Sps coral tissue.

[Livingjewels]

Anyone have a scope to view coral tissue close up?

I've had one for a while and find them cool to see things up close which you'd never really see.

When you look through a scope it paints a much better picture of the colour and tissue depth than can be seen with the naked eye.

I recently bought a frag of montipora chilli pepper and a pink/ green morph monti.

I have noticed that montipora seem to lose the acid green or terracotta red colour in my tank.. always seem washed out.

After a quick look through the scope it revealed why they look washed out, I can only describe it by saying the more exposed tissue has become thinned out near the surface.. the darker tissue seems to be trapped in the crevices of the skeleton which is what you generally see where a dark red then turns to a pink.

So after seeing this could I ask for some guidance as to establish what's causing it to happen..
The frag has been in the tank 2 weeks on Monday.
I had it placed mid depth in a reefer 350 would it be bleaching? Or is there something which maintains tissue depth / colour.

I took some pictures although they're not the best admittedly but you'll get a better idea of my description.. polyps are still there (

[/ATTACH]etc)

 

[reefmutt]

I have trouble seeing those shots very well.. looks to me like basic paling out of the coral..
What are the n,p,alk and lighting of the tank they came from and what are they in your tank?

 

[Livingjewels]

The alk in my tank was 10 and the alk in the other 8.3
Mag was 1280 in mine and 1400 in the others
Cal mine is 450 and the other 500

Don’t know the po4 or no3 in the other tank, but mine is 4ppm no3 and po4 0.045

Notes: I increased mag to 1400ppm in my tank and corals in my tank did look a lot better.

The two tanks are illuminated by radions, I don’t know the other reefers intensity or schedule but mine is generally
overall brightness 35%
100 % blues, 20% white 5% red and green and 40% uv

I’ve put a frag rack on the outermost side of the tank in between two vortechs, these are high up and catching the edge of my light splay..
the frags that are on there are coloured and polyped up nice.. as an experiment I’ve moved the frag in the pictures above up there with them.. hopefully it will suggest they were in too much flow or too much light if the colour comes back.

 

[Cheapreef]

That Alk swing would def make the monti bleach out. Going from 8.3 to your 10 would do it, it should rebound in a few weeks to a month. My montis always tell me if my Alk is off at all, first ones to lighten up if it raises.

 

[Livingjewels]

Here is a picture of the colour I'm seeing from them..

Could you advise what you thinks dulling them out.

 

[reefmutt]

Really no idea what is dulling it out..
it’s a bit rough around the edges.. no pests, like nudis irritating it?

 

[Livingjewels]

This is a picture of another red plating montipora that I've had for about 4 months or so..
It's been a As dulled out as you can see in the majority of the areas dark brown/maroon all this time.
The dosing regimen has recently changed in the tank from nopox

..I commenced dosing Tm bacto balance and raised magnesium around 3 to 6 weeks ago and this coral has sprung back like I've never seen happen before.
The orange that can be seen coming through is signs that it's happy, but I'm struggling to see why the others are fading when these in the pic above the last one were bright pink and yellow frags 3weeks ago.