So what's happening to this acro?

[Bilk]

Last week I changed the lighting above my 200g tank. Two BMO led strips with actinic, UV and violet replaced 4 T5s that were supplementing 2 Ecoxotic Cannons. I also added three Kessil 360 wides and still run the two Ecoxotic Cannons that ran with the T5s. I have the Cannons at low intensity - 30%. The Kessil are running about 75% (need to hook them up to the Apex to know exactly where they're running - the dial on the fixture is approximately 75%) and the BMO led are at 80% via the Apex. The mean distance to the water surface is 14". The BMO are 12" the others are different heights because the fixtures are different heights. Par at the sand bed measured by an Apogee MQ200 ranges from 187 at the edges to about 240 under the lights at the most intense. The fixtures are 30" above the bed on average.

The coral below was a DD purchase a few years ago and was in my 50 before moving it to a 200. It's wild caught. It never colored up and was always brown, but did feed, has grown and did have polyp extension up until switching the lights; after which it shut down and darkened a bit. Then a few days ago it had feeders extended and it looked like it was consuming the brown zoo. It it's still doing it over a period of days and sections at a time. The branches turn white then sometimes within a few hours they're a light green which then turns a darker shade over time. You can see that in the pic. I've seen feeder polyps extend from those and even the white branches, so I don't believe it's dying - well at least not yet.

Has anyone witnessed this before? I've seen corals change colors but nothing like this. The feeders are extended and it literally looks like they're removing the brown zoo and consuming it. Everything else and all other corals are the same. No changes to the tank chemistry or parameters.

 

[Whisperer]

It looks like it is at different stages of demise. The left has been dead and is being colonized by green algae, the right and extreme left are in the process of dying/recently died and is very clean white. On both sides of the middle section is still alive with various stages of bleaching areas and normal purple area. Overall, the coral is not doing well. hard to say what caused it (tempt change, light, chemical or pH imbalance). I can't speculate.

 

[cpllongjk]

How do the rest of the corals in the tank look?

 

[Bilk]

Everything else in the tank is fine. I've had corals RTN/STN. I've never seen what's happening to this coral. As I said, even the white and green regions have feeder polyps extend. They did just this morning when I fed the tank.

The feeder polyps (the long sticky polyps) are extending from the radial corallites and pulling the brown off the surface. I don't think the green is coralline algae. It appears within a few hours. I would think other forms of alga would populate those areas more swiftly as I've seen that happen before.

You might be right, it's in decline, but I find it odd that the long tentacle polyps are still emanating from those areas that have lost the brown appearance.

 

[Bilk]

Here's the basic tank parameters as of now.

sg- 1.026
no3- 1
po4 - .05
ca - 420
dkh - 8.5

I wish I could post better pics because even now there are feeder polyps extending from various parts of the coral and even in the regions of green and white. Actually the areas that are brown do not have any.

Well there's nothing I can do but observe. I'll keep posting if anything other than what I described changes.

 

[rogerwilco357]

have you introduced any new coral to this tank? have you used a baster to see if any flat worms have attacked it? Thats what happen to my sps and later found the eggs at the base of one of my sps slimmer colonies wiped me out