pale Lobophyllia

[West1]

Picked up a frag about 3 weeks ago. First few days it lost some color but I expected this. Color came back and all seemed good. The last few days the boarder of the lobo seems to be very pale. Also the spikes (not sure what else to call it) of the lobo are pale. The rest of the body is a pale pink. Spot fed yesterday and it ate.



15 gal tank, 21 gal sump, nanobox tide @60% on gooseneck. 40% weekly water change, reef octopus xs-160 (1 week old), 35lbs of rock, small batch of chaeto in sump, gfo and carbon in sump.

Params from last night-
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phos .43 (+.02 in 2 days)
Dkh 9.7 (-.6 in 2 days)
Mg 1340 (-20 in 2 days)
CA 390 (-10 in 2 days)
Fish-
Clownfish
firefish
sixline
serpent star

Inverts-
2 redclaw hermits
2 astrea
2 random glass surfing snails
1 peppermint
1 random shrimp

Location-
on barebottom, opposite side of return pump and powerhead (powerhead was in wave mode, recently switched to lagoon mode @30%). No corals near

feeding reefroids x1 per week
coral frenzy x1 per week

spot feed frozen Mysis, brime x2 per week (1-2 pcs over mouth).
Is this enough or not enough meaty food?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Back off on the gfo your starving it with no nitrates. Back the skimmer to a slower skim so nitrates can build a little. If it was a slow change over a few weeks that's the issue. If it was over a day then that's a different issue. Where is the pictures?

 

[West1]

I'll post a picture this evening.

The gfo and large skimmer was an overnight doing. Had an eshopps nano skimmer that I could not get working in my sump, magnet was not strong enough. GFO was added the day I put the huge skimmer in as my phosphate was at .9 something. Pho has slowly declined over the past week.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Do you feed it every other day and watch to make sure your shrimps and hermits and not stealing food from it.

 

[West1]

Do you feed it every other day and watch to make sure your shrimps and hermits and not stealing food from it.

I have no specific day I feed meats but try to space out 3-4 days. Last night she ate Mysis.
When I spot feed, I let everyone eat and watch her eat. I grab a few pieces on the bottom when fish/inverts are full and place over the mouth.

The only picture I have from the day I setup skimmer. I'll take a pic of the lobo tonight

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Get your nitrates to at least 3 to 5 ppm she will come back.

 

[West1]

Get your nitrates to at least 3 to 5 ppm she will come back.

Doing some reading, I will start with putting skimmer on a timer.

If they tend to feed at night, I should have the skimmer off in the evening right?

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

If yours is a hang on the back yes in the sump no just set the pump to feed mode or off. Skimmer should always be on just tune it to where it skims lightly collection cup should almost look like mud.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Didn't see the picture. That Skimmer is huge hahaha good reason to upgrade tank to 100g

 

[Tahoe61]

The coral might do better in an area of lower lighting. At 3 weeks I suspect the lighting.

 

[West1]

Didn't see the picture. That Skimmer is huge hahaha good reason to upgrade tank to 100g

This is my 2nd run at salt after a failed biocube 29 build that ended up with 30-40gls on the floor (diy concrete cracked glass after 6 months of setup, minus the 3 month concrete cure). Skimmer was a good deal so I figured if I enjoy the hobby, I am half way to a bigger tank

The coral might do better in an area of lower lighting. At 3 weeks I suspect the lighting.

Is it best to put new lobos (or LPS in general) in shaded areas for a specific time frame?

 

[Tahoe61]

These are great threads on the topic. I would acclimate your Lobo to your lighting a tad slower.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-take-care-of-your-brain-trachys-lobos-etc.148047/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-love-your-lobo-tips-for-success-with-lobophyllia.133198/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...orals-to-new-lighting-in-the-aquarium.191377/

 

[West1]

These are great threads on the topic. I would acclimate your Lobo to your lighting a tad slower.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-take-care-of-your-brain-trachys-lobos-etc.148047/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-love-your-lobo-tips-for-success-with-lobophyllia.133198/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...orals-to-new-lighting-in-the-aquarium.191377/

Tyvm for the links. I did read the first one prior to my thread. The 2nd link, post #30 is how my lobo looks in regards to the white spikes (idk what its called lol). Both lobos are of different colors so mine is a pale pink. Similar texture though.
Link #3 is a great read for beginners like myself, tyvm!

I will move the lobo in a lightly shaded area for a couple of weeks, see how she does.

