SPS Experts - Explain difference between "browned out" and light brown/tan SPS color

Zstriker

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SPS Experts - Explain difference between "browned out" and light brown/tan SPS color

It appears many post concerns with "browned out" sps corals....including myself. However, I have noticed a trend (in my tank and others)....the browned out corals are not the typical dark brown color you see with inadequate light or excessive nutrients....they are usually a light brown, almost tan color. So, what is the difference between brown and light brown?

This is currently troubling my tank. Some corals are especially prone to it, such as the different types of tricolors (yes, those are also prone to pests, but I have ruled those out). So whats the answer? Anyone have any experience with coloring up tan/light brown corals?

My own theory is that there is an excess of nutrients, but also an extreme excess of light, resulting in the coral having some type of inner battle...lol, who knows though - just want to get rid of the tan colors....perhaps less light, with more GFO would help...strange Idea, i know - but I am leaning this way. After all, the original GARF tanks where run only by VHO and didn't have much algae...colors were excellent.

Anyways- open to any thoughts and or discussion on this topic. What I do know is that there is a REAL difference between browned out corals and sps corals that are light brown/tan that are suffering. These days, I rarely ever see someone with a true "browned out" coral that plagued the hobby 5-10 years ago. If anything, our tanks are quite clean and light is likely more than enough...in short - Dark brown corals are easy to help, light brown though, I'm lost.
 
Kind of confuses me as well.

Turd brown corals are from a high nutrient level and an increase in zooxanthaelle. Easy to color in a low nutrient tank with good lighting.

The tan corals seem to plague very low nutrient tanks that don't have much of a bio load and or don't feed much. When I ran a low nutrient tank with little feeding I would put them in low light so they actually brown out, and then expose them to better lighting. My current tank has more of a fish load with more feeding. I am able to leave them in good lighting and they slowly color up fine.
 
Kind of confuses me as well.

Turd brown corals are from a high nutrient level and an increase in zooxanthaelle. Easy to color in a low nutrient tank with good lighting.

The tan corals seem to plague very low nutrient tanks that don't have much of a bio load and or don't feed much. When I ran a low nutrient tank with little feeding I would put them in low light so they actually brown out, and then expose them to better lighting. My current tank has more of a fish load with more feeding. I am able to leave them in good lighting and they slowly color up fine.
I am dealing with this right now as well. Corals are pale or light tan in color. I'm running a BB system with 5 fish in a 30 gallon. Started dosing AA's and feeding very heavy. There was a noticeable difference in my corals coloring up. However, its a double edge sword as I am now battling some hair algae tufts. I have a huge skimmer and water quality is good. I feel I'm blasting my tank with a lot of light (250w Phoenix w\ electronic ballast), so I raised the light back up to 16" above the water surface. I am going to continue feeding my tank and will slowly bring GFO back online.

I really believe its heavy import and heavy export. Feed heavy, resulting in a good amount of fish poop and then skim heavy and keep up with water changes. Such a fine balance to maintain! One good indicator of being on the right track for me, is watching my red montipora cap. When it starts to pale out, I am nutrient deficient and when it starts coloring up and growing, things are more in line. It seems this coral reacts the fastest and is pretty hardy.
 
I agree with everything you say :)

There's something to be said for increased bacterial population as well. There is really no way to measure this but you know when you see a mature, established system. Do these systems provide more food for SPS or just an organic source of phosphate just enough to keep colors deep? I dunno :)
 
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