Coral Colours and Amino Acids

[buddyreefer]

don't want to sound rude, but i think you need to the advice given to you on this thread, feeding your corals more when they are brown is not going to give you the results you need, brown corals are usually a symptom of too high nutrients and sometimes not enough light, your test kits will not give you accurate readings because p04 gets locked up in things like algae giving false 0's. Coralife skimmer are imo not great skimmers, you might look at getting a more effecient skimmer and go from there.

[Ron99]

I'll try to get some pictures which will help as it is not just that they are all turning brown. Some have turned a bit brown, others have never coloured up and stayed a bit brown as they were when I got them and others are just faded (my red mille is more a peach/pale pink colour then the more intense red it was originally). Some have coloured up at the tips but the rest has stayed brown.

While I certainly want advice and opinions I am also trying to make sense of what is being said. I seriously doubt it is a low light issue with an 8 x 54 watt T5 fixture. High nutrients could be a cause but I'm not sure it fits with the overall picture. Zoas tend to like higher nutrient tanks but they are not doing particularly well either. Excessively high nutrients would show up with the test kits. The reason the test kits are seen to be inaccurate at low levels is because our eyes cannot pick out the very slight colour changes at the low levels, not to mention variations in the colour temperature and intensity of the ambient light people are testing under. You would need a sensitive colourimeter for real accurate results. The kits are fairly accurate but our eyes are not. So my levels are testing at zero or near enough I can't see a colour change. I do not have any algae blooms only cheato growing in my sump. If the cheato is sucking up nutrients such that they are immeasurable then the levels in the water are low. It is possible the coral are also sucking up some of the nutrients too and that is partly responsible for the lack of colour but I'm not feeding a ton with only 3 small fish. I tend to put the food in a little at a time with a pipette and only add a bit more when they have eaten what's floating around. The two cleaner shrimp, snails and hermit crabs hurry to snatch up what's left and the serpent star is out scavenging at night.

Sure the coralife skimmer isn't the best but it was a freebie as part of a package deal with other equipment and it is skimming a nice dark skimmate so it is taking stuff out of the water. A new skimmer isn't in the budget right now.

I do suspect my Alk may have been a bit unstable so I am keeping an eye on that right now. That may also have been the source of or contributed to the problem. But my reading does indicate that corals can fade and go brown from lack of feeding too as it looks like they need something like 20% of their nitrogen in the form of protein/amino acids. That's why I'm asking about feeding regimens for corals that work for others as I rarely feed anything for them.

[kien]

I don't feed my SPS corals anything other than Alk. and Calc. and they seem to be doing fine.

[shrimpchips]

Do you have stray current in the tank?

[StirCrazy]

Hi Ron, sayin g water peramiters are normal tells us nothing, can you list them for me? also Browing of SPS is an increase in symbiotic algae which usaly means the lighting is low so the coral needs more lighting. as you increase you light the coral will expell algae and get more color.

how deep is the tank and how far are the sps from the surface?

I don't agree with the "corals need fish poop" thing as I had a very low fish load tank (3 in a 90) and a nutrent starved system with extream skimming and my colors were increadable, but every tank has slight differances.

Steve

[Reefer Rob]

From what you've posted it doesn't look to be either a lighting, or nutrient issue. 8 T5 bulbs are a ton of light over a 75 no matter what the bulb combination, you could grow SPS at the top of your tank with half that many bulbs.

If your test results are showing 0 for nitrates and phosphates, and you have no nuisance algae, likely high nutrients aren't the issue. Also if you're pulling out skimmate you likely have enough nutrient to grow corals.

Probably it's something you haven't posted yet.

What is your water change regimen? (did I miss this)
Any corals in your tank known for chemical warfare? (leathers?)

Are you corals brown or more of a faded tan color? Brown is caused by high nutrients/low light. Corals tend to go tan and loose color when they are stressed, such as by contaminates in the water, unstable parameters, etc.

One thing I've thought of is the possibility of chemicals being excreted, or trace elements being used up by a large mass of macro-algae in a small system.

Just my $0.02 Rob

[kien]

I think you also have to accept that some corals just simply shock easily from having been established and was used to one system (aquarium), and then all of a sudden being shoved into a new one. It can take them a very very long time to regain their former glory. Some may never achieve this and some will colour morph into something different. It is not necessarily a matter of bad parameters, but rather different parameters and conditions from what they previous were used to. Take your red coral turning pinkish for example. It is virtually impossible to reproduce ALL the parameters and conditions of their previous tank. Some corals can adapt quickly and easily, some (or perhaps most) do not.

I have a coral right now that was once red, then browned a little, now has coloured up with half of it being blue!

my 2 cents.

K.

[freezetyle]

Originally Posted by kien

I don't feed my SPS corals anything other than Alk. and Calc. and they seem to be doing fine.

I know this is a little off topic, but i don't understand how a small current in the water would inhibit the growth of the corals. I mean with the Conservationists using things like biorocks (http://www.biorock.net) to speed the growth of coral production.

To the OP, like its been previously stated maybe your corals were still adapting to your system. If there wasn't very much PE until recently that may have been a sign that they were still under some stress. I would probably just keep on top of your calcium and Alk. for a little bit before adding a bunch of things that may or may not help out your situation

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by freezetyle

I know this is a little off topic, but i don't understand how a small current in the water would inhibit the growth of the corals. I mean with the Conservationists using things like biorocks (http://www.biorock.net) to speed the growth of coral production.

To the OP, like its been previously stated maybe your corals were still adapting to your system. If there wasn't very much PE until recently that may have been a sign that they were still under some stress. I would probably just keep on top of your calcium and Alk. for a little bit before adding a bunch of things that may or may not help out your situation

No, the corals were doing well and growing and then things went downhill with no obvious cause. I suspect it was more then a small current to actually feel it that way when I put my finger in the tank. I also suffered a couple of fish losses during that period so it is likely the electricity was stressing them out and making them susceptible to infections or something.

The coral reef restoration you mention is based on very small currents and voltages generated by chemical reactions of different metals in seawater; sort of like a very weak battery. You would likely not feel that level of electricity which is far lower then what can be generated by a voltage leak in your tank's equipment. In this case it had to be close to or more then 9 volts with significant current. As I mentioned before, the turnaround was noticeable within hours of fixing the voltage leak as the SPS started to show some PE that day after several weeks of no PE and fading and then bleaching etc.

[Reefer Rob]

Good to hear things have turned around for you, and thanks for posting the results.