Acropora frag - okay?

[Tafelsout]

Hi all

I got a small acropora frag about 25 days ago. The frag was brown when I got it from my lfs and it is still brown. There is some polyp extention, but I am not sure if it is full extention.

Does the frag seem okay? Sorry for the poor quality pics. Having a hard time taking pics with my lights (LED).

Thanks in advance.

 

[Henkie]

Polyp extention usually means a happy coral

If you don't see any signs of stn or tissue coming off(rtn) the frag should be in good health

But to answer the question the frag looks fine, just give it time to settle and colour up

 

[Tafelsout]

Hi all,

Can't believe it's almost been a year since this post.

Anyway, this frag has not done much since then. There is no stn or rtn that I have noticed. I also have not seen any pests.

There has been minimal growth since then and it is still brown. There was a stage during July 2016 that the frag did turn slightly purple:

I did moved the frag to a different spot and since then the polyp extention has been much better. This was months after the frag turned brown again.

My parameters has been as follows:
Temp: ranges between 24.7 and 25.3 (Usually around the 25 mark when i check). This the low and high point as I use an STC 1000 to manage the temp.
Salinity: 1.025 every time I check it (and yes my refactometer is calibrated)
ph: moves between 8.2 and 8.4
Alk: it's been between 9.9 dkh and 10.1 dkh
Cal: over the last 2 months is been around the 420 ppm level. The low level being 410 ppm and high level being 430 ppm. I started dosing some amino acids over the last 2 weeks and it seems calcium consumption increased by 40% so I am still trying to get this to a stable level again.
Mag: Do not really test as I do weekly 10 liter water changes. I did test it tonight and it was at 1360 ppm.
No3: been around 1.40 to 1.90 over the last 5 months.
Po4: been on 0.04 ppm over the last 5 months.

Here is a pic of the coral as of today

Is there anything else I can do/stop doing to get this frag to show some colour?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Regards,
Joe

 

[Lele]

I think that all depend of the intensity of the light. Pink-purple coral prefer light around 360nm. more warm yellow-green i should say. This is probably why in summertime the frag changed color. Remember that sps will adapt their color to the light wavelenth available within the tank. If you can you can try sperimenting with the light color but to see results it will take months..... as the other blogger told you, polyp extension is a good thing.....

 

[irie ivan]

Sometimes frags simply do that. It can take up to a year. When they do then take off, its a steady growth until they reach about double their original size. When they hit that, around 3cm, growth spurt occurs with exponential geowth on the tips you see now.
If you have other acropora species and their growth is also slow, i would look at your flow, increase the amino dosing and perhaps investigate the colour spectrum of your lights.
What are you testing PO4 with?

 

[irie ivan]

360nm more yellow green? Huh?

 

[Lele]

Irie Ivan, thanks for the correction, my bad. Wavelength mistake in nm , I was just trying to help.

 

[Tafelsout]

@Lele thanks

@irie ivan thanks to you too. I do have another acropora in my tank. The growth on the other is better than this one. The base has started to encrust the plug (has good polyp extention too). I think I have only had the other one for 3 months or so.

As for flow I will try and increase it more and see what happens.

I have 2 different led units over my tank. One is 16k and the other is 12k-ish. This frag was under the 16k and then I moved it to the side with the 12k.

I test Po4 with the Red Sea phosphate pro test kit and verify it at my lfs. They use the Hannah checker.

Thanks again to you both for advising

If you guys need any other info let me know. I want to get rid of the name my gf gave it: acro-bore-her

 

[Tafelsout]

Hi guys

Just thought i would give an update on my acro progress, This is a frag i got a few months ago. Its a lumo green acro.

Day i got the frag

Took this pic in Saturday

Any recommendations will be appreciated if you see a problem.

Thanks.

Regards,
Joe

 

[2una]

Sometimes they can just be dogs & stay dull but blues/purples like a bit of iodine & it gets depleted.When it showed purple any chance you were doing a bit more water changes then?
These here you can just throw in a bag in the sump & they slowly release K + I + F, last for a couple of months ,would be an easy way to see if it's that for colouration.
https://www.jungleaquatics.net/onli...tassium-Iodide-Fluoride-Concentrate-p45785099

Other than that like Ivan says more flow & if your po4 is right & its still brown try moving it up more

 

[Tafelsout]

Hi 2una,

Thanks for the feedback. I do use Red Sea colours a to d. I dose about 0.3 ml of a,b and d once a week. I dose less of c (iron) - around 0.15 ml.

Ja, i used to perform 20 litre water changes back then, but reduced it to 10 litres some time during August 2016. I could not get any readings on no3 then and phosphates was around 0.02 ppm.

I did increase the flow substantially since then and i moved the frag. There is some green appearing on the tips but nothing major. I will post a pic when i get home.

Regards,
Joe

 

[Tafelsout]

@2una

Here is the pic - not very clear but you should be able yo see the colour on the tips