Coral Health

[danjen10]

How do I assess issues with my SPS corals? What are the likely issues that I might see or are most common? I have tried to read a lot but there are still more questions than answers for me. I have ordered some of the recommended reading.

Would you mind giving me your feelings on the health (from the pic) of this coral?

[Fly Guy]

How long have you had that coral???

It looks a little browned out......the true color of that coral could very well be a bright beautiful color, but due either to insufficient lighting or excess nutrients in the water column it appears brownish. There is also no plyp extension to speak of.

If you never see more polyp extension than you see in that pic, i would say that coral is not very happy at all

you can see where it has parts of it that are a pretty greenish or buisih...i woudl guess that those brighter colors have been getting less and less prevalent by the day...i could be wrong....but thats my guess

[danjen10]

I have had the coral for about 2 months. My picture taking is not that great. Some things are just hard for me to capture as I see them in person. The coral has blue/purple tips. It had them when I got it and still has them now ... not much change. The coral has grown in the past 2 months. The 1st pic is when I got it and the second was today. Please keep in mind that my ability to capture true color is marginal.

Please see below.

My lighting is pretty good. I have 3 150W MH @ 10k and almost 400W total of Atinic's. They run about 8 and 10 hours a day respectively.

What should I do to get more polyp extension ... more water flow?

[danjen10]

Anyone else have any thoughts on my questions? Thanks

[ChrisPrusha]

What's you Ca/alk/pH looking like?

[danjen10]

CA is 450
Alk is 9 dKH
pH is about 8.3
Temp is 78 now and ranges from about 78-80. In the summer it gets to about 82 max.

Of course all these move slightly but overall that's where they stay.

I add B-ionic Mg to maintain 1350-1400 and B-ionic 2 part daily for the alk and Ca

Phosphates are zero, silicates are zero. NH3 and nitrite is zero and nitrates have ranged from zero to 5ppm.

All tests are done with Salifert.

Thanks

[Fly Guy]

well i can say your first pic threw me for a loop. That is a sweet coral with awesome colors.

I still think the lightish brownish color at the core of the coral looks funny, but that very well just might be the pic again...........are you using a flash???

Your water parameters all seem great with the exception of that nitrate number hitting 5 very often. That wouldnt matter a bit if we werent talking about sps

Do you have any nuisance algae growth in the tank??? I only ask that becasue saliferts phosphate test really isnt all that great. It doesnt read low enough to claim anywhere near "zero"

What kind of lighting and flow do you have in your tank??


Have you ever noticed better polyp extension than it seems to have now??

[ChrisPrusha]

Wow, those water parameters look great!

Can you experiment with flow?

[danjen10]

I mis-typed in the last email ...

Nitrate is 0.5 .... just barely pink through the side of the test vial. I use only RO/DI water.

I have not had any algae issues except what collects on the glass. I have been cleaning every other day so yesterday I bought some Seachem Phosguard (250mL) and put it in a bag near the return pump. I used about half what was recommended for my tank size. I figured it was best to be conservative....

My lighting is a Coralife Aqualight Pro 72". That fixture has 3 150W MH's @10k and 4 96W Atinics. I run the atinics about 10 hours a day and the MH's about 8 hours a day.

I also have a refugium that has several types of Caulerpa and some Chaeto. That helps with the Nitrates. The lights down below run on the reverse cycle. I was told that this helped keep the pH constant.

My flow is from 1 Quiet One 5000 circulation pump, 2 Seio 820's, and 2 smaller powerheads (one in the main tank and one in the refuge.) There is also a pump on my Coralife superskimmer 125 but I cannot recall the flow. I seem to have pretty good water movement in the tank.

I know this was a long email ... any thoughts from here?

[reefermike1]

looks good to me, but i know nothing about sps!

[Fly Guy]

Is that light brown tan color all up the core of the coral an accurate representation in the third pic??

If it is and you look closely what does the flesh look like there?

[danjen10]

Here is a pic that is pretty accurate ... although it still misses some of the purple in the tips. I think the flesh you are talking about looks good but i'm not sure exactly how to describe it? It's not white or dying... I don't see any red bugs and from what I have read that would be obvious. Hopefully i'm right on that...

[gwaco]

looks good to me ! you have growth so thats good . your bound to get some lightening on areas that don't recieve the same amount of light . the coral will go thru changes as it grows , you may even have some areas that die off , due too shading as it grows . some corals that are very "crowded" so to speak will have some die off in the center as the branches continue to grow , reducing light and flow to those areas .as long as it continues to grow and theres no massive tissue loss and you have p.e. it should be fine . also remember that no two corals grow at the same pace either so don't judge one coral based on another ones growth .