Wellso/Trachy Loss of Color

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

I've had this coral for about a year. When I got it it was a super rainbow color variation and now it has seemed to wash out over the past several months. I don't directly feed it at all. Only the occasional feeding of Red Sea's Reef energy or other phytoplankton and zoo plankton products to the entire tank.

It is sitting on the bottom of the tank which is 24" tall and the tank is lit by an ATI sunpower fixture. I am currently running three ATI blue plus, one ATI coral plus, one ATI purple plus, and one ATI actinic. Also have a Evolution EvoSlim all blue led strip. I've tried several different bulb combinations with no changes in color to this particular coral.

My display is 60" x 30" x 24"(187gal) and I also have a frag tank plumbed in so the total water volume comes out to around 250 gallons. I have been following Red Sea's dosing recommendations for SPS accelerated growth for about three weeks now and parameters are as follows:

Cal- 460
Alk- 8dkh(this is lower than what Red Sea recommends because I am using Dr. Tim's bio pellets)
Mag- 1390
Amm- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0
Po4- .03
pH- 8.1-8.2
Temp- 78°

Just looking for some insight on how to get the beautiful colors back that I once had. Is the only way to do so by spot feeding this coral or is there something that I'm not doing right other than that? Here are some before and after photos. The very bottom one is how it looks right now.

Flash on...

And now...

This is today all puffed up...

 

[Art13]

i would target feed it some mysid and try that out, that stuff you are broadcast feeding won't do anything for him. I usually target feed mine once every couple of days, i would try that out for a week and see what happens.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

Ok i'll try it out but sometimes I'm just too busy to do it. Lately he seems to be extending his feeders throughout the entire day. Sometimes I wonder if the tank just doesn't have enough nutrients....

 

[kurt_n]

I've never really had a coral stay the same color as when I've bought them. They always shift a bit color-wise as they settle in to the new tank. You could feed it meaty food in small pieces, but it seems like lighting is normally what effects the coloration. It's probably just a case of it adjusting to your lighting. It can take them a while to do that.

It doesn't look unhealthy in those pictures, so that's a good thing! How long has it been since you've changed your bulbs?

 

[Art13]

Let me know how the feeding works, my lps usually keep their colors, or they get a bit more vibrant, i also target feed them all though. May or may not have anything to do with it but worth a shot. My brain has always retained his solid colors, my train of thought, which could be wrong, but they have feeder tentacles for a reason, they really should be fed from time to time. only takes a quick minute or two, if you go in at lights out, hit the pumps off, take a squirter and shoot some mysid at the tentacles, give him a minute and turn the pumps back on. And your alk is fine, i keep mine at about 8.4 with no ill effects.

 

[geckoejon]

I have have a couple trachs. All 3 changed color to some degree after about a month of them being in my tank. I spot feed lps pellets and krill at least once a week.

2 of mine brightened up considerably, and one of them started to fade. I placed the one that was fading in the back corner in a shaded section for almost 2 months. It got all of it's colors back, and then I moved it back into direct light on the sand bed. I believe a lot of the color change has to do with the lighting. Maybe try putting it in a shady spot for a month or 2....

 

[Art13]

I thought about light as well, but there's two shrooms sitting next to it that i think for the most part hate high lighting, i would think they would look off before the trachy did.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

I've never really had a coral stay the same color as when I've bought them. They always shift a bit color-wise as they settle in to the new tank. You could feed it meaty food in small pieces, but it seems like lighting is normally what effects the coloration. It's probably just a case of it adjusting to your lighting. It can take them a while to do that.

It doesn't look unhealthy in those pictures, so that's a good thing! How long has it been since you've changed your bulbs?

I actually purchased the lights that it had been under, at the same time. I've kept the same bulb combination until about a month ago. Before, it was 5 ATI blue plus bulbs and 1 ATI coral plus. I've been experimenting with different bulb combinations lately for aesthetic purposes but this has been only over the past month or so, so I don't attribute this to any of the color loss.

The 3 remaining blue plus bulbs are going on eight months old now. I have three bulbs that were replaced about a month ago. 1 ATI actinic, 1 ATI coral plus, and 1 ATI purple plus.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

Let me know how the feeding works, my lps usually keep their colors, or they get a bit more vibrant, i also target feed them all though. May or may not have anything to do with it but worth a shot. My brain has always retained his solid colors, my train of thought, which could be wrong, but they have feeder tentacles for a reason, they really should be fed from time to time. only takes a quick minute or two, if you go in at lights out, hit the pumps off, take a squirter and shoot some mysid at the tentacles, give him a minute and turn the pumps back on. And your alk is fine, i keep mine at about 8.4 with no ill effects.

To be honest, I try not to feed the tank frozen food too often because when I do I seem to get algae outbreaks like crazy. That has been the main reason I don't spot feed. Now that I've finally beat my battle with algae this comes up.

It's been hard to balance the two. Lately I've been thinking I should just decide on keeping either only SPS or only LPS and softies. I thought I could do both but it seems that LPS needs a lot more nutrients than my tank currently has to offer.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

I have have a couple trachs. All 3 changed color to some degree after about a month of them being in my tank. I spot feed lps pellets and krill at least once a week.

2 of mine brightened up considerably, and one of them started to fade. I placed the one that was fading in the back corner in a shaded section for almost 2 months. It got all of it's colors back, and then I moved it back into direct light on the sand bed. I believe a lot of the color change has to do with the lighting. Maybe try putting it in a shady spot for a month or 2....

I've been hearing a lot about too much lighting from other forums as well. I have a perfect spot in the back corner with lower lighting where I would be able to spot feed it as well. I'm going to try feeding multiple frozen foods enriched with Reef Energy or other things similar.

 

[ReefCowboy]

This is a light issue. Feeding helps in case you have damaged tissue or other wounds. If the skeleton gets exposed due to reeceding flesh, the coral is on it way out( which is not the case, your coral seems healthy).
Ive had many if these guys and although you see them at stores under bright light, they are deep specimens, that need to be under indirect light.
Long term, little by little they lose color if are exposed to lighting that is excessive to their liking.
It will take a while, but if you place it at a spot with less light, it will recover.