started to bleach in areas and lost all its polyp extension.

Interestingly, I studied this fairly small frag with a magnifying glass a few times and never found a bug but I definitely had them in the tank.

After treatment, I find the bleached areas are no longer bleached and the polyps are much bigger and fairly green but the general colour of the frag is brown.

So can you ever get the colour back or do I have to raid Lord Helmets tank for another frag. ( Please note, LH was not the source of the bugs, I realise I already had them before I added the green slimer to the tank... just didn't recognise it.)

Share your colour recovery secrets please.
-Adrian

 

[northbay-reefer]

Their is no secret realy. As long as your tank is healthy, with great water quality, good water flow, good lighting, good stable water parameter, the corals will color up

 

[stubbsz]

So when a coral loses pigment.... from where does it get the pigment back. Does it have a little in reserve or does it generate it fom nothing.

This particular coral was very green and healthy unitl red-bugs.... now it's looking very brown and healthy and starting to grow again...bleached areas going away but now it is a new colour.

I do have a small amount of nitrates now... <5 and tow frags of Zoos have a little hair algae. That's the only thing that is out of whack at all. I wish I had room of a remote DSB in a bucket to bring those down.

Well at least the polyps are greenish.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Stubbsz, the nitrate contribute to diatom algea build up in your tank and that what cause some of your corals to brown out. I suspect that when you treat your tank for red bugs, you had a massive pods die off that causes your Nitrate to rise. The best way to get rid of nitrate is frequent water change and a good skimmer. I am not a big fan of DSB but that might help in the long run. In the short term though, do some water changes to get rid of the nitrate and you will see improvement right away. Cleaning your skimmer collection cup frequently will improve the skimmer efficiency too.

If you have any Carbon, phosphate remover, go ahead and use those too.

 

[stubbsz]

The brown-out of some corals happened as a symptom of the red-bugs... or at least before the treatment... however, I had not noticed nitrates until after the treatment so maybe removing them will help with the colour recovery; my alien eye chalice has got more colourful at least... Hopefully my 2*25% changes dropped the nitrates a little. By 25 % twice I guesss

Skimmer seems to be working well but maybe a nice vinegar cleanup is due.

I hate DSB's but a REMOTE DSB (DSB in a bucket with no light or gunk) seems like a great idea to me if I had the room. Just running your water over a sandbed and getting 0 nitrates seems very cool.

I'm using Carbon... no phospate remover as they are 0 at this time.