coral color

[big 5]

lfs has a tank full of brown sps - they run vho 12 hrs with 250 mh for 4 hrs a day
took home a green with pink tip table(brown at time of purshase) and another brown acro that is slowly turning purple with green polyps.
both in my tank for about a month and color is still not full
i run 250w hqi de 14000k right and a 20000k on left side
acro under 20k and table in center
is there anything i can do to speed up the color shift?
100g mantained with reactor alk at 12
10% water chage every week
my photo period is 10.5 hrs

[SueT]

big 5, I am guessing that these are wild colonies of acropora your LFS has. If so I am willing to bet that they may change back into some nicely colored corals but it may take them a lot longer than 1 month. Sometimes wild colonies can take up to 6 months or longer to acclimate to our reefs. The fact you have everything in good order such as water quality, lighting etc you may not have to wait that long. Trying to rush mother nature is something I don't know if we can do just yet.

I do think once they start coloring up for you it will happen fast. Good luck!!

[JB NY]

Hey Sue!

I agree with you that the colors stand a good chance of coming back. IME a key to look for is the color of the coral i the LFS. Many time if you look hard you can see an underlying color. example not everything look dirt of dead leaf brown, some corals look to be a red/brown or a grey/brown or yellow/brown. Those are the colors I generally look for when searching for those diamond in the rough acros that have browned out in the LFS. If you are patient they can really turn into some beauties.

Sue, What has been your expierence in newly acquired wild corals? Over the 1 1/2 years I've had great successes in keeping the basic wild colors, they darken up a little, but I have yet to have anything go from colorful to brown on me. I've been using a quick light acclimation period of about 3-5 days low in the tank before placing them in high lighting.

[SueT]

Hi Joe, how are you doing??? My LFS usually doesn't have wild acropora long enough for them to brown out. Someone is usually grabbing them up fast as he gets them in. Plus he usually doesn't bring in that many pieces either. In the last couple of years I have concentrated on captive frags so I haven't had any wild sps to deal with. I do remember quite a few diamonds in the rough though. I always have said I'd never buy any acropora cause of color just due to the fact I know they are going to do something in my tank.

I'll never forget the first person I emailed when I got into sps was John Rice. LOL.. I said something to him about a brown acropora and he replied he didn't judge an acropora on color. I felt so silly, but that has stuck with me.

When I was buying wild colonies I had great luck with keeping blues. If they came in blue they might shift a shade lighter or deeper but they always kept the blues.

[JB NY]

Doing great Sue.

I've had good luck with blues as well. Strong lighting helps a lot. I also find that 10K's work real well in keeping blues. I've got a small blue A. humilis that goes from grey/blue to bright baby blue depending on which way the wind blows. LOL



I've try to buy aquaculture corals as well. But sometimes I bend to the urge on a wild one. I do try to buy the Walt Smith aquacultured ones when I find one I like. I feel it a good cause he is doing and I've had great success with them.

[stang69]

The LFS here has started carring Walt Smith stuff and I have yet to see a piese that I wouldnt like to buy but alas I have no tank up right now but Walt is da man in my book. I seen pics of his operation somewhere with the nets and nets of aquacultured stuff and WOW!!! Good Luck with the colonies ya have. I would just sit back and wait like Sue said ya cant rush mother nature.



Jeff

[kevinpo]

4 hours of halide is too short. IMO you need a minimum of 8 hours to get the bright coloration you see in the tanks on the net. In testing I've done there was no development of better color with photo periods of greater than 10 hours of halide lighting.

HTH,
Kevin

[JB NY]

In testing I've done there was no development of better color with photo periods of greater than 10 hours of halide lighting.

Good, I'm at ten!

[Pomme]

im at 11 for a single 250 over a 100 gal, and then 6 for the main 250's. should i slowly increase 2 x 250's up to 8?

[Aries]

Hi...I'm not sure if I'm in the right section....but I have a question about the colour of my hammer coral. I've noticed that the arms are changing colour....becoming more transparent. The tips are still green and it's even growing a baby on the side....any ideas on the colour change? (I have good lighting and the water quality is good....

[zhenya]

Bleaching perhaps? Do you have a picture that you can post here, it would help a lot if we could see exactly what you are describing. Usually, Euphyllia's tentacles are tan/brown colored with contrasting color on the tips. However, judging from the description of this coral in "Aquarium Corals" by Eric Borneman, tentacles do have translucent quality to them. Hence, why I asked to see a picture.

