Help With Deepwater Acro

[viperfish]

I purchased this Acro from J&L about four months ago. They said it was a Deepwater Acro. When I bought it, it was white with purple tips. I acclimated it properly, gave it lots of light and water flow, now it's green! I know they say corals can turn colour under different lights but this is crazy! I also heard that excessive nutrients can cause this. My params are good, my Nitrates are at 20 but that shouldn't be enough to throw anything out of whack. Can anyone shed some light on this type of coral since I am having very little luck searching online. I am running 20K lights, I don't know what J&L is running but would a change from 10K to 20K be enough to cause this?

[fencer]

20 ppm is a lot. Most Zeo and Ultra systems are running low nitrate. Try moving the coral higher in your tank. What might have happened is the coral might have been bleached to start with and it is now regaining some of the symbiotic zooanthellae it lost...thus brown

[Drock169]

Are you running 400W 20K's? I agree that 20ppm is a bit on the high side for SPS, are you getting any polyp extension or is it closed up 100% of the time. Have you checked for parasites? Also have you checked PO4? If PO4 is high, I find deepwaters tend to brown out easily. It looks like maybe a loripes or a granulosa, which should have the white base with purple tips.

[viperfish]

I am running 250's and I have the Acro about 10" from the surface. Do you think I need more light? PO4 is undetectable. I am running RO and Purigen, between the two I manage to keep it in check. I am working on the Nitrates, I had a couple of dead spots in my tank so I changed the flow and hopefully that will make a difference. Mu other SPS are all doing fine.

[fkshiu]

If it is truly a "DEEP water" acro I'd move it to where there's less light such as DEEPer in your tank.

[Drock169]

I dont think less light is the solution in this case. They typically bleach out if they are getting too much light, not brown out. I would dip it in something like Revive, see if anything comes of the coral. Have a good look for at the base of the coral for little square bite marks on it. Because it's just a single colony affected, my guess is parasite.

[viperfish]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

If it is truly a "DEEP water" acro I'd move it to where there's less light such as DEEPer in your tank.

I have tried that, and it made no difference. It is still an Acro. I just don't see it sitting at the same light level as my LPS, but my assumption may be wrong. As far as being a "truly" deep water Acro, I am just going on what I was told when I bought it. If I Google it, I don't get a whole lot of information to go on. I had just hoped that someone on here has gone through a similar situation. I know I need to work on my Nirates and a few folks on here are really sold on ZEO, but this hobby is expensive enough as it is without having to pump money into every latest and greatest remedy. There seems to be a million cures for nitrates, from ATS, to Vodka dosing, to reactors. It's tough sometimes to know which one is best.

[viperfish]

Originally Posted by Drock169

I dont think less light is the solution in this case. They typically bleach out if they are getting too much light, not brown out. I would dip it in something like Revive, see if anything comes of the coral. Have a good look for at the base of the coral for little square bite marks on it. Because it's just a single colony affected, my guess is parasite.

Sounds like excellent advice. I'll definitely check it out. Thanks.

[fishytime]

Could you post some more details about your system?.....how many gallons? what is your bio-load? what skimmer are you using?....how much and how often do you feed? 20ppm of nitrates is high (IMO) do you have any other acros?....if so how are they doing?

[Drock169]

I have done VSV (vodka sugar vinegar) dosing before and probably wouldnt recommended it. Worked well at the start but I ended up having some problems 8months to a year into it and resulted in some coral morality. I think the best cure for high nitrates is a large scale water change, ie a 50% water change to bring them down to 10. However if you do the large scale water change and they climb up to 20 again, it could mean your overstocked or overfeeding. Either way, I dont think the nitrates are the issue in the situation.