Author Topic: Some corals are fading (Read 7039 times)

lightningfront · « **on:** January 16, 2009, 16:26:09 »

My tank had been up and running for a month now and I'm starting to notice some fading in the colors of some of the corals. I have a purple hammer that has kinda faded to pink, some zoas a friend gave me were darker green and they have faded to lighter greeen, some blue xenia has lost most of the blue tint, and a orange digi frag I got has faded to tan, and white in some places. They are fading but all the plolyps are out and active.

The lights are brand new 1 month use 12hrs a day 2 x 96W PCs 1000K and actinic. I use red sea coral pro salt. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are all 0. All the fish I have are doing great, just noticing color loss in some of the corals but not all. The darker red zoas I have, and the red and blue zoas, and the GSP all look good.

I'm making up a batch of water to do a 25% water change now. Any Ideas?

xXTheWendigoXx · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2009, 17:36:08 »

How big/deep is your tank? Amount and depth of water can really effect how effective your lighting is. More/deeper water requires more light. I think the recommended minimum is somewhere around 3 watts per gallon.

lightningfront · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2009, 18:47:00 »

its a 46 bowfront so it's over 4 watts a gallon. Tank 1s 16 inches deep.

jake · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2009, 19:27:41 »

I looked at it today. Has anyone ever got a bad bucket of salt? Or a bulb that fires put doesn't put out power? If so what was the results?

I couldn't nail it the fish are healthy the shrimp is the corals as far as the polyps are out. The hammer and frog are swelled and seem normal other than the colors. The above stuff is all I could come up with maybe. There was also a mystery substance that was on some of the rocks when he put them in.

lazylivin · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2009, 19:33:41 »

Can you check some of the other chemical levels such as Phosphate, PH or Alk and let us know?
Do you have just 2x96w 10k/actinic or 4x96w? The reason I ask is you cant necessarily count the wattage of the actinic. I am sure it contributes to photosynthesis but not terrible much.
Pale colors can occur from so many different things. I have had pale colors as well. The brown color for the SPS could indicate a lack of light.

jake · « **Reply #5 on:** January 16, 2009, 19:43:06 »

Its diff lazy than your thinking its not like it didn't color or looks diff like alot of people experience its something else. He has the same amount of light I have just pc instead of vho. I've not seen these combo of characteristics in a tank before. Thats why I was wondering if anyone had lights that were new that lite ,but produced no power or something.

lazylivin · « **Reply #6 on:** January 16, 2009, 19:53:36 »

Okay, gotcha. Wish we had one of those light par meters. Maybe when the club gets bigger and we get more dues we can buy one

jake · « **Reply #7 on:** January 16, 2009, 20:26:52 »

nice. Ya she mentioned the meter. I actual was telling him to try to get his hands on one.that would solve that light question for sure

Actually j I bet kevin cokly has one. If you can get him to let you use it. For his camera stuff he has to have one. I mean

lightningfront · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2009, 21:05:12 »

I don't know if the lights are the problem or not but i'm going to find out next week when my new lights get here.

I got tired of reading how PC lights aren't that good and what corals I can and can't keep in the tank, so I started looking at new lights. I was going to get a dual 150W HQI fixture but was concerned about the heat and the price so I decided on the Nova Extreme Pro Saltwater T5 fixture, 6x39W T5 bulbs 3 10,000K and 3 Actinic.

Sorry Jake I know you hate me.

UDJustin · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2009, 23:13:59 »

be careful while changing light fixtures you may do damage to your coral just by changing the fixtures you will have to ease them into it, or you will shock them.

lightningfront · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2009, 23:16:50 »

Quote from: udjustin on January 16, 2009, 23:13:59

be careful while changing light fixtures you may do damage to your coral just by changing the fixtures you will have to ease them into it, or you will shock them.

How is that accomplished? Do I run 1 fixture half a day the the new one half a day for a while or just run the new one for a couple hours a day and increase the light an hour a day or so?

