Acropora: from red to green (?)

[164644]

Hello,
I have an acropora which initially I thought it was a regular red millepora.
As expected, the first months, the coral was more brown than red itself, however after 6 months the acropora is turning into a green / red coral.
And probably not a millepora also :)

Any idea of which acropora it might be?
Could the green parts be an indication of a lack or excess of any elements? Or probably its normal colour?

ICP test indicated only a slight low level of iodine.
Fosfate 0.01 and Nitrate 0.11 (Just as info: Zeovit)

Cheers!

 

[jda]

Most corals can go green with too little quantity of light. I would look there first. It does not look like it has grown much in 6 months, which it should have put on something and possibly a few inches.

I cannot really tell all that well, but that does not look like a A. Millepora. Your instincts appear to be right.

 

[164644]

Thanks for the feedback.
Indeed, the coral didn’t grow much over this period.
Actually, there is also another reason for that: I broke the coral when I was moving it. So it it started to encrust all over again.
I took a quick picture of the other part of the coral (sorry, but with iPad and lights are about to turn off)

Fact: the light was not enough in the first 3 months: below only one Radion XR15 G5 (40% intensity).

The strange part is that, by the time that I started to increase light... the green showed up combined with the faster growing.

I believe that the light is getting close to reasonable level: mainly because I’m increasing the intensity very slowly... I’m scared of burning the corals with the leds ( I can’t get easily a par meter here...)
Today I’m using 70% intensity and the tank is quite shallow: 35 cm:

 

[Eloise928]

When this happened to my sps , the guy at my local fish shop told me that it could be due to the abundance of certain element that can change pigments. Such as iron for green.

 

[164644]

Rest of the tank:

 

[Eloise928]

Rest of the tank:

That's a great looking setup

 

[Rmckoy]

Hello,
I have an acropora which initially I thought it was a regular red millepora.
As expected, the first months, the coral was more brown than red itself, however after 6 months the acropora is turning into a green / red coral.
And probably not a millepora also :)

Any idea of which acropora it might be?
Could the green parts be an indication of a lack or excess of any elements? Or probably its normal colour?

ICP test indicated only a slight low level of iodine.
Fosfate 0.01 and Nitrate 0.11 (Just as info: Zeovit)

Cheers!

Looks like bird of paradise not sure what species

 

[164644]

@Eloise928: thanks for the tip! Together with light, that also a could be the reason for it.
I double checked my last ICP test and Iron is not detected in the results. I will pay attention in my next ICP test.

@Rmckoy: I’ll google it for some images to compare it. Thanks!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Look at your lighting as light is the key to zooanthele which processes it’s food source for color and growth
Lack of lighting will cause this
Obviously too much light will bleach the coral due to changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.

 

[jda]

I could tell that you broke it and which branch was what. It is an attractive coral with the red/green contrast. If this is the only one that you are unhappy with, then just let it go. Everybody has at least one of those.

I still think that it is lighting, but without a PPFD/PAR meter, then who knows. It could also be spectrum. Most acropora will color up better under daylight, but then people like to blue-it-up to look at them. Corals kept under just heavy blues have colors shift.

If it starts to grow a bunch and encrust, then it is healthy and don't worry about it.

 

[164644]

@vetteguy53081: Ok, clear! Thanks
I will keep the plan of increasing the intensity of the lights... still, very slowly to avoid any bigger issues.
Normally, I’m increasing 2% each 10 days.

@jda: Sorry, but now looking back, not easy indeed to see where is part broken :)
In summary, looking into the first picture, only the right big arm was broken, becoming the piece in the second picture.
All other acroporas are fine indeed. Only this one that is intriguing me.
Since I have two pieces, I put one of them slightly higher in tank. Let’s see what happens!