SPS Coral maybe not bleaching

[jonnywater]

WTH!!! I have a brown, green and purple tip acropora. I fed the thing (things) what I usually do just yesterday. I grind up about a teaspoon of cyclop-eeze in a cup of my tank water and then add one cap of DT's phytoplankton about an hour later. The thing looks like it is nearly losing its pigment. Which I dont get because the polyps are all out and HUGE. Which is normal. Maybe just the feeding or something??? To my understanding if it is going to bleach, the polyps usually go first.

[Twitterbait]

Stop feeding, SPS like very clean water, bright light, and good flow. I wouldn't bother with feeding.

[Geoff]

why are you feeding them? not to say that this is the problem, but i never feed my SPS. they get plenty from the blender mush i feed the rest of the tank and the light from the MH's.

SPS colouring is still a bit of a mystery. with all of the symbiots living in the tissue and figuring out which ones will be the more dominant is still not completely known.

in general if the light is not strong enough they will turn brown.

if the lighting for you system is completely different than the one from which the coral came from than the coral could bleach out to get some symbiots that will be more effective in your environment. this is whey corals can change colours between systems.

G~

[Casey]

Stop the feeding its not needed.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by Geoff

why are you feeding them? not to say that this is the problem, but i never feed my SPS. they get plenty from the blender mush i feed the rest of the tank and the light from the MH's.

SPS colouring is still a bit of a mystery. with all of the symbiots living in the tissue and figuring out which ones will be the more dominant is still not completely known.

in general if the light is not strong enough they will turn brown.

if the lighting for you system is completely different than the one from which the coral came from than the coral could bleach out to get some symbiots that will be more effective in your environment. this is whey corals can change colours between systems.

G~

Good advice. Especially the later half.

I've had a couple SPS's totally shift color on me. I'm talking about going from green to blue.

And then there are just some that are close to white. I have an encrusting Monti that looks truly bleached during the day, but at night...out of the white, comes thise pink polyps. ANd it's been like this for 5 months. And it's growing.

sometimes, the corals pigment serves a similar function as Sunblock does for us. If the corals not under as intense lighting as it used to be...it doesn't need as much UV protection. This can result in a fading of color too.

Many reasons.

But my gut says...if you're getting good PE...I wouldn't worry too much.

oh..and I'm with everyone else on the feeding thing. Normal tank feeding will increase populations of the pods/micro bugs/critters that the corals munch on. That and sufficient light will provide them with all the food they need.

DT's oyster eggs are good for SPS corals though (IMO). And dropping in a very small amount from time to time (and shutting off the skimmer four a couple hours) is about the only feeding *I* do for my SPS's.

good luck, and hope all's well.

[jonnywater]

AMAZING that no one got it right. LOL. Point one is that you are supposed to feed them. If you feed them the right thing, you can actually watch their polyps open and close like mouths. Also the color of any SPS being brown - has about 10% to do with the illumination. Nothing else. Guess thats why I have had mine 3 months and it has divided into 4 seperate colonies already.

My alkalinity was about .30 higher today then it has been kept for the last eight months. I did a partial water change and the pigment is starting to come back.

[jonnywater]

Also this.....

"why are you feeding them? not to say that this is the problem, but i never feed my SPS. they get plenty from the blender mush i feed the rest of the tank and the light from the MH's."

Is about the oddest thing that I have ever seen. I guess you could just say that your SPS are accidently getting food. Because the sentence is kind of an oxy-moron. You are still feeding them. Here let me change my facts on the matter. I am feeding my softy corals, but the SPS corals just happen to be getting some of the food.

[Twitterbait]

If you feed your corals it increases the waste in your tank needlessly. the corals only need light and the symbiotic algae will create the necessary nutrients for the coral to grow. feeding will increase your phosphates, nitrates, etc... when you don't need to. Please use a little more caution in coming back and telling everyone they are wrong. I would really think twice before saying that to some of the old salts we have around here, especially people who know their coral as well as Casey, skeety and Geoff... You may be asked for documentation.

[jonnywater]

Contrary to the belief of nearly every single living marine biologist on the planet, I guess corals really dont need food. Do you have any idea at all what the "zoo" inside of the corals do for them? The coral provides the zoo with food, which in turn the zoo provides the coral with co2. Its whats called a symbiotic relationship. If it was merely the zoo feeding the coral, it would be called parasitic. Can I recommend some light reading. There is a book called Hard Corals by Jim Faetherree. That would be a good place to start.

Saying that Corals do not need food, is like saying that humans do not need food. As for insulting the "old salts" - I have degrees from Tulane, Loyola and Keys Marine Biology School (I am only 26). The amount of money that I spend may be pointless, but lets just say that my testing equiptment alone is worth more then 12 grand (I barely spend any on livestock). Also just FYI. A single 3-5 inch acropora can consume the same amount as a 5 inch long clownfish in a freeze dried form in under 25 minutes. I guess they dont eat though.

[Twitterbait]

You talk really smart.... But i don't feed my coral a single thing and never have... and they are all growing fast and have incredeble color... I'll take results over degrees any day. There are countless people out there with the same results and procedures as well. It is important to remember that even though we can feed them, they don't need it. in a closed aquarium system it can cause big problems to feed on a regular basis. that is my main point. what you decide to do is your choice. just don't knock people when their procedures have had spectacular results.

[Casey]

Lets just say we do what works for our tanks and you do what works for yours.Degrees dont impress me. sorry.

[jonnywater]

On this quote and the one beneath it. Let's just say that I would rather propogate 10-13 new colonies a month from 12 different corals and use them to get other new corals and pay for merchandise for my aquarium. That's just me though. I like using store credit and watching my corals spread faster then anything I have ever seen. However in the ocean, new acropora coral colonies are formed by the 100's from probably 50 different acros every month (in a single area). I am about on that target with that.

Hey, if I want my corals to grow quicker, as in split/form new colonies over a period of weeks instead of a year - I tend to stick with what nature does.

[wharyat]

Sounds like you got it figured out.

Other people do things differently and get more than positive results. I feed my tank 1/4 teaspoon of newly hatched brine every week to two weeks; I consider my results and growth-rates good (approx 1/2" a month in the faster growing acro colonies).

[Mike O'Brien]

I think we all can agree that coral's need food to meet requirement's that they cannot provide for themselves. The question is wether or not targeting them directly is needed or not. IME sps will get the food they need from the tank, just from bacteria, fish food and fish waste.

These coral's do come from very clean water's that are low in DOM, but that water is chock full of food item's and fish waste that is consumed by the reef. Fish waste is literally raining down on the reef all day and at night plankton dominate.

[VWD]

I think this hads been covered already. Won't add anything. to the tank that is. I pretty much have cut feeding down to a couple times a month. thats only to give the fish something eles to eat, they are doing fine without feeding. plenty on the rock and the sagassum grass.