 

[West1]

Pics
Mouth seems to be protruding atm, guessing she's hungry idk
I'll move her to the shade as soon as I wash up

 

[Fragzilla]

I don't believe low nitrates will cause them to fade like that. I've had Lobos and trackys acans the lot in nitrate limited systems and if anything the colours were brighter and more vivid than with nitrate readings.

Rowa phos etc can wash colours out.

Too much white light will wash colours out also.

Your lights look really white from the photo.

Also Your tank is really understocked and I guess a lot of your target feeding is ending up as uneaten food processing itself into phosphate. It looks quite new also so I imagine you won't have the fauna to deal with the waste - no eatabliahed sand bed.

Make your lights bluer, add some more fish and just feed the fish, random or too oftern target feeding will cause issues IMO and is unecessary unless the corals are non-photosynthetic.

 

[West1]

I don't believe low nitrates will cause them to fade like that. I've had Lobos and trackys acans the lot in nitrate limited systems and if anything the colours were brighter and more vivid than with nitrate readings.

Rowa phos etc can wash colours out.

Too much white light will wash colours out also.

Your lights look really white from the photo.

Also Your tank is really understocked and I guess a lot of your target feeding is ending up as uneaten food processing itself into phosphate. It looks quite new also so I imagine you won't have the fauna to deal with the waste - no eatabliahed sand bed.

Make your lights bluer, add some more fish and just feed the fish, random or too oftern target feeding will cause issues IMO and is unecessary unless the corals are non-photosynthetic.

Tank I said new, also was seeded with 10lbs of LR from my QT tank. Ammonia cycle until params were at zero, double checking with 3 days of ammonia that dropped params back to zero. I have no sand and don't plan to add (will consider in sump if need be).

To little fish is interesting, I actually thought I was near overstocked since it's a 15 gal. I can fix that

As per light, I changed the settings so the picture could be more clear. here is my light settings, should I adjust? I believe they are heavy blues
(2 channel so I can't adjust the ones at zero)

Here are 2 pics as is with settings
iPhone pic with yellow safety glasses (all pics, including first set of pics)

 

[Fragzilla]

I don't understand those photos.

Is that suggesting you run the lights for 7.5 hours total? Or is it suggesting you run the "moonlight" and blue all night?

If it was me I wouldn't put white up past 20% , and that's assuming the other 80% is blue and I guess also violet, I see you have that but your not using it. Your lights might have all the 460nm wavelength in the violet.

Less white will help with algae outbreaks also and you only really need good amounts of white for acropora.

If it were me I'd start with lowering white and adding some violet and a little bit of cyan to the mix.

 

[West1]

I don't understand those photos.

Is that suggesting you run the lights for 7.5 hours total? Or is it suggesting you run the "moonlight" and blue all night?

If it was me I wouldn't put white up past 20% , and that's assuming the other 80% is blue and I guess also violet, I see you have that but your not using it. Your lights might have all the 460nm wavelength in the violet.

Less white will help with algae outbreaks also and you only really need good amounts of white for acropora.

If it were me I'd start with lowering white and adding some violet and a little bit of cyan to the mix.

Lights are on for a total of 9 hrs (12/noon to 9pm). The light is a 2 channel and I can only control the royal blues (ch1) and the white/lime/violet (ch2) with moon light. Ch3&4 are at zero because ai cannot use them, they are included in channel 2.

I will lower whites, I had whites at 40% for a visual as I do not enjoy royal blues for the entire duration of my light.
New settings for mid day and evening, see how it goes

Tyvm for the help!

 

[West1]

Update...


She is still kicking! Looks the same so I am not sure if this is how the coral is or if the animal is just not happy with something.

I was at my Lfs and I usually take their advise with a grain of salt... Lfs said in the saltwater hobby, its not good to do such large water changes and weekly at that. I have approximately 28 gals of total water and I have been doing 8-9 gals per week. I was recommended to do 4-5 gals every 2 weeks.

Is that true or false? Could constant new mixed water be effecting my lobo?
I did pick up a new lobo that is slightly receding, from 49 to 10 I had nothing to lose. Seems to be doing just fine, eating and staying a nice bright color (I will post pics later).

 

[Tahoe61]

If you're using RO/DI and mixing to parameters close to your tanks chemistry there should be no issue what so ever with frequent water changes.
I do not see an issue with either water change schedule.
Corals go down hill much faster than they show improvement, it take a lot of patience.