Green birdsnest turning brown

BigRig450

New member
I got a colony of this at a frag swap about 3wks ago and when i got it the skeleton was white (mostly at the base)and looked real skinny but now it looks like the skeleton is browning but looks fat and happy is this good or bad?by the way this is my first sps
 
Could be TOTALY wrong here, but I always heard that the browning of SPS is due to high phosphates, have you checked for excess nitrates and phosphates?

Im fairly new, so take my words with a grain of salt, hopefully someone will chime in with more expreience, but I imagine they are going to ask what your water is testing out at....
 
Could be TOTALY wrong here, but I always heard that the browning of SPS is due to high phosphates, have you checked for excess nitrates and phosphates?

Im fairly new, so take my words with a grain of salt, hopefully someone will chime in with more expreience, but I imagine they are going to ask what your water is testing out at....

To be honest i have never tested for anything but salinity(in this tank) as i havnt had any problems but have been meanin to get a reef test kit.It looks alot better than when i got it and its not really a brown more like a golden color and it has great polyp ext.
 
One tell tale of high P04 could be a green tinge on the skeleton if exposed from STN or recession.

P04 itself can cause growth inhibition.

"Browning" occurs when the populations of zooxanthellae, which are red/brown, are at higher levels. This can be caused by too many nutrients in the system, stress, inadequate lighting levels......

The brown masks often the colorful pigments within the tissue we prize.

Considering its your first SPS, you just got it, I wouldn't be too worried.....

SPS are more demanding than other corals and you may need to review your husbandry or equipment in order to get it or any other SPS to color up correcty.

To point you in the right direction, some data on your water parameters, source of water, lighting, general tank info....etc is needed.....pictures help as well.
 
Browning could be due to excess phosphates, nitrates or could be insufficient lighting. What are your current parameters?
 
To be honest i have never tested for anything but salinity(in this tank) as i havnt had any problems but have been meanin to get a reef test kit.It looks alot better than when i got it and its not really a brown more like a golden color and it has great polyp ext.

Yeah....your in a whole different world when it comes to SPS....testing is required, lighting is important to coloration, they are far more temperature sensitive than other corals, flow....the list goes on.

Probably their biggest trait.....they are far less forgiving to less than optimal conditions. Often to the point of very little tolerance for error before you kill them, which is why I am not "too worried" since its your first and it "just" brown and hasn't died yet. There may be hope yet ;)
 
One tell tale of high P04 could be a green tinge on the skeleton if exposed from STN or recession.

P04 itself can cause growth inhibition.

"Browning" occurs when the populations of zooxanthellae, which are red/brown, are at higher levels. This can be caused by too many nutrients in the system, stress, inadequate lighting levels......

The brown masks often the colorful pigments within the tissue we prize.

Considering its your first SPS, you just got it, I wouldn't be too worried.....

SPS are more demanding than other corals and you may need to review your husbandry or equipment in order to get it or any other SPS to color up correcty.

To point you in the right direction, some data on your water parameters, source of water, lighting, general tank info....etc is needed.....pictures help as well.

the polyps are a bright green and tips are white the only thing that has changed is the color of the skeleton. water comes from my 6 stage ro/di and i do 15gal water changes every 2wks.i have a 6 x54w t5ho fixture and have about 65x tank turnover all other corals are doing great including both my monti caps and torch
 
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