New acro

[tencwhiskey]

Ok I got a new acropora I placed in the tank it almost immediately went brown, with in hours. It been in my tank for about two weeks and is still brown.

Mag 1380
Calcium 400
Alk 12
I have not checked my phosphate, I have a Red Sea test kit but frankly it's more of a pain to figure out then it seems worth. I receive my gfo/carbon reactor tomorrow. But I'm unsure at this point if it's toast or not. It's the first sps I have ever had. Tank has been running for 8 months.
Any ideas would be superb.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Acros will do this. How did u acclimate it? When they brown out it usually takes awhile for it to gain its full color back. R u light acclimating it as well?

 

[Acro]

You need to check those phosphates. Higher alkalinity like that will absolutely toast most of your corals in your tank when you hook up your gfo. Get a Hanna meter, they rock!

 

[tencwhiskey]

I didn't light acclimate. I drip acclimated it for about 45 minutes slow drip. I will check the phosphates. I prob should have done that before asking. But I'm new to sps.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

well its a little too late now, not saying that that would have helped it but I usually start all my new frags on the sand bed and slowly move them up

 

[tencwhiskey]

Yeah, my fault I should have read up a little more. I'm testing phosphates right now and hoping that's the problem. Thanks guys

 

[tencwhiskey]

Can't back at 0.04.

 

[tencwhiskey]

Came^*

 

[Sobo's Reef]

That's not bad. Usually wanna try and keep it under 0.03 for sps but you're good there if u only have 1 piece

 

[footballdude2k3]

.04 isn't awful, you need a little bit in there to let the corals grow. In the future make sure to light acclimate them, if it is still browned out, you might want to slowly raise it a little higher in your tank, by slowly, I mean an inch or two per week until you have it in it's final place. If it is already in it's final place, as long as it does not start to bleach, you should be good, it'll just take awhile for the color to come back.