Browned out sps

[Jay]

Hello:

 

Will browned out sps corals ever get back their color if the tank conditions are improved?

 

Jay

[Nyles]

Yes, given proper care and stability. My brown outs usually occur from light changes and slowly over time if I get them at the right output of light (depth in tank) they will slowly color up.

[reefhut]

Brown colonies will color up if conditions are right. However it is a slow process.

[impur]

Yes very slow. I have 4 brown outs right now that are finally starting to show color! Its pretty exciting to see the coral regain some of its prior beauty IMO, makes you feel good that you are providing it with a good environment to thrive.

[andy]

My luck with brownouts is very poor. Healthy corals do fine coming into my tank, brownouts end up RTNing.

[impur]

Since going from MH to T5s, i actually let my new SPS sit on the sand until they begin to turn brown. Then i start bringing them up slowely. The color comes back in a few months. This has been the only successful way i've been able to acclimate the new SPS corals to being so close to the sun, er brighter light.

[CCR]

I picked up a couple of brown outs really cheep in the past for they where large colonies. Most of then turned into incredible specimen's. One into an incredible try color i hadn't seen before. Now I agree with Inpur on slowly raising them to the light. Amino acids help to. Phosphates A no no. This is why on my next tank I will be pinning them,so they will be easy to move. If your getting polyp extension great sign:)

[dsoz]

Since going from MH to T5s' date=' i actually let my new SPS sit on the sand until they begin to turn brown. Then i start bringing them up slowely. The color comes back in a few months. This has been the only successful way i've been able to acclimate the new SPS corals to being so close to the sun, er brighter light.[/quote']

 

Are the T5 really brighter than MH? I thought you have a TEK 46. I have that same fixture. I didn't realize that it was so powerful. I have only been using either 2 or 4 bulbs (never all 6 at once, yet). I have some mushrooms and hairy mushrooms that look bleached. I wonder if I over-cooked them with my lights. I am going to move them tonight to a more shaded locaton. I hope that I can save them. Everything else seems to be doing fine.

 

dsoz

[impur]

I have the 6-54w TEK fixture. It definately blows the 250w MH i used to use out of the water. I see better growth under the T5s too.

 

I used to have no problem just putting frags in the tank under the MH. Now i have to shade them and move them up over the course of a few months.

[dsoz]

I am going to bring this old thread back to life. I have a purple/blue acro that I bought from Josh a couple of weeks ago. It is turning brown. And a couple of the tips are turning white.

 

Above it sais that with good care the brown color goes away. Obviously I am doing something wrong, and not giving good care. What exactly does "good care" mean?

 

I have a 45g long (same footprint as a 55g, only shorter), with a TEK 46 on top. I have 2 6500k, 2 actinic plus, and 2 true actinic bulbs. THe coral in question is about 7 inches below the water line, and is right next to (all doing fine) a false superman, a pink stlypora, a peach/orange something (looks kinda like the stlypora), a purple monti cap, an orange monti cap, and some others. I have given it some DT's phytoplankton, but each time I use the phyto, I get a cyano bloom that takes a week to get rid of. :( I have a powerhead near it, the water hits the back of the tank, then bounces over the shelf of SPS that I have, including the acro.

 

What else can I do? It was such a nice blue color before, now it is getting more brown each day. I don't want to loose it. Help me.

 

dsoz

[Chief]

Test your water quality. Are all of your levels 0 for phos, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. How is your Cal, Alk, and Mag?

 

Next thing to think about is what lighting was the coral originally under. Any change in spectrum may affect the coral. Look at how the tank was managed in the system that the coral came from. The tough thing about coral is that some species are very sensitive to changes in water quality and light spectrum. I have seen this time and time again from buying and swapping coral. A lot of it is trial and error. Through research, you can determine if your coral is getting too much light or too little. From there you can decide to move it higher or lower in the tank, give it more or less flow, and of course, the best water quality.

 

So ask the person you got it from to tell you about their system, lighting, how much flow it received, and where it was placed in the tank. I hope you can get your coral to color back up. It takes time and patience.

 

Jay

[Nyles]

I will note that I have a number of stuff from Josh too, and that my blue browned out as well, but everything else held color, its been a number of months since then and it it VERY SLOWLY coloring back up, on a side note I had high no3 at the time. Hope that helps... ?

[impur]

Remember Josh uses VHO lighting. Your T5s are WAY brighter. Try moving it down, letting it settle for a month or 2 and slowely bring it back up.

 

My blue tipped tenius i got from him is doing great, but i had moved it to the unshaded side of my tank on the sandbed and it started to lose the blue tips. Moved it back to the shaded side and its back to normal.

[dsoz]

Test your water quality. Are all of your levels 0 for phos, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. How is your Cal, Alk, and Mag?

 

 

I only have the basic test kit for pH (8.2), ammonia (0 mg/L), nitrite (0 mg/L), and nitrate (0 mg/L). I have not tested the others, but I only have a few small frags, and I have done 5g (10%) water changes weekly. Sometimes I have even changed 10g of water if it looked nasty.

 

There is a cyano problem, mainly for a few days AFTER I feed with DT's phytoplankton. I am starting to dislike that stuff. I even turn off all the pumps for an hour, and use a pipette (plastic eye dropper) to spot feed the SPS, featherdusters and the sandbed clam that I have. Then for the next two or three days I syphon out sheets of cyano... Is it worth it???

 

I will note that I have a number of stuff from Josh too' date=' and that my blue browned out as well, but everything else held color, its been a number of months since then and it it VERY SLOWLY coloring back up, on a side note I had high no3 at the time. Hope that helps... ?[/quote']

 

I am relieved to hear that even an "expert" had the same problem that I have. I will just give it time and the best conditions that I can. Hopefully it will come back to the nice blue color that it had when I got it.

 

 

dsoz

[Nyles]

LOL Expert... ??? Thanks for the compliment... I will point out that brown outs usually take a very long time to color back up, there is just to many variables, but I will point out to that when I buy things from under other lights I have issues with some specimens as far as color is concerned, when I buy things from 250 and 400 MH lights I tend to have the most trouble, when I buy stuff from Joels 1000MH system I have never had a color issue, I think as its been talked about in a lot of books the zooxanthellae may change to cope with the light change and you may have a different color coral forever sometimes (given you keep the same lights) I tend to see this mostly from the stores I get stuff fresh from the ocean, browns turn green, whites turn brown, so on, so on... You really never know, this is why its best to get stuff from local reefers with setups similar to yours. But thats just to keep it simple. Only maybe 1 out of 15 corals do I have color changing issues with. My biggest issues is buying a coral and getting home and realize I have the same coral already, its just a different color, and after a month... I have two of the same color coral.