[Aries]

Thanks for the info.
Here is the picture of the Hammer Coral. FYI I've recently added "Kick Ich" to treat our Yellow Tang of Black ich. The treatment says that it is safe for all corals/ reef tanks. Could this be the cause?
A PH buffer has also been added recently.

[zhenya]

Hi Aries,

Thanks for the picture. To my eye it does looks a bit bleached, as far as the cause I can't say for sure that it is Kick-Ich. I don't believe a buffer would be the cause unless you overdose severely.
I personally don't believe that any of this Ich medications are totally reef safe. You probably would be much better of isolating the fish in a quarantine tank and treating it there.
In any case, keep an eye on it and see how things progress. Do you feed it anything? It would benefit if you feed it couple of times a week with meaty stuff, like mysis shrimp or formula one(frozen cubes).Even some finely choped table shrimp, uncooked. I feed mine all that stuff and add some frozen type cyclop-eeze as well.

PS. You have said that you have good lighting but what exactly are you using for the lighting? It would help if we knew so that we could eliminate that possibility. Water parameters(if you tested recently) would be helpful as well.

[Poseidon]

Hi Aries, not to be negative but from that picture it looks to me you are lacking in the lighting. My Hammer has much shorter tenticles, usually when you see extension like that, it is the coral trying to grab as much light as possible. Maybe it is just time to replace the bulbs...

[Ninong]

FYI I've recently added "Kick Ich" to treat our Yellow Tang of Black ich.

By "black ich," I assume you mean turbellarian worms (Paravortex sp.), in which case a simple freshwater dip would have solved your problem.

[zhenya]

By "black ich," I assume you mean turbellarian worms (Paravortex sp.), in which case a simple freshwater dip would have solved your problem.

George, I keep telling my LFS guys to do the same thing when I see a yellow tang in the store covered with it. They keep doing the copper routine
What could possibly I know to tell them what to do...

[Ninong]

George, I keep telling my LFS guys to do the same thing when I see a yellow tang in the store covered with it. They keep doing the copper routine

They are probably confused by the inappropriate common name "black ich."

[kevinpo]

The Hammer (E. ancora) looks bleached to me. I don't believe it's a lighting issue though unless you have very low/short light intensity/photo period. If you could tell us what type lighting and how far away the coral is from it that would help eliminate that as a source for concern.

I would perfom a large water change and make sure calcium and alkalinity levels are near NSW (natural sea water). 400 ppm calcium and 2.97 meq/L (8.3 dKH) alkalinity.

Regards,
Kevin

[Aries]

Zhenya, Poseidon, Ninong, Kevinpo
Hello everyone who has been so helpful in regards to the hammer coral issue......let's see the conversation abou the kick -ich, yes, I ment turbellarian worms and the end result was once I was able to catch the tang (which was a task in itself) I did the fresh water dip and he's in a seprate tank for now.....spot free......As far as the lighting....I don't believe it's an issue.... I have a coralife compac system.......and the hammer coral placement......well....one is mid tank......the other is just a little lower.....(The tank is a 46 gal bow front, pics in my gallary I believe) the corals get full light and the one is even growing a baby on the side......so I don't know......as far as the bleaching.....what are causes of it and is possible to bring the color back if the problem is resolved.......(also.....because of the kick-ich treatment......the skimmer and filter have not been running for several days.......could that be an issue too?......It was a 15 day treatment......ugh.....
Everything else in the tank seems to be doing great.....

p.s.......you guys rock.......thanks for your suggestions and support......

[zhenya]

...(also.....because of the kick-ich treatment......the skimmer and filter have not been running for several days.......could that be an issue too?......It was a 15 day treatment......ugh.....
Everything else in the tank seems to be doing great.....

p.s.......you guys rock.......thanks for your suggestions and support......

Hi Aries,

Like Kevin had suggested, I'd do a nice size water change and make sure that your water parameters are in check, than try feeding your Euphyllia some small meaty food to help it along in recovery.
I certainly think that with your filter and skimmer not running for couple of weeks that water quality had detiriorated. Good size, or series of small water changes should fix that. Once your water quality is stable the coral should recover, I think.