Too much light for my brain?

[Trey302]

Had this guy a few months and has been doing fine so far but I notice lately it seems to be losing some color in the red part around the center. It still inflates close to the same size as before but maybe not quite as much. The only other thing different is it hasn't extended it's feeding tentacles out as much lately but I did feed it a lot once I first got it so not sure if that matters. Haven't tested the water lately so I'm not sure of my parameters but I'm hoping someone could just let me know if this could be a light issue. I've been slowly ramping up my AP700 so I guess I could have overdone it for this guy.

First picture is from today where you can see some white showing through the red part. Second picture is from a little over a month ago when it was trying to eat a snail. And a fts just for reference as to how far it is from the light. Brain is in far right corner as far away from the light as I can get it. Was running the light at 60% with the major diffusion optical kit so figuring I was getting about 45% through to the tank. Dialed it back to 50% a couple days ago just to see if that helps.

 

[Blacktank]

Check all of your parameters. I bet you find it there's. Calcium or phosphates or such

 

[AJQ69]

Even if you dialed down for a few days that is not going to help you, imo you tank is too bright and you need to dialed down for an extended period of time.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

It's doesn't look directly exposed to your lights so i wouldn't worry about that too much.. they like enough flow to be gently swaying

 

[Trey302]

Alk - 8.2
Cal - 480
Ph - 8.3
Temp - 78

I was able to test a couple parameters today but haven't checked the rest yet. I know my calcium is a little high but I plan on bringing that down over the course of a few days. Recently hooked up a CO2 scrubber so my dosing amounts have changed a little with the increased ph. Plus my new DOS dosing pump has not been quite as reliable as I hoped so I'm still dialing in getting my #'s back where I want them. I generally try to run a pretty low nutrient system so I'm not sure what kind of affect that has on open brain corals. I plan to check all the other parameters this weekend and see if something else has gotten out of line.

One other thing I forgot to mention originally is that my stupid clown fish has been bothering this coral lately. He usually hangs out in the frogspawn but has been messing with the brain and a couple other corals lately. Not sure if he's looking for a new home or what but it's driving me crazy. I've actually considered getting an anemone in hopes that if he the takes to it he will leave all my other corals alone. I'm sure this causes a little extra stress to the brain but I didn't think that would cause the color loss.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Alk - 8.2
Cal - 480
Ph - 8.3
Temp - 78

I was able to test a couple parameters today but haven't checked the rest yet. I know my calcium is a little high but I plan on bringing that down over the course of a few days. Recently hooked up a CO2 scrubber so my dosing amounts have changed a little with the increased ph. Plus my new DOS dosing pump has not been quite as reliable as I hoped so I'm still dialing in getting my #'s back where I want them. I generally try to run a pretty low nutrient system so I'm not sure what kind of affect that has on open brain corals. I plan to check all the other parameters this weekend and see if something else has gotten out of line.

One other thing I forgot to mention originally is that my stupid clown fish has been bothering this coral lately. He usually hangs out in the frogspawn but has been messing with the brain and a couple other corals lately. Not sure if he's looking for a new home or what but it's driving me crazy. I've actually considered getting an anemone in hopes that if he the takes to it he will leave all my other corals alone. I'm sure this causes a little extra stress to the brain but I didn't think that would cause the color loss.

Check the nutrints. Higher light requires higher nutrients. .
Also you can use a lux meter to see how much light you have.
At 12 in that light at full will give you 35000 lux. Approx 600 par.

 

[miyags]

What's it eating in the second picture?

 

[miyags]

How deep is your tank?

 

[Trey302]

Check the nutrints. Higher light requires higher nutrients. .
Also you can use a lux meter to see how much light you have.
At 12 in that light at full will give you 35000 lux. Approx 600 par.

I checked nitrates and phosphates last night and both showed 0. The only nitrate test I have is an API so I'm not sure how much I trust it. And the Hanna phosphate checker I just got recently so I'm still getting used to using it. But I purposely don't feed much to avoid having problems with nutrients. Had a bad bout with hair algae years ago that ran me out of the hobby for quite some time, so overfeeding is always a concern even though I know most really nice tanks have way more nutrients than mine does. Guess I may have to up my feeding a little and see if that helps. The thought that I would need more with increasing light intensity didn't cross my mind so thanks for the heads up.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Dial your light way back. I currently run all six of my A360WEs at 67% maximum intensity. If I ran them higher, I would have all kinds of bleaching problems. BTW, your brain looks better than mine. Dial the light back for a while and the color will come back. I didn't see any SPS other than maybe a Montipora capricornis, so I think you'll be fine with LPS and softies in the lower light. That's a serious light for that sized tank!

