War Coral Advice

[CodyRVA]

I have a war coral frag, about an 1.5 inches across. I've had it for about a month and it's placed in the sand bed, with moderate flow and it's slowly losing color. I don't want to say bleaching (referring to too much light) because it's in the sand bed, but it's really starting to simply fade out. My question, understanding LPS tend to like "dirtier" water; is my system too clean to support this coral? I have a burning leptastrea, and a hulk lepto (also on the sand bed) that seem to be doing great, but are getting slightly less flow. I've tried moving it around the tank with no success. Full tank specs below, but I have zero algae issues and have a hard time getting any reading for Phos or Nitrate. 99% of the time my tests for Phos and Nitrate come up "0," the most i've seen is 3-5 ppm. I have a few Acros, Pavona, Stylos that are doing great. I have other LPS: duncan and hammer that are doing well. I spot feed every other day with LRS Reef Frenzy. Any advice is greatly appreciated, I don't wanna lose this guy!

I'm using Salifert test kits and an electronic Hanner checker for Phos.

46G
4 Bulb T5
1 year old

Most Recent Tests (2-5-16) - Bubble Magus Doser
dkH: 8.6 (carbon dosing pellets & BRS Mini Reactor Carbon/GFO Mix)
Ca: 410
Mg: 1300
Ph: 7.8
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0

 

[Epicreefster]

I find that my war corals, and the favia group in general, sometimes do better on vertical surfaces or shaded, where they are not receiving full light, in higher light systems. If they are flat they sometimes get the transparent film appearance, especially on edges where they change orientation as they grow down the frag disk, where they have flesh but you can see the skeleton through it when they inflate, I think that's what you are talking about. I found that gluing them to vertical surfaces works well because they can grow up to the light if they want more or down if they want less. The combination of direct light and shadows can also add some cool color patterns as I find the ones with multi color bases usually display one color in high light and the other in low light(Tyree's war and peace favia is entirely pink in high light and mostly green in low light for example, the bicolor war corals red portions are fine in high light and blue/grey can get bleached in direct light) . I don't spot feed anymore and really found it most useful for growth, not always for coloration but it isn't hurting if your still reading 0 NO3 and PO4. It could be that nutrients are too low but shading should be sufficient to fix your issue as long as your not running an ULNS like zeovit. You might want to try removing a portion of the biopellets, 25%, and that might bring nutrients up just a bit.

 

[CodyRVA]

I find that my war corals, and the favia group in general, sometimes do better on vertical surfaces or shaded, where they are not receiving full light, in higher light systems. If they are flat they sometimes get the transparent film appearance, especially on edges where they change orientation as they grow down the frag disk, where they have flesh but you can see the skeleton through it when they inflate, I think that's what you are talking about. I found that gluing them to vertical surfaces works well because they can grow up to the light if they want more or down if they want less. The combination of direct light and shadows can also add some cool color patterns as I find the ones with multi color bases usually display one color in high light and the other in low light(Tyree's war and peace favia is entirely pink in high light and mostly green in low light for example, the bicolor war corals red portions are fine in high light and blue/grey can get bleached in direct light) . I don't spot feed anymore and really found it most useful for growth, not always for coloration but it isn't hurting if your still reading 0 NO3 and PO4. It could be that nutrients are too low but shading should be sufficient to fix your issue as long as your not running an ULNS like zeovit. You might want to try removing a portion of the biopellets, 25%, and that might bring nutrients up just a bit.

Thanks for the advice. I moved the frag back in under my rock work a bit, limiting the amount of light. I've been slowly reducing the number of pellets. I started at 50%, currently reduced to maybe 25% capacity of the reactors total volume; the reactor is rated for 90G, i have it on a 46G. I'll see if this new placement helps any, not running any ULNS.