problem with digi

Pete polyp · Feb 19, 2014

I bought a digi about 3 months ago that arrived bleached. It is growing and it has changed to a brown color (at best) I have tried a couple different spots with it and nothing seems to make it happy. It has little to no pe. I'm at a loss for what to do here. It seemed to grow faster right after I got it than it is now. I don't have any issues with acro coloring up and growing. Params are all in check... 430, 9.3, 1400, 1.025, noÂ³ .75, po4 is probably .05.

DSP · Feb 19, 2014

What lighting do you have? Also ime digis color up better with a little nutrient in the water, your tank may be to clean.

Pete polyp · Feb 19, 2014

6 bulb t5. I'm actually struggling to get the nutrients up in my tank. I had to feed 8 times per day to get the noÂ³ to where it is now. I have tried it in high light, and in lesser light. Tried in high flow and moderate flow.

Pete polyp · Feb 19, 2014

That picture was taken about a week after I received it. It was the only picture I could find because its not one of my favorites to photograph. I just kicked the lights on long enough to take this picture.

Stoneyman · Feb 20, 2014

I had similiar issue. I placed mine at bottom of the tank with low flow and low light. Allowed it to recover from stress it was suffering from for about a month. I then brought it to mid level spot with moderate flow. It exploded with color within a week. Just my success story. For every one of those happy endings i have 10 others that ended in death

Pete polyp · Feb 21, 2014

About 1 month ago I had a tiny peice fall off so I glued it to a frag.plug. Today I noticed it had much more color than the colony. The frag is positioned about 3" down and beside the light fixture (24" fixture on a 30" tank). I have moved the colony down about 8" and just to the edge of where the fixture is. I'm hoping the issue was too much light and it will become happier in this new location.

spspirate · Feb 23, 2014

Sometimes it just takes time. Some corals may just take a while to color up. I had a acropora suharsonoi that sat in my system for months and did nothing. After months it took off.

Pete polyp · Feb 23, 2014

Yeah, I have had a couple acro take a very long time to do anything. There's 3 in my tank that I have had for about a year a and they didn't do much until a few months ago. I had no experience with sps until 15 months ago, and I guess I'm finally getting better with them. The only real issue I have had with them was on one occasion when I overused phosphate removing media. All but the 3 acro I talk about rtn and those survived. At this point the digi is the only sps that seems to not be happy.I'm really thinking it was getting too much light. It was about 3" down, and on the side of the tank that was getting a lot of sunlight. I moved it down to about 12" and covered the window. I'm just waiting now to see what happens.

ReeferEric · Feb 23, 2014

What's going on with your system that it's in an ultra low nutrient level?

Pete polyp · Feb 23, 2014

I don't know to be honest. I never intended a low nutrient system, but it just happened that way. I feed the you know what out of it. I struggle to have any nitrate at all. At one point I was feeding a block of rods reef complete about 3"sq and about 1" sq of rods coral only. I have recently started to feed reef roids and coral frenzy 2x per night totalling 0.8ml. I don't have a sump, skimmer or any equipment for nutrient removal. Just a dsb and really good tukani rock. I quit feeding 6-8x per day for 2 weeks, down to twice a day with the rods (about 1"sq) and feed the frenzy/roids 2x per night and this is what happened