Acropora coral

alarkins

alarkins

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Little Falls, Gauteng
This morning I saw that my hard coral colour was changing in a few places to a more green at the base with white tips - original pic atatched (little blurry as it was taken with my cell phone up close). Could this be as a result of insufficient nutrients? I am using Red Sea Coral Grow daily as the only additive here as advised by the LFS. The crab and filter feeders on the corals are doing well - should I be concerned?
 
Is it getting enough light and flow? What type of lighting do you have and where is it placed in the tank? What is the tank height? What are your water parameters - alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, pH, salinity?

Please post details of your set-up.
 
I had a look at the pic and the coral looks perfectly normal to me. The white tips would possibly be growth tips and a change in colour frequently occurs when lighting is changed or when corals are newly introduced to the tank, how long have you had this coral? That Red Sea Coral Grow would just add nutrients to your water, I'm not to clued up on the Red Sea product range but if it doesn't have amino acids in it then it is probably doing little in terms of growth with respect to sps corals.
 
Appreciate the response. Added the coral recently (20 December). The coral is on the right bottom of the tank (on the sand bed). Lighting is good (dual 54W T5 lights - white and blue) as well as high water flow. I was thinking about moving it higher into the rock as opposed to the floor to increase lighting. Tank height is about 60cm+ (basically nearly my whole are to get to the bottom - very technical reply that one)

kH alkalinity - 7-8
Calcium & magnesium- never tested as I don't have a test kit for this. Was thinking about that next
pH - 8.4
Salinity - 1.024

Anyway - just checking to make sure all is ok - us newbies over react sometimes :)
 
Come through to Idol, as we are just around the corner from you.;) I cannot see much from your pic.

More likely too much nutrient than too much. How new is your system?
 
Alright here is the bad news:

Sps require almost extreme levels of light, some are more forgiving (monti's) but that acro requires a lot of light. In order for it to survive and grow it would need to be right at the top of the tank if you only have 2 T5's, which also isn't really enough to keep sps.

You alkalinity is alright as long as it remains stable. The calcium test kit is almost essential when keeping sps as it is one of the main parameters for the particular coral. Your salinity is also a bit low for sps, I run my sps tank at 1.0265.

What are you using to measure your salinity?
 
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Thanks all - I thought my lighting was good enough - appreciate for the lesson :) Time to get accurate measurements for my tank as I have not done that :(

To measure salinity I am use the a floating hygrometer - not the most accurate but I have found that it under reads somewhat. Tank was started in September last year - 250L

Happy to move the little fellow to the top of the tank.
 
your going to need at least another 2x54w t5's for that size tank adding four more would really let your sps grow nice and colours pop but adding 2 more will do the job of keeping them alive and well,welcome btw;)
 
alarkins said:
waiting on the commercial factor to allow the purchase - along with a chiller :)
Click to expand...

Have you tried the fan route. I have never owned a chiller but a fan blowing over my tank during light on keeps my temp at 25 even on the hottest days and my fan is on the slowest setting. On the fastest setting it will take my water down to 19 even with 600w of heaters on.
 
The coral seems healthry but is browning from too many nutrients. I have managed to keep my temp in check this summer by only using one heater opposed to two slightly underated for my tank. In other words my 800 l system is only using one 300W heater. I will add another one once things start cooling down
 
Dymax Cooling Fan appears to be ineffective - I have not had a heater plugged in at all ever since building this tank as the ambient temp is more than adequate. Looking for a very quiet , stable method
 
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