SPS browning?

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

Hi, I have an SPS frag that was super white with blue tips when I got it and now it's completely brown. I don't know what it's called exactly but I'll ask my buddy tomorrow and post it up here with pics. I had it in my main display tank for about a month and in that tank I have elevated nitrates and phosphates(which I'm currently trying to correct). It was under 250w 14k halides but the bulbs were old. It's now in my 50 cube and the levels are pretty much perfect in it. Lighting in the cube is 250w 20k halide. Would it be safe to say that the high levels of nitrates and phos was the reason for the browning? Should I expect the frag to recover in the tank it's in now? I'm def pretty new to coral keeping, especially sps. Thanks for the insight in advance and if I'm posting this in the wrong place please move. Again, TIA

-Vince

 

[jesuses]

White is bad, it was bleached. It browning out at this point means its recovering. If all is well it should color up in a month or so. Leave it alone for now

 

[wickedfish]

Yep it's full of food and its coloring will comeback if you slowly remove excess nutrients from it habitat.

What actions are you tanking to remove nitrate and phosphate? Vodka? Macro algae? Large water changes with clean water? Feeding less?

You siphon your sand? Or do you have dead spots in the tank where food can accumulate? A tank needs any excess to be converted into energy and not waste. Once you find how to feed correct portions your tank will show you it's happy.

 

[StarBlenny]

Sounds about right. I once picked up a frag from a reefer and he was blasting his LEDs too high and the acro turned white but had a faint blue to it. Later on, it turned from white to all brown, to blue edges but still brown. Give it time, keep your levels in check and it'll recover.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

White is bad, it was bleached. It browning out at this point means its recovering. If all is well it should color up in a month or so. Leave it alone for now

Bleached? Really? Lol it looked pretty cool to me when I got it. I guess we'll see its true colors now. Thanks for the info.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

Yep it's full of food and its coloring will comeback if you slowly remove excess nutrients from it habitat.

What actions are you tanking to remove nitrate and phosphate? Vodka? Macro algae? Large water changes with clean water? Feeding less?

You siphon your sand? Or do you have dead spots in the tank where food can accumulate? A tank needs any excess to be converted into energy and not waste. Once you find how to feed correct portions your tank will show you it's happy.

Well I moved it to my 50 cube which has perfect water parameters. By perfect I mean no bad stuff and the right amount of good stuff. lol

In the tank it was in before I've added two frag tanks to it, therefore increasing the volume of water. Also, I've done several water changes, added reactors with carbon, de-nitrate, and GFO. I plan on plumbing in a fuge to it also. I know a fuge is pointless unless it's pretty big so that's just what I'm going to make it.

As for my sand, I don't siphon it at all. It's less than an inch deep and the CUC takes care of it pretty much. Sometimes I'll stir it up and let it get filtered out in a sock, but that's about it with that. As for dead spots, I have about 6000GPH going through the system which is 90 gal. So I'm pretty sure I'm ok there. I dunno?? And I feed once a day which I actually think is not enough sometimes. Oh and when I do feed, I have to try, hard, to get some down to the sandbed for the gobys because my fish eat it all before it gets anywhere near the sand.

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

Sounds about right. I once picked up a frag from a reefer and he was blasting his LEDs too high and the acro turned white but had a faint blue to it. Later on, it turned from white to all brown, to blue edges but still brown. Give it time, keep your levels in check and it'll recover.

Ya I know the guy that I got the frag from said he had accidentaly bleached out his stuff when he got his ATI fixture but I'm almost positive it's supposed to be white. I'm pretty sure it's the Ice Fire Echinata. If I'm wrong let me know lol

 

[ReEfErAdDiCt86]

When I first got it^^^

And now, the one on the far right.

So the other two are bleached?