CloudReefer
Active Member
Hi all, my Blushing Star is losing color. I got it on some live rock from Florida about 2 months ago and it's a lot lighter in color now, particularly the parts that are directly lit. It's been under 200 par max, and I took a couple of weeks to ease it up to that from about 100. The tank has only been cycled for about 10 weeks. I hadn't planned on corals this early but it came in on the live rock so...
In the pics you can see that there is a substantially darker area of the coral. This is where it was partially shaded. I *think* it has been slowly losing color over the last 2 months, but it might be that it has lost a large amount in just the last two weeks. It's definitely had less polyp extension recently, though it still opens up nicely especially at night. I was target feeding it twice per week, but stopped a couple of weeks ago to deal with some GHA. I do feed phyto every day. Barnacles etc. seem to be growing. Going to add some oyster feast to my regimen tonight as well.
In fighting the GHA I also put my lights on only blue spectrum, and turned the power down as well. After a week I returned it to its prior settings, about 200 par. Could the coral be light stressed? I also recently increased the flow a little in the tank. I paid attention to the coral and when it became enough for the polyps to close up I backed off until they were open again.
I have a LPS from the same batch of rocks, which was completely bleached 2 months ago but is now coloring up nicely, and everything else in the tank seems to be doing well, including some bivalves and what I think is a jewel box clam.
I've done large water changes recently dealing the GHA, but otherwise tank parameters have been steady. Normal new tank stuff. Here are test results from today, and these are pretty much what it always reads. Maybe alk is a bit lower than normal? My salt mix starts alk at about 7.2. I do 10% water changes every week. I run 1 cup of carbon in the sump and change this weekly as well.
In the meantime I've put it the coral lower in the tank and lowered light intensity where it is at to about 100-120 par.
Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt
RO/DI water
2x Reefi Uno 2.0s
75g display
20g sump
Reef Octo Essence Skimmer
Two maxspect gyres
Some chaeto
SG - 1.025
Temp - 77F
pH - 8.25
Ca - 390ppm
Alk - 6.6dKH
Mg - 1230ppm
NO3 - 1ppm
PO4 - .02ppm
In the pics you can see that there is a substantially darker area of the coral. This is where it was partially shaded. I *think* it has been slowly losing color over the last 2 months, but it might be that it has lost a large amount in just the last two weeks. It's definitely had less polyp extension recently, though it still opens up nicely especially at night. I was target feeding it twice per week, but stopped a couple of weeks ago to deal with some GHA. I do feed phyto every day. Barnacles etc. seem to be growing. Going to add some oyster feast to my regimen tonight as well.
In fighting the GHA I also put my lights on only blue spectrum, and turned the power down as well. After a week I returned it to its prior settings, about 200 par. Could the coral be light stressed? I also recently increased the flow a little in the tank. I paid attention to the coral and when it became enough for the polyps to close up I backed off until they were open again.
I have a LPS from the same batch of rocks, which was completely bleached 2 months ago but is now coloring up nicely, and everything else in the tank seems to be doing well, including some bivalves and what I think is a jewel box clam.
I've done large water changes recently dealing the GHA, but otherwise tank parameters have been steady. Normal new tank stuff. Here are test results from today, and these are pretty much what it always reads. Maybe alk is a bit lower than normal? My salt mix starts alk at about 7.2. I do 10% water changes every week. I run 1 cup of carbon in the sump and change this weekly as well.
In the meantime I've put it the coral lower in the tank and lowered light intensity where it is at to about 100-120 par.
Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt
RO/DI water
2x Reefi Uno 2.0s
75g display
20g sump
Reef Octo Essence Skimmer
Two maxspect gyres
Some chaeto
SG - 1.025
Temp - 77F
pH - 8.25
Ca - 390ppm
Alk - 6.6dKH
Mg - 1230ppm
NO3 - 1ppm
PO4 - .02ppm
Last edited:
