Help Sps Changing Colors

[quandary_23]

What whoudl I do?

Its been in my tank for about 2-3 weeks, it is under a 150 watt 10K DE coralife bulb.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/44910IMG_0472.JPG

The branches look like a light green, but the rest is still dark brown with blue tips, is just because this part is not getting the light? Also the base looks like a dark green on on side. I never saw this before on a acro. I acclimated it real slow to my tank. I have been battling algae in my tank hair and brown. I have been doing water changes, but nothing extreme. I added a skimmer a week ago, could that be it? My xenia died in my tank, and I just got around to pulling out the dead coral from the atank today, only been about 3 days. I run carbon and purigen in my tank. Thats all I can think of, let me know what you think.

My poor torch is not doing well either.

 

[quandary_23]

This isn't RTN is it? I never heard of it acting like this before. You can't tell from the pic, but I got a orange monti cap that is doing great, along with a brown digita with purple tips that grows like a weed, and the branching pagoda that is also growing but slowly.

Theres a little acro crab in that coral, I would hate for him to loose his home. That and this coral was not cheap, $70. The torch, anyone have any idea why its retracting? I have a smallwer two headed one by the acro that is acting the same way. The only thing I changed recently was adding the protein skimmer, and took out my macro algae (cheatomorph) because it block flow behind the tank and debris just got caught in it increasing my algae problem.

 

[quandary_23]

I take it no one has seen this before? If someone has had an acro change color on them, how slowly and how exactly does this take place? Could it be this coral needs some acintic lighting?

 

[easttn]

Your nutrient levels are way too high if you got all that algae growing. The skimmer will help but not for a few weeks. Your halides are on the weak side imo. Do you add or measure anything?

 

[quandary_23]

Don't add anything, I test for NO3, NO2, PH but don't detect anything. I thought nutrients, that is why I got the skimmer. Is my acro ok is the question?

The torch has been in the tank for 2 months now and was doing great until I started the skimmer. Could this change in water chemistry be causing my problems???

According to the Advance Aquarist article on 150 W MH DE, my current setup is a little better then if I was running a 175 W SE bulb. Now the coral was under 20K when I bought it, and I think alot of it too. Could this also be a factor? If so, wouldn't the coral change all over and not start at the one side and have a dark green base while keeping everything else the way I bought it? I was thinking about adding some PCs to supplement the MH, run either 20K or A03 bulbs, what do you think?

 

[Mariner]

The reason for the lack of response isn't that nobody has had an acro change colors, it's that everybody has. In fact, more often than not, they will change colors from one tank to the next.

This is probably not RTN; if it were, your coral would be gone by now.

You do understand that lighting is only one factor in coral color/health, right? The fact that you've had Xenia dying, have not been running a skimmer, and have algae problems points to water quality as the problem here -- not lighting.

Also, you don't say what your calcium and alkalinity levels are. If you're not testing/supplementing for these, you can hardly expect to keep an acro healthy.
HTH,
Mariner

 

[yahutch]

if the coral was under 20k lighting and you now have it under 10k it will change colors on you. 10k bulbs will cause the coral to grow faster with less color - 20k will cause slower growth and more color . also , was the coral kept under brighter lighting prior to you ? that would also make it loose color .the coral may need time to adjust. not that your lighting is not good enough , just different than what it is used to . i know several people who keep colorful acros under 150w de , but they do run a bluer bulb (14k-20k ). as long as the acro is not loosing flesh or bleaching to a white i would think it is o.k. .... i would try to get it closer to the light and see if it improves any. i did have one of my acros turn that dark green on me after a tank upgrade ( it was the only one in a tank full of acros ) it did recover.

 

[newmoon]

do some water changes(using RO/DI water, of course), improve water flow and upgrade your skimmer(?), you may not be skimming enough. You may have a high nutrient level in your tank that is leading to the algae problem, and other problems.

 

[undertai]

I would check your alk/ph levels. One of my corals did that after added some crushed coral to my sump. The coral went from red with pink tips, to brown with kinda white tips. It was the only coral in the tank that did that. I checked all of my water par. and the ph was down as was the alk. Got them back up to standards and the coral colored back up in 3 days. I does it ever time something is wrong with my water par. I call in my indicator coral as it starts to decline long before any other coral.