Zooxanthellae vs Waste Expulsion

[bu11itt]

So being rather new to the reefing/coral keeping world I need a bit of clarification.

I know that when my LPS corals are stressed they can expel their zooxanthellea; which typically looks like long, stringy brownish stuff coming out of their mouths.

I also know (or at least think I do) that the only means for getting rid of waste from "eating" is also out of their mouths.

So my questions is how do we tell the difference (color, consistency, "deflation level" of the coral) between zooxanthellea expulsion and waste expulsion?

Thanks.

 

[elegance coral]

They typically don't discharge much in the way of solid waste. When they do, it will be the undigested remains of what was eaten. If they eat shrimp, it may be shrimp exoskeleton. If they eat salmon, the waste may be pink/red. They will not produce brown waste unless they ate something brown. We typically don't feed brown food, so if you see brown stuff coming out of the mouth of your corals or anemones, you can be fairly confident that it's zooxanthellae.

 

[rogersb]

Stop feeding and watch them. I stopped feeding mine and I no longer see anything being expelled. If you stop feeding and still see something being expelled it will probably not be waste.