no growth and pastel color

3/9/11
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current pics 12/27/11
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Nice. Your birdsnest will be much thicker branch after shortening the photo period.
My green birdsnest change very thick to very thin when it was too much lighting.
 
I gave a good sized frag of that birdsnest to my buddy that has a 120g with two 250w 14k mh's. His is now PINK. I can't believe it. Cause I got it because it was a neon green color. Crazy.
 
Nice. Your birdsnest will be much thicker branch after shortening the photo period.

I disagree with this. In my experience, it is flow, not light, which has a greater impact on thickness / stoutness of branching corals. More flow = shorter thicker branches. Less flow = thinner, longer branches.
 
I disagree with this. In my experience, it is flow, not light, which has a greater impact on thickness / stoutness of branching corals. More flow = shorter thicker branches. Less flow = thinner, longer branches.
Reef Bass is correct. Higher water flow makes the corals grow with thicker branches. In area of low flow, the braches grow thin, and are more prone to accidental breakage.
 
My birdsnest is directly in the way of an MP10 on 100% reefcrest mode. It actually buffers the current to all the other corals behind it. So it has direct flow. The one on the frag rack grows the same and has no direct flow. The one my friend has that turned pink also has no direct/strong flow anywhere near it. Yet his has branches and new growth that is twice the thickness as my mother colony.

Maybe there is no real rule of thumb here...
 
How often are you doing water changes?, I used to have a 200 gal with premium equipment and very stable parameters but because of salt costs I was doing WC every 6 weeks and montis began to look pastel and dull.

Then I tried the experiment of doing weekly WC and in only 2 weeks colors were looking very intense again.
 
Well, I got oyster feast and seachem's coral vitro "fuel". But its only 2 days into feeding again so I'll have to keep waiting. I still think my lights are too strong at this point. I may have to do 4 lights instead of 6 during the day. Still no noticeable growth on any of my acros, but my montis seem to be growing just fine and the new growth is darker in color. So maybe in s month I'll see positive results.
 
I noticed you posted awhile back that your Sg was at 1.030? When dosing 2 part you are adding salt to your system and when not accounting for that it will raise your salinity. Just something to be aware of. What happened to that nem you had last march ?
 
The nem is in a dedicated tank. The clowns too. They were (and are) so aggesive that they had to go. The GSP that were by it have grown twice as much since it was taken out. Sadly the nem isn't doing as good in the new tank, but I'm going to probably set up a 110g soon. I'm hoping that the 110g will better utilize the light that is on the current "problem" tank. It's too much light as it is now, so maybe it will be better over a tank twice as big.

But for now I need to get this tank back on track.
 
reading through your post, id say you have a very good handle on what the problem(s) are.is. You havent enough nutrients and therefore the high lighting is too much for the starved coral to repair itself from. I think your plan to drop the lighting photoperiod and raising the lights slightly(not really needed I dont think) and adding more fish or some form of nutrition, is a good one. Please keep us updated on how things progress.

Also I wanted to tell you how refreshing it is to see someone that knows what theyre doing asking for help without being a snude! Thanks for that and as such youve gotten great advice and are on your way to remedying the situation. Hope others view this as a great template for asking for help. Good luck!
 
I wish I shared your sentiment about "knowing what I'm doing"...haha. I Am the first to say that I am always going to be a learner.

My next thing will be to try and get a new fish or two. I really want a melanurus wrasse. But we shall see...plus I need a new clean up crew.

The lights are STILL making the corals unhappy. To recap, they are 14" AWL, two blue+ on for 8 hours, and 3 more blue+ and 1 aquablue special are on for 6 hours. I may have the dawn and dusk blue+'s turn off for the 6 hours that the main 4 bulbs are on. I think that may get the corals strength back up. But if not then I may have to raise them up above 14" again.

time will tell.

Also I am dosing the Coral Vitro Fuel by seachem...does anyone else use this? I used a whole bottle before and it seemed to do wonders to my tank...but I always just randomly dosed it...is there a more scheduled way to do it? Also I am feeing the oyster feast at night when the feeders are out...should I also be dosing the Fuel at that time or is it ok to dose during the day. I also dose the calcium and alk during the day...I assume that is ok as well.

thanks in advance for any more help.
 
I use fuel and love it. I'll let you borrow a halide if you want to see if it is the issue, I'll toss that light on the 40b and let it rock. How did the new frags do? Toss some of the pappone in there, it will definately give them something to eat.
 
Well I just started up on the fuel again...only two doses in so far. I wouldn't want you to put my light over your tank and vice-versa. Some of the frags you gave me are paling out a little. But for now they are good in the shade. And remember that's at 14" off the water. Plus I need blue spectrum to keep my corals happy the way they are, I'm afraid switching would be too drastic for them and make it worse. I'm just gonna keep going slow, and feed the oyster feast, everything seems to be responding well to that.
BTW, you should have been here when I put that setosa frag in here, I know you called it "orange" but under my lights it bright red...even more red under the royal blue moonlights.

You gotta come over and see the progress soon.

Thanks
 
I bought a bottle of Fuel. Didn't finish it. Started getting cyano and/or diatom bloom. Was doing three inner capfuls twice a week as it says on the bottle. Following this thread, keep us posted on status...
 
I was having the same problem of pale corals...I think it all started when I added 2x39 ATI Blue+ bulbs. I think I was running them too long and shocked the coral with the suddenly higher PAR.

I switched back to actinics and cut my photoperiod, waiting to see what happens.
 
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