some SPS losing a bit of color....

[Skeptic9962]

most everything is doing great that i have but a select few are just not the same color as they started off as...my tricolor used to have about 3/4 in. purple tips and green body and now its only like 1/4 in. tip of purple and the rest green (growing?) another one was my seattle sparkler that is pretty much browned out totally...i moved it up a bit today hope that helps a bit...my params are...

Ph. 8.3
salinity 1.026
Calc. 400
alk 9dkh
amonia. 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 15 (high and still working on this....) could this be the big problem?
Phos. 0
temp 79-80
mag. 1300

ive been doing 10 gal water changes with IO salt and buffered up for alk/calc trying to get nitrates down so been doing 2 10 gal changes a week.



my best guess would be the nitrates....would 15ppm nitrate cause some corals to start loosing color after a bit of time?

 

[Skeptic9962]

today i was looking real close up at one of my acros and found RB on it....only saw 1 so i checked all my acros and didnt see anymore but just one is too many....and where you can see 1 im sure theres 20 more somewhere..what is the best safest route of getting rid of them? i know interceptor is the route that everyone seems to go with...so im sure RB is a big contributor to color loss and polyp extension...

 

[BCT182]

while its up in the air, but most believe RB casues polyp recession, I dont think its a source of bleaching. How long have the frags been in the system? Sometimes a transition can cause a temporary color shift.

 

[kevinpo]

My guess is that niether the red bugs or the nitrates are responsible but rather changes in light spectrum or intensity. The coral that has browned I would move to a location higher up closer to the lights.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Skeptic9962]

ah ok i havnt had any lighting changes....i know that my ORA blue milli was a nice blue at BRA and brought it home and put it in my tank and after about a week it got a bit brown and now its back to its nice blue color...but the tricolor i have that is the one im most worried about i got from tracy about 1.5 months ago..and for the first month it was very nice purple and green but now it seems like it might be getting a bit too much light possibly....but i cant see 150w halide and 4 t5s being too much light for it was told to put most of my corals up higher...its curenty directly under the MH about 8" deep in the tank...and the bottom 3" or so is a nice rich green and the tips are a nice purple but about 3/4" off each branch is starting to get a light baige color.... is it bleaching? ill get a pic up asap and show you.

 

[Skeptic9962]

here is when i got it 2/20/08

here is now

 

[kevinpo]

the tricolor i have that is the one im most worried about i got from tracy about 1.5 months ago

What lighting and position was it under then? If it wasn't the exact same as the current condition then that is the likely cause of the color change.

From the picture it looks to me like it's getting to much light but I can't be sure. I would lower it and move it off to one side. It looks like an Acropora valida which can be grown (with good color) under PC, VHO, or T-5's so it's what I consider a lower light Acropora.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Skeptic9962]

im not too sure what type of lighting tracy has ...i moved it down to the middle of the tank today and hopefully that will be a good spot for him..we will see thanks for the advice

 

[roscoe]

tracy runs 400w. so your 150 definately isn't giving it enough light then maybe.