 

[Trey302]

What's it eating in the second picture?

That is actually a snail it tried to eat. No idea how he got hold of it but I guess once he figured out he couldn't eat it he spit it back out.

And the tank is 21" deep. Light is about 8-9" off the water so I would guess the brain is about 30" from the light and at a pretty good angle because it's towards the front of the tank and I have the light more towards the back.

 

[Trey302]

Dial your light way back. I currently run all six of my A360WEs at 67% maximum intensity. If I ran them higher, I would have all kinds of bleaching problems. BTW, your brain looks better than mine. Dial the light back for a while and the color will come back. I didn't see any SPS other than maybe a Montipora capricornis, so I think you'll be fine with LPS and softies in the lower light. That's a serious light for that sized tank!

Yeah once I saw BRS was only running theirs at 33% over the 160 they are building it got me thinking I might have mine a little too intense. I figure with it at 50% and the diffusors I should be getting around 35%. Plus I have my light pretty close to the water to limit light spilling out of the tank because it's in my living room. Just weird because all my other LPS seem to be handling it well.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Yeah once I saw BRS was only running theirs at 33% over the 160 they are building it got me thinking I might have mine a little too intense. I figure with it at 50% and the diffusors I should be getting around 35%. Plus I have my light pretty close to the water to limit light spilling out of the tank because it's in my living room. Just weird because all my other LPS seem to be handling it well.

Idk why, but this brain I have seems to be very sensitive to light intensity. The last open brain I had didn't care at all, and was running halides!

 

[Trey302]

Idk why, but this brain I have seems to be very sensitive to light intensity. The last open brain I had didn't care at all, and was running halides!

What color is yours? I've read that the red ones are more sensitive to light but there's so much conflicting info out there I'm never sure what to believe. It would make sense in my case though because the green parts have kept their color where the red part is where it's losing color.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

What color is yours? I've read that the red ones are more sensitive to light but there's so much conflicting info out there I'm never sure what to believe. It would make sense in my case though because the green parts have kept their color where the red part is where it's losing color.

Mine had red edges and a green center, just like yours. Mine has had a rough time since I got it. I had a flame angel that would pick on it, but the flame angel has been removed. It completely bleached on me, but came back with more greens and less red. I had it in an area of high flow and 240+ PAR before the bleaching and it was doing wonderful, but I only had it in this location to keep it away from the flame angel. After the angel was removed, I placed it in the sand bed and it has looked bad ever since. It's still hanging on, but yours looks WAY better than mine :/

 

[Trey302]

Mine had red edges and a green center, just like yours. Mine has had a rough time since I got it. I had a flame angel that would pick on it, but the flame angel has been removed. It completely bleached on me, but came back with more greens and less red. I had it in an area of high flow and 240+ PAR before the bleaching and it was doing wonderful, but I only had it in this location to keep it away from the flame angel. After the angel was removed, I placed it in the sand bed and it has looked bad ever since. It's still hanging on, but yours looks WAY better than mine :/

Well hopefully yours will make a recovery. This is one of my favorite corals so I really want to do whatever I need to in order for it to get back to where it was. I'm considering removing my clown fish because I'm sure he's not helping anything either. That's easier said than done though when you have a 3 year old who loves "Nemo" lol

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Well hopefully yours will make a recovery. This is one of my favorite corals so I really want to do whatever I need to in order for it to get back to where it was. I'm considering removing my clown fish because I'm sure he's not helping anything either. That's easier said than done though when you have a 3 year old who loves "Nemo" lol

Well, I haven't killed it yet, all I have to do is get it in a good location, leave it alone and it should be fine. It looks better as of late. I think it like more flow that it was getting down on the sand bed.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I checked nitrates and phosphates last night and both showed 0. The only nitrate test I have is an API so I'm not sure how much I trust it. And the Hanna phosphate checker I just got recently so I'm still getting used to using it. But I purposely don't feed much to avoid having problems with nutrients. Had a bad bout with hair algae years ago that ran me out of the hobby for quite some time, so overfeeding is always a concern even though I know most really nice tanks have way more nutrients than mine does. Guess I may have to up my feeding a little and see if that helps. The thought that I would need more with increasing light intensity didn't cross my mind so thanks for the heads up.

Dial your light way back. I currently run all six of my A360WEs at 67% maximum intensity. If I ran them higher, I would have all kinds of bleaching problems. BTW, your brain looks better than mine. Dial the light back for a while and the color will come back. I didn't see any SPS other than maybe a Montipora capricornis, so I think you'll be fine with LPS and softies in the lower light. That's a serious light for that sized tank!

Yup. Balance to one or the other.