pink stylophora help

[Ron Popeil]

i have tried a few colonies and frags of pink stylophora lately and seem to always run into the same problem:

incredibly slow growth, if any.
faded whitish pink color.
tissue loss on the tips.
eventually tissue loss over the coral and death.

no other coral has any problem in my systems. how do i get this coral to richen up to a deep healthy burgandy color?

alk 9
ca 450
mg 1400
po4 .02
no3 0
sal 1.025
temp 80

400w halide radium
60 gallon cube

this is a few months old, and poorly edited for color, but an idea of what im working with.

 

[buy_baff]

Mine is at the top in my tank with lots of flow 2 mp40s on a 90gal. It is hot pink with a little purple to the new groth. Mine is just a smal frag but when I got it it was almost white so it has colored up nicely and is encrusted now. We have basicly the same parameters so all I can think of is maybe placement.

 

[werdlone]

how many fish do you have? How much do you feed and are you adding any supplements? I have found that many sps keepers strip their nutrients and some corals have nicer color in this environment, but most just fade out. I think the pink sylophora is one that fades. I have a decent fish load and feed heavy, but I use probiotics (vodka/microbacter7) and I over skim. High nutrients, but high nutrient export. I recommend feeding more to your tank and see what happens. worst case cenario you get a little algae bloom...best case cenario..you get some nice coloration.

 

[LifeAquatic]

That is weird. The pink stylo is one of the easier pieces to keep for me. I agree with Buy Baff.. Try new placement. My params are similar to yours. When I bought my first stylo it was bleached. Took about 3 weeks to color up to a nice pinkinsh purple. Doubled in size within a few months. Should do well for you to. Med light and medium flow works good in my tank.

 

[stanlalee]

Mine went from small to pretty big in no time (well a year which in my tank and 20k 150 watters doesn't exactly grow colonies in that time). I hardly noticed it grew until one day I looked at old pics. I had been keeping it under 150w 20k halides but when I switched to a high par 10k bulb it developed intense pink tips it never had before. I consider all my sps to get high flow and mid level placed. Its MUCH less finiky than acro's.

and about a year later (about 6 months ago I think)

and fragged/colony side view. none of these pics (all old) show the deep pink tips that developed with 10k bulbs.

 

[Ron Popeil]

yeah, i dont know what it is. all of mine just get super light....and JUST that type: pink stylo. here is a video to show placement and general water movement. this is a 60 gallon, there are two 1400 gph korrallias in there as well as some 1500 gph or so coming from a dart. the color is not representative at all, but you can clearly see the white stylo (its much more pink in real life).

 

[LifeAquatic]

First off... Nice video of Tank. Looks Good to me. Im baffled that your stylo wont do well. Is that the stylo in the bottom left above the green monti? Is that algae along the back wall of your tank? I would say might need to lower P04 a bit. I keep mine so low no algae will grow on the glass.