UDJustin · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2009, 23:19:47 »

shorter light period during the day start out slow and work your way up to a full photo period, it is also suggested when changing bulbs not to change all at one time but to do one or two at a time depending on how many you have.

lightningfront · « **Reply #12 on:** January 16, 2009, 23:25:00 »

cool, thanks

MechanicalEngineer · « **Reply #13 on:** January 17, 2009, 00:33:35 »

The zooxanthellae will leave the host coral (causing lightening of the coral) if proper conditions aren't met. Zooxanthellae are photosynthetic, so they may be leaving the host coral for a number of reasons:

1. Too much light (which I highly doubt, as I'll explain later)
2. Running too much GFO
3. Too few nutrients (corals are starving)
4. Too little flow, so the nutrients aren't reaching the corals (keep in mind that most corals are about 95% photosynthetic.)
5. Stress from fluctuating temperatures (or too high/low temp)
6. Changing carbon source
7. Changing to an inferior salt mix (not enough trace elements)
8. Fluctuating salinity
9. Changing anything too often, too fast
10. Your tank is too new (my best bet)

First, PC's have earned a bad rep. It's not all about the lighting. I successfully kept SPS in a 40g under 4x65W lights (wouldn't recommend it, but I tried it...and it worked.) Second, "watts per gallon" is one of the worst things I've heard in this hobby. That tells you absolutely nothing about the lighting or the tank. How high are the lights? How deep is the tank? How high are the corals in relation to the lights? A better ratio is the wattage to the surface area of the top of the tank, but that's about the best we can get without a PAR meter.

If some of your corals are browning out, they could be getting too many nutrients and/or not enough light.

My best bet is that in all honestly, your tank is just not quite mature enough for corals yet. It takes a few months (even if you get lots of live rock, live sand, and water from a friend) for everything to even out and be a good system. I hate saying this, because this is the one that no one wants to hear, but it might be time to slow things back a bit. Throwing an SPS into a month old tank is just not ideal. I really don't recommend trying SPS in a tank less than a year old. Things just aren't stable enough.

There are just too many things that could be the source of the problem. Unless you've recently changed something that stands out to you, it may just be trial and error to find that one key trick. In the process, you'll probably change just about everything...and magically, it'll work again. You may never know what it was.

jake · « **Reply #14 on:** January 17, 2009, 01:25:53 »

*EDITED* - No personal attacks & WATCH YOUR SPELLING!!!

That halide wouldn't over heat the tank. Anyway its prob not the light. I am going with contaminated rock. With what I dont know. From that rock. I bet a weeky aggressive water change for help it alot.

cloran · « **Reply #15 on:** January 17, 2009, 07:29:16 »

You can't really go by the watts per gallon rule. 4watt per gallon of pc's is not the same as compared to 4 watt of MH. Also, my dad run 3x65 watts pcs on his 29, I run 1 175MH on my 20g high and he has to run a chiller and my temps don't ever go above 81. Being a 16" deep, you probally lose maybe 1/4 of your light by the time it hits the bottom. I've had corals brown and fade away, then come right back and double? I would definitaly check your phospate, alot of tank problems can be related to phospates.
Here's an article that might help on the subject;
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/feature.htm

lightningfront · « **Reply #16 on:** January 17, 2009, 10:16:04 »

Quote from: jake on January 17, 2009, 01:25:53

That halide wouldn't over heat the tank. Anyway its prob not the light. I am going with contaminated rock. With what I dont know. From that rock. I bet a weeky aggressive water change for help it alot.

Um.... Ya sure, I don't own a rooster

.

I thinking it's just a new tank still as some people have said. I'm gonna do the water changes and change the lights and hopefully everything will color back up in time.

I've been thinking about changing the lights anyways, this is just an excuse to do so, and from what I've been reading having a good T5 set-up like this is almost as good as a halide set-up so I should be able to keep any corals I want and not have to worry about them not getting enough light.

xXTheWendigoXx · « **Reply #17 on:** January 17, 2009, 11:33:06 »

Quote from: Reef'd Up on January 17, 2009, 00:33:35

Second, "watts per gallon" is one of the worst things I've heard in this hobby. That tells you absolutely nothing about the lighting or the tank.

Hey now, not suggesting it's the whole solution, but it's a good way to establish if there's enough light in the first place, regardless of other conditions.

jake · « **Reply #18 on:** January 17, 2009, 11:34:27 »

what is really funny is that I had my posted edited because I called your a ****got edited and yet you go and do it again?***** in a complete sign of affection.

