Update on my acros frags, please advise what to do

[xdestry]

Hey guys so a couple weeks ago I went to reefapalooza in california and picked up a bunch of frags. I posted some pictures of them and took them again today to see how they were looking. Unfortunately all of them look markedly worse than they did when I first got them. I was hoping you guys could tell me which coral is getting too much light and which not enough. I am pretty new to sps so I can't really tell for a few of them. Here are my parameters and specs

http://imgur.com/a/pexHG#0


100 gallon tank

2x Radion Gen 2

[/IMG]

2x Vortech mp40wes - 95 percent reef crest 18 hours a day



Parameters
PH 8.1 - 8.3 during day/night
Salinity 1.026
Temp 77-78
Alk 9 Hanna
Calcium 450 Salifert
Mag 1400 Salifert
Nitrates 0.2-0.5 Salifert
Phosphate 0.00 Hanna


I have been having a lot of trouble keeping my alkalinity and salinity stable due to a problem with my overflow or return pump. If I turn the gate valve for the herbie too closed then my main DT tank level will keep rising while the ATO keeps filling in water, if it's too low theres a loud gurgling sound from air going into the standpipe. I haven't been able to get it steady for very long as it seems to vary in level every day. My alk swings slowly from around 160-170 ppm every couple days. The swings in salinity are slight too. I am keeping the frags on a rack about halfway in my 20 inch tank, so they are around 19 inches from the light.

So i know that swinging parameters can cause the corals to lose their color, but I was wondering how I am doing on the light situation. Do the corals look more like they are losing color from the parameter swings, or from either too much or too little light? A few pieces definitely look bleached but a couple others I am not sure are browning or not.

I will probably start another thread specifically asking about my overflow level problem, but if you guys have any ideas I would be interested to hear them. I have been trying to get the water level steady for 3 months now and still no luck. Thanks for your help!

 

[Greg11]

I'm running 2 radion pros 60% intensity mixed with 4 t5 bulbs over my 120gal SPS dominated and usually i do 1-2 months acclimation to LEDs because most of vendors keep them under MH and t5
I would start on the bottom for week or two and see what happens

 

[Greg11]

How big is your alk swing ?

 

[ajcanale]

Frags look relatively healthy, other than "yellow enchinada." Need to get those levels stable and make sure there are nutrients present. Also 70% might be a little too much light, especially with them losing color. I'd back them down 10-15% until improvement, if not permanently.

Aside from slightly cutting flow on drain, via valve, something else that helped limit flow and prevent sound was cutting a small piece of light diffuser (egg crate) and super gluing it on top. It seems to help establish a true siphon and also prevents anything large (snail) from entering drain line and potentially clogging.

 

[curthendrix]

Yellow ench looks gone. Other than that they look like frags settling into a new tank with new lighting and water chemistry.

 

[ycnibrc]

how many days do you have your frags? You need to consider the corals need time to adjust. They are from his tank go to reef palooza then go to your tank so a lot of changes. Base on your pictures I only see the coral lose a little color but over all health are ok.

 

[JB NY]

Corals need time to acclimate to your tank, it can take a few weeks or a few months. As long as they are not bleaching and have good polyp extension, I just let them be. Overall yours look fine, some are a little lighter but I wouldn't stress too much about it. Just remember, there is no guarantee that what they look like in one tank is what they will look like in your tank.

 

[tilo]

I find for mine, that if I let my filter sock stay in longer than 3-4 days my colors start to dull especially in my Cali Tort.

You might not be registering anything on your tests but your nutrient build up could be adding to your colors. I say this because of the amount of algae that is on the after pics of the plugs.

They look like they are acclimating to me.

 

[swk]

Update on my acros frags, please advise what to do

Tank looks pretty lean according to the test results. Maybe add some fish, or feed more to get no3 and po4 up. Zero phosphate is worse than high phosphate in my experience.

Some of my favorite SPS tanks have po4 from .03-.09 and nitrates from 2-10ppm.

All in all they don't look bad to me. It seems like they always lose a bit of color until they acclimate and start really encrusting and getting comfy. After that color return and they resume normal growth and whatnot

 

[xdestry]

Thanks everyone for your responses!

I'm running 2 radion pros 60% intensity mixed with 4 t5 bulbs over my 120gal SPS dominated and usually i do 1-2 months acclimation to LEDs because most of vendors keep them under MH and t5
I would start on the bottom for week or two and see what happens

How big is your alk swing ?

Thanks I'll try moving them down to the sandbed again, they were about a third of the way to halfway up before.

My alk swing is around 5 PPM per day which is a little less than 1/3 a degree of DKH, but sometimes the drop goes as high as 1 dkh in one day if my ato empties my ro water.

Frags look relatively healthy, other than "yellow enchinada." Need to get those levels stable and make sure there are nutrients present. Also 70% might be a little too much light, especially with them losing color. I'd back them down 10-15% until improvement, if not permanently.

Aside from slightly cutting flow on drain, via valve, something else that helped limit flow and prevent sound was cutting a small piece of light diffuser (egg crate) and super gluing it on top. It seems to help establish a true siphon and also prevents anything large (snail) from entering drain line and potentially clogging.

Thanks, the yellow actually looks a lot worse in the picture, in real life there is a very slight yellow tinge left so I don't think it's quite dead yet. The right site was STNing so I super glued it, that's why it looks like that. I have lowered my lights now by around 10 percent total less per day to start out. I'll try the egg crate thing and let you know how it goes.

how many days do you have your frags? You need to consider the corals need time to adjust. They are from his tank go to reef palooza then go to your tank so a lot of changes. Base on your pictures I only see the coral lose a little color but over all health are ok.

Corals need time to acclimate to your tank, it can take a few weeks or a few months. As long as they are not bleaching and have good polyp extension, I just let them be. Overall yours look fine, some are a little lighter but I wouldn't stress too much about it. Just remember, there is no guarantee that what they look like in one tank is what they will look like in your tank.

Only almost 3 weeks by today, so I guess not really too long. I was surprised by the strong color change though so I was worried.

 

[Greg11]

Try to make your alk stable 1 dkh swing in 1 day is not really what SPS like