Nitrates going down...browned out SPS turning green?

[shandy_say]

Hi! Im just wondering if anyone has the same experience with browned out sps turning green when nitrates starting to go down.

My tank has been up for about 7 months now and in the beginning most of my sps browned out due to 20ppm nitrates. Ive been vodka dosing to bring down the nitrates and ever since i saw my nitrates go down from 20ppm to 5ppm almost all my sps that were browned out are turning green while those that were already green have become much more greener in coloration. Any ideas as to why this is happening?

here are some of my parameters:
no3 = 5ppm
po4 = undetectable
temp = 26-27C
salinity = 1.026
alk = 7-8dkh
calcium = 450
magnesium = 1300

Anyone have the same experience?

 

[Nanook]

Not yet, but I am hoping to as my denitrator starts to kick in. My nitrates are 30+ and I have lost several SPS and browned out many others.

 

[shandy_say]

@nanook - sorry to hear that. Hope everything works out. It gets boring to see all my sps become green. My tank lacks that "WOW Factor" when you see it due to almost all my sps being green.

 

[M88A2]

i had the same problem and my tank was also set up around the same time. the only sps of mine that browned out completly was a baby blue stag. as i got control of my nitrates it too started turning green. recenly tho i have seen that the new growth is its old baby blue color. i think it just takes time for it to return to its original color, but im not guru so make some more exp. ppl can chime in

 

[shandy_say]

@mm88a2 - a friend of mine said the same thing happened to him. But i have not seen any reports/threads/articles regarding the "greening" of browned out sps before they change to their original colors. Most if not all of the threads regarding sps coloration sort of skip this stage.

 

[ryanrid]

browned SPS will usually go a greenish colour before returning to their true colour once water params are corrected. can take quite a while tho.

 

[shandy_say]

@ryanid - thanks. Any ideas as to why this happens?

 

[kipper31]

Does the greeny stage go for montipora too or only stag horn type sps?It just funny i had a purple monti that when i was away for two weeks had bit of a rise in phosphates and it went really brown. Now each day its getting more of a green tinge to it.Im hopeing it comes good .

 

[twiggyb]

my sps browned out as well due to an overdose of calcium. Lost a colony and almost lost a monti and milli. The milli started to bleach then started to brown, then went to green and now is starting to go the original light blue color it was, but slowly. Kind of looks cool with all the bright green fading into light blue.

 

[XSiVE]

As others have said it will take some time. I've had browned out stuff go green and then head back toward its original color eventually.

 

[M88A2]

just as a reference my brown stag has been brown for about 2-2.5 months. the new growth is baby blue and some of the brown is turning greenish and the rest is a light brown instead of dark. mabe in another 4 moths everything will be gravey again? also take note that i had a heater malfunction for a few days so im sure that has slowed the progress. but im sure different corals take different times

 

[rogerwilco357]

pics

pics

could you post pics of this so when they do get back to normal color we can see the difference in color equaled to the water parameters. did that make sense? so pic one brown water parameters at? pic 2 coral green water parameters at? and then the pic 3 back to full color and your final water parameter. .just a thought thanks for the post a lot of us have gone through this but i haven't seen it charted.
Roger

 

[shandy_say]

Does the greeny stage go for montipora too or only stag horn type sps?It just funny i had a purple monti that when i was away for two weeks had bit of a rise in phosphates and it went really brown. Now each day its getting more of a green tinge to it.Im hopeing it comes good .

I think it goes for all types of sps.

my sps browned out as well due to an overdose of calcium. Lost a colony and almost lost a monti and milli. The milli started to bleach then started to brown, then went to green and now is starting to go the original light blue color it was, but slowly. Kind of looks cool with all the bright green fading into light blue.

Glad to hear that everything's working out for you. I sure hope my sps will revert back to their original colors.

As others have said it will take some time. I've had browned out stuff go green and then head back toward its original color eventually.

How long does it usually take for the colors to shift from green to their original coloration?

just as a reference my brown stag has been brown for about 2-2.5 months. the new growth is baby blue and some of the brown is turning greenish and the rest is a light brown instead of dark. mabe in another 4 moths everything will be gravey again? also take note that i had a heater malfunction for a few days so im sure that has slowed the progress. but im sure different corals take different times

Good luck with that!

could you post pics of this so when they do get back to normal color we can see the difference in color equaled to the water parameters. did that make sense? so pic one brown water parameters at? pic 2 coral green water parameters at? and then the pic 3 back to full color and your final water parameter. .just a thought thanks for the post a lot of us have gone through this but i haven't seen it charted.
Roger

I'll try to look for old pics of when they were brown and when they became green. Will post soon. And yeah, most if not all of the threads on sps coloration kind of skips this stage. I just wonder why it turns green first before they return to their original colors.

 

[shandy_say]

Here is a pic for comparison...

 

[Kataro]

My Nitrate was also near 20ppm at one point 4-5 weeks ago I believe... now it is below 5... very near 0.

One of my milli went from brown to green and now got a whitish tip (looking to turn back to blue)

several of my other SPS seem to be turning green and getting some color on the tip back first also

 

[shandy_say]

@kitaro - Nice! Looks like most people have the same experience.

 

[shandy_say]

Anyone else have pics for comparison?

 

[M88A2]

i have a photo of mine at the beggining and then a full tank shot that shows it brown. tommorow i will post of what it looks like today as my lights have already gone off.
early-mid april

late april-early may (coral is located mid lvl of tank, all the way to the right)

earlir this month (located in the same place)

again i will post a pic of the "baby blue stag" tommorow. hopefully my camer can show it's color shift to a greenish color

 

[GhostCon1]

M88A2 I like your frags; question though: does that dotty back and fire fish get along?

 

[shandy_say]

@M88A2 - Thanks for the pics! How long has it been green?