asylumdown
New member
In the nearly two years that I've had this tank, I've had 5 Trachyphyllia corals and two scolymia corals. The tank is a 6'x3', 27-25" deep (depending on the sand depth) and is lit by 8, gen 1 radions. That radions run a custom program, maxing out at 75% overall intensity with all channels at 100% for 3 hours every day, with the balance of the day cycle being a ramp up in intensity from about 18K then back down, so the white red and green diodes are on at some level of intensity for pretty much the entire day.
The tank is SPS dominant, and so far every species of SPS I've put in has thrived. Some corals go through a several month temper tantrum as they adjust to the LEDs, shifting colours up to 4 times before they decide what they want to be and really take off in growth, while start sending out new growth within a couple of weeks.
However, I have zero success with Trachyphyllia, Scolymia, all chalice corals, and many of the Acanthastrea species in this tank. Out of the 5 Trachyphyllias I've had, only two are still alive/with me, and none of the chalices or scolies are still around.
The pattern with them is always the same - trachies and scolies bleach over the course of a month until their colours are a faded pastel; deep reds become light pinks, greens practically turn white, and when the corals is expanded, it's flesh becomes borderline transparent. With scolies, this is then followed by slow tissue recession where skeletal fins burst through the tissue, followed within a month by complete tissue loss. This takes place regardless of where they're placed, though it's much, much faster if they're not placed on the sand bed. For reference, here's a comparison pic of a scolie that went from a pico tank, to a tank lit by radions:
Before:
After:
I thought it might be a water quality issue, so with a mid sized chalice colony, I placed half in the shade of an overhang, and half exposed to light. The bleaching (which eventually killed it) took place primarily on the portion exposed to light, you could actually see the line of the shadow after about a week. I tried the same thing with a larger trachie, and had similar results.
In the spring, I took my last remaining Trachyphyllia specimens and a few acans frags that were limping sadly along in the big tank and placed them in a 4 gallon pico tank, lit by a single Kessil A150 Ocean Blue, hung about 12 inches above the actual corals, so a pretty decent amount of light. It took over 2 months, but they all completely recovered their original deep, radiant, lustrous colours. They also started growing, so I had to sell one of the trachies because 4 gallons is not a lot of space to play with. I broke that tank down at the end of the summer and moved all corals back to the big tank, either on the sand bed or partially shaded, and every single one of them quickly returned to a bleached out, nearly transparent state. I set that pico up again a couple of weeks ago and they're already starting to recover in it.
So here's my question:
Is this a common experience? Euphyllias thrive under my radions, as does the one Australian Blastomussa colony I've got. SPS grow like weeds, and have incredible coloration. It's clearly not LEDs per se, as the bleached specimens recover just fine under a different LED fixture, but the lights they do well under are more heavily weighted towards blue and have no red or green diodes. I thought this must mean they were simply deep water corals, but a bit of reading reveals that trachyphyllias are typically shallow water corals, so in the wild they're exposed to a stronger, warmer colour temperature with at least some red in it.
Any thoughts?
The tank is SPS dominant, and so far every species of SPS I've put in has thrived. Some corals go through a several month temper tantrum as they adjust to the LEDs, shifting colours up to 4 times before they decide what they want to be and really take off in growth, while start sending out new growth within a couple of weeks.
However, I have zero success with Trachyphyllia, Scolymia, all chalice corals, and many of the Acanthastrea species in this tank. Out of the 5 Trachyphyllias I've had, only two are still alive/with me, and none of the chalices or scolies are still around.
The pattern with them is always the same - trachies and scolies bleach over the course of a month until their colours are a faded pastel; deep reds become light pinks, greens practically turn white, and when the corals is expanded, it's flesh becomes borderline transparent. With scolies, this is then followed by slow tissue recession where skeletal fins burst through the tissue, followed within a month by complete tissue loss. This takes place regardless of where they're placed, though it's much, much faster if they're not placed on the sand bed. For reference, here's a comparison pic of a scolie that went from a pico tank, to a tank lit by radions:
Before:
After:
I thought it might be a water quality issue, so with a mid sized chalice colony, I placed half in the shade of an overhang, and half exposed to light. The bleaching (which eventually killed it) took place primarily on the portion exposed to light, you could actually see the line of the shadow after about a week. I tried the same thing with a larger trachie, and had similar results.
In the spring, I took my last remaining Trachyphyllia specimens and a few acans frags that were limping sadly along in the big tank and placed them in a 4 gallon pico tank, lit by a single Kessil A150 Ocean Blue, hung about 12 inches above the actual corals, so a pretty decent amount of light. It took over 2 months, but they all completely recovered their original deep, radiant, lustrous colours. They also started growing, so I had to sell one of the trachies because 4 gallons is not a lot of space to play with. I broke that tank down at the end of the summer and moved all corals back to the big tank, either on the sand bed or partially shaded, and every single one of them quickly returned to a bleached out, nearly transparent state. I set that pico up again a couple of weeks ago and they're already starting to recover in it.
So here's my question:
Is this a common experience? Euphyllias thrive under my radions, as does the one Australian Blastomussa colony I've got. SPS grow like weeds, and have incredible coloration. It's clearly not LEDs per se, as the bleached specimens recover just fine under a different LED fixture, but the lights they do well under are more heavily weighted towards blue and have no red or green diodes. I thought this must mean they were simply deep water corals, but a bit of reading reveals that trachyphyllias are typically shallow water corals, so in the wild they're exposed to a stronger, warmer colour temperature with at least some red in it.
Any thoughts?