Ya I just figured the halides would transfer to the 125 better was all.

micki · « **Reply #19 on:** January 17, 2009, 11:35:33 »

Seriously, it was kind of funny. Nothing to make a mountain out of...

lightningfront · « **Reply #20 on:** January 17, 2009, 12:45:09 »

Quote from: jake on January 17, 2009, 11:34:27

Ya I just figured the halides would transfer to the 125 better was all.

Ya, I know.

I'm planning on making a canopy for the 125 and I'm going to be makiing my own HQI/VHO setup and not going with a pre-built fixture. Planning on runniing 3 150W halides and 2 160W 6' Acctinic VHO tubes.

jake · « **Reply #21 on:** January 17, 2009, 15:29:54 »

I'd go 3 250w It wont be to hot if you leave the canopy top open. As far as HQI the problem is you have to have glass protected fixture to block the UV. With regular halide you dont. THey are not cheap fixtures. You can get a icecap that would do hqi/single ended bulbs for a little over $100

lightningfront · « **Reply #22 on:** January 17, 2009, 16:11:46 »

Interesting, I was thinking Halides and HQI meant the same thing. I didn't know there was a difference.

slandis3 · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2009, 16:16:26 »

halides are usually refered to as single ended bulbs. hqi are double ended and look like a halagen shop light.

jake · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2009, 18:18:28 »

But hqi (double ended) put out more lumen that a single ended of the same wattage. More bang for the buck ,but like I said the housings are $$ and a single ended is easy to make. Actual that one dude made is pimp sweet and seemed cheap. I've got a rivet gun if you need one

lightningfront · « **Reply #25 on:** January 23, 2009, 19:03:15 »

WOW, is all I have to say. I got my new light in today and put it on the tank. Corals instantly looked better in the new light. More vibrant colors. I'm going to just run 2 bulbs for the rest of today and tomorrow then switch to 4 bulbs for a few days and then up to all 6. Don't want to shock the corals.

lazylivin · « **Reply #26 on:** January 23, 2009, 22:43:22 »

My 2 cents on light acclimation. Don't change your photo period or reduce the number of lights that you have on. Instead purchase aluminum window screen from you local hardware store for a few bucks. Cut several layers maybe 5 to 6 to fit the top of the tank. You can lay a couple of small 1x1/2 strips of wood across the top of your tank to support the screen. It is pretty rigged but may need some additional support to not fall in the water. Add enough screen so light is approximately the same intensity as what you had with your PC's. This will allow them to get used to the new light spectrum first. Each week (or less) remove 1 layer of screen until you have no more layers left. This method worked for me but I am sure the method you choose would be okay as well but going to all 6 in one week is probably a bit to fast. Watch your corals carefully for any sign of stress and modify acclimation time and I am sure you will be fine. Good Luck and we expect to see some new pics when things get adjusted and fully colored up.

jake · « **Reply #27 on:** January 24, 2009, 11:16:48 »

So let me ask you this then. After adding the lights you dont think that the coral color was a perception issue between the 2 light set ups do you? if that makes sense

lightningfront · « **Reply #28 on:** January 24, 2009, 12:59:02 »

Quote from: jake on January 24, 2009, 11:16:48

So let me ask you this then. After adding the lights you dont think that the coral color was a perception issue between the 2 light set ups do you? if that makes sense

No doesn't make sense. If your asking if it was the color spectrum or intensity of the old lights that caused the corals to look faded, then yes I do believe that was the problem.

jake · « **Reply #29 on:** January 25, 2009, 03:09:43 »

I guess what I was getting at was if the lights fix it it will take more than a few day to turn things around. It was more than how the lights made the corals look they were faded correct?

Arcade_Guy · « **Reply #30 on:** January 25, 2009, 05:12:42 »

i think what jake meant was that it looked better because you had t5s on it and not pcs.. you'll probably notice a difference regardless... being "better" lights and all.

but in a couple days you should really see them color up even more, more so than what you see now.

if i'm even making sense lol

either way, i'd bet money on the new lights and a couple water changes totally fixing what small problem you had man.

2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

Author Topic: Some corals are fading (Read 7039 times)

MechanicalEngineer

cloran

slandis3