should this be happening to my sps?

[AIR-FX]

i got a couple of pieces of sps to try out. the tips are getting white and losing color! does this usually happen or am i doing something wrong? do i need new bulbs? stronger lighting?

 

[magdelan]

Hmmmm...Hard to say. It is normal for the tips of sps to be a bit white because this is a good sign of growth, aka growth tips. However, in this case, the tips seem to be covering a larger portion which leads me to believe that you may have high nitrates.

Let's see what the professionals have to say.

 

[Dave VG]

What lights were they under in the original tank and what lights are you running and how high up are thay. They may be bleaching from to much light. Other tank permeter would also help

 

[AIR-FX]

my water parameters are spot on. they ae higher up in thetank. i always thought they needed alot of light. i dont know what kind of lighting my friend todd was running,but i have t-5's x 4.

 

[Capt_Cully]

It's easy to shock frags. They are stressed from the move. You might have great parameters and lighting, but it may be a bit different from it's former home. Transport is a stressor. The right combo of dKH and lighting can lead to burnt tips. If you're new to SPS, start it low and raise it slowly over several weeks. Digi is generally very hardy and will tolerate being low down in your tank. It might lose a little color, but with stability it will come back.

OR, tough to tell from pics, it might just be normal growth tips, in which case... Kudos!

 

[pascal32]

are there polyps on the ends? My digi is mid-tank and has pronounced tips like that from growth

I have noticed that T5s can bleach quickly - now when I get frags from an halide system I start low and raise up slowly.

 

[toddmh]

they look ok Kevin,dont forget those are frags that broke in the"rock slide" they were a little stressed already..The poylps look good at this point..They may need to adjust a little from the lack of MH lighting they are not getting now..

 

[Conesus_Kid]

I bleached plenty of SPS frags when I was running 4x54w overdriven T5s on my 75 gallon tank.

Start them off lower, then gradually raise them up.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Start them off lower, then gradually raise them up.

x2

good general rule for SPS.

What I see in pix appears to be growth.

 

[tmz]

Looks like growth to me too. It is a bit more bare skeleton than I'm used to though. Wait it out see if tissue fills it in. Looks ok for now. I'd watch PO4,nitrate ,alkalinity calcium magnesium and salinity if keeping sps , even montipora digitata(as in the picture) which are pretty hardy.

 

[arredondojason]

Just keep watching it and see if it gets bigger or if the polyps start to reseed back my red planet has like a one inch section of the tips that are white but it colors up as it grows more.

 

[Dave VG]

No worries if all your water parameters are in line. When I had my 90 up and running with T-5’s everyone I bought SPS from had MH lighting on there tanks. The corals always looked exactly as yours after a day or two even if started low. Mine always bounced back and started coloring up after a couple of weeks.

 

[Flanders]

looks like growth tips to me also. the polyp extension looks great.