Acropora Valida Question

[tdgates10]

I have had this guy for about 3 weeks and it's blue tips are gone and it's browned up. I just wanted to make sure it's not dead. This was the first sps to go into my tank and I'm still learning the stages. Thanks

 

[Herefishyfishy]

If not dead, pretty close to it.

 

[returnofsid]

From what I understand....from what Kevin's taught me, one of the reasons SPS tend to "brown out" is from too much light. It's the Zooanthelia algae growing at a faster pace because of higher light than they're used to. I'm sure I have this a lil' wrong and Kevin will correct me...lol. What kind of lighting do you have it under. A. valida is one of the lower light demanding of the Acropora species.

 

[tdgates10]

I got this one from kevin and he told me that it would brown up, but I wasn't sure if this is what it was suppose to look like. I have lower lighting, 3 x 150w halides with pc actinics.

 

[returnofsid]

Hmmmm, wait, it was lower lighting that would make it brown out because of the extra growth of it's "inner algae." lol. Kinda hard to have higher lighting than Kevin's tanks too...lol. Might try moving it as high as you can in the tank.

 

[tdgates10]

I have it right under one of the halides. It still might be adjusting from his 400w!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Do you see any live tissue on it? Any polyps that are even brown? I don't see live coral filled with browned zoanthelae, it looks like a dead stick with diatoms on it per the picture

 

[tdgates10]

It was polyping at night but I just got home from the weekend and all the wife does is feed and fill top off while I'm gone, so I'm not sure if it still is.

 

[colleen]

Could very well just be color change from light adjustment since it still has some color. Our purple robusta turned a drab beigy-brown for several weeks while it adjusted to our lighting.

Just don't do anything rash like we almost did. We had a poor little frag we rescued from a friend and after a couple weeks my husband and I were debating -- he kept saying "it's dead, I think you should pull it out of there". I insisted it hadn't gone white yet and wasn't showing coraline or any other obvious algae growth so I was going to wait a while longer.

One year later that little frag is now one of the most unique colonies we have (it's the mint green colony in the center). We just took a couple frags to Seattle this weekend and we're both very happy now that we were patient and it didn't get thrown out !

 

[tdgates10]

Well the lights just went out and the polyps are coming out very slowly. Not fully extruded like they were when I got him, but still it's polyping.

 

[returnofsid]

Polyps are good. The pic looks to me as if it's live. I don't seen any hollow polyp holes. I think it's just a light and zooanthelia issue. From what Kevin tought me, this isn't a sign of lack of health, just an adjustment to different lighting. Might help to feed the tank a Zooplankton and if possible, direct more flow to that coral.