Coral seem VERY Happy, yet losing color. Mystery is afoot...

S

shift9k

Member
Going through a bit of a diatom bloom (as expected with a new tank)

I bought a couple of frags at the CMAS swap (torch, acan, zoa)

Now they've been in the tank for a couple of weeks, they are all wide open full PE and seem to be doing well. All placed on the sandbed, with the hydras set to a 50% reduction two month acclimation.

However, the torch is losing its deep maroonish color and getting lighter at the very tips to about halfway down the tentacle. The Acan's seem to be doing great, no color loss. The LA lakers seem to be getting pale. I have a small two headed duncan which seems to be reaching for the light halfway up the tank.

So much contradiction, they all look very healthy, they were all dipped in revive before introduction.

The color loss is perplexing, some of them are doing well, one is reaching and the others are losing color!

HELP!

Tank: Red Sea Reefer 250
Lighting: 2 hydra 26 HD

Tank Params:

Temp: 78.7-79.2 (recorded over a week)
Salinity: 35ppt (ATC refracto/calibrated with fluid)

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2ppm
PH: 8

(red sea test kits)

Phosphates: 0 (undetectable)

(salifert)
 
you mentioned new tank, just how new are we talking about? any fish in the tank? do you feed your corals? dose any aminos? can loss of color just be a visual thing to you because of your light being dimmer than when you saw them at CMAS under higher light?
 
Tank is 2.5 months old. Just a pair of small clowns (doing very well). Color loss observed over 2 weeks.

No dosing of any sort yet. Have fed them maybe once during the two weeks. Really have been focusing on nutrient control. Skimmer is pulling dark gunk.

Experienced for the most part in reef keeping and general trouble shooting but this is my first go around with LED's.

This diatom bloom is medium to heavy so I'm guessing some of the tests might be false positives.


Ran carbon for a week and then removed it thinking it might be pulling nutrients from the water column causing the color loss.
 
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What is your calcium level, alkalinity level and magnesium level? Running carbon can strip essential trace elements from your water. Besides dosing 2 part I also add once a week aquavitro Fuel, just don't over do it
 
Currently not dosing anything, the tank is still really young, doesn't have much in it.

I've been using water changes, 10% every week to replace/maintain levels.

My lighting (which I think might be the culprit) I've cut down from 9hrs a day down to 3-4hrs

Thinking maybe this cut back might help with the diatoms and maybe give the coral much needed respite. I might be wrong here but these new led's are damn strong even running at 50%.
 
Diatoms is considered new tank syndrome, I think everyone goes through it, they eventually will go away with good skimming, regularly scheduled water changes and a clean up crew of scarlet hermit crabs, trochus snails, Nassarius snails and cerith snails. I would also start to increase the time of lighting schedule and intensity, go slowly when increasing intensity. With what corals you do have they don't require intense lighting like sps do. Once you see the corals pulling back you know you've exceeded the limit. But definitely increase the amount of time the corals get light. If you have to decrease the intensity and raise the hours the corals get light. This is my opinion
 
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I also agree that it's probably not the light but just tank being new and need time to mature. Your corals probably came from tanks using LEDs so you shouldn't need to acclimate them for 2 months.
 
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