Very weird reaction from my acros!

[ryshark]

My tank is 10-months old, only acros, started with about 65% KB Aquatics rock and 35% dry mined rock. I've also added a lot of biodiversity from ipsf from a couple different orders. I don't have many acros in this tank, as I'm trying to be patient until they are all thriving before I go nuts with all high-end acros. With that said, all of my acros are turning purple base/skin with green polyps. All of them, and they are not supposed to be that color. I'm talking ASD Rainbow, Pink Cadillac, Lady in Pink, Rouge Millie..... purple with green polyps. Not only have I never seen this, I haven't even heard/read of it. Maybe a minor trace element issue? I probably need to order an ICP test. I can list all the usual parameters, if that helps. But just wondering if someone knows of an obvious cause of this.

 

[Lizbeli]

Interesting. Following along. First thing that comes to mind is trace elements to me too. Then im thinking lighting? But I normally see low lighting may turn them more green, too high obv bleaching.

Never heard of this across anything I have read in the past.

 

[kyleinpdx]

What size tank? What lighting are you using? How far from the lights are the actors? IMO lighting will dictate coloration more than anything else.

 

[dadnjesse]

Do you have pictures

 

[ryshark]

Do you have pictures

I need to buy an iPhone lens and filter. I will order one this weekend. If I take pictures now it will only show blue and will need some magnification.

 

[Fishfinder]

Take one under whites. Blue pic won’t help anyway

 

[ryshark]

What size tank? What lighting are you using? How far from the lights are the actors? IMO lighting will dictate coloration more than anything else.

120-gallon
ATI sunpower T5 w/bulbs 6-hours at max. Plus a ReefBrite XHO in the front.
5x Blue Plus, 1x Actinic, 1x Purple Plus, 1x Coral Plus.
The lights are about 9 inches above the surface and the acro’s are about 10 inches to 14 inches below the water surface.

 

[ryshark]

Take one under whites. Blue pic won’t help anyway

I’ll try that. I can turn off the XHO, 1 Blue Plus and 1 actinic, that should help a little. The zoom will be bad, but at least it’s something until I buy that iPhone attachment.

 

[X-37B]

My 120 6 bulb ati and 2 bulb aquatic life.
Not all but 2 monti's one green one orange, a pink floyd, and an green slimmer all turned a purplish black around 9 months for no apparent reason. All 50 other corals fine.
Changed bulbs.
Buy the time I put the last bulb in all had returned to original color.
I run mine 4" off the surface.
I know they say you can run them past 12 months but nothing else changed in my tank.
I will be changing them around 8 months now.
4B+ 4C+
Tank will be 1 year old in a week.

 

[ryshark]

My 120 6 bulb ati and 2 bulb aquatic life.
Not all but 2 monti's one green one orange, a pink floyd, and an green slimmer all turned a purplish black around 9 months for no apparent reason. All 50 other corals fine.
Buy the time I put the last bulb in all had returned to original color.
I run mine 4" off the surface.
I know they say you can run them past 12 months but nothing else changed in my tank.
I will be changing them around 8 months now.
4B+ 4C+
Tank will be 1 year old in a week.

Interesting, so changing your lights out made things better? Although by entire photoperiod has always been 12-hours, the man 6-bulbs were only on for 4-hours for several months and I then slowly ramped them up to 6-hous. I would think my bulbs are still fine, but maybe I should change them.

 

[ryshark]

I did have a bit of a PO4 swing, maybe that has something to do with it.
My corals started looking pale so I bought a Hanna Checker for PO4 and Alk.

-4/17 = 0.00 on Hanna ULR, 0-Nitrate on Salifert (Started feeding more and turned skimmer off 12-hours each day)

-4/24 = .01 and 0.25 Nitrate. (added a large cleanup crew to eat a bunch of brown fuzz algae growing over all my rocks and over flow, which I assumed was consuming all of my nutrients)

-5/1= .02 and 0.5 Nitrate (Cleanup crew ate all the algae)

-5/8 = .03 and 2.5 Nitrate

-5/15 = .09 and 5 Nitrate (Acros started to brown out) Started skimming 24/7 again.

-5/22 = .02 and 5 Nitrate (Acros started their shift to purple)

-5/28 = .03 and 5 Nitrate

-6/4 = .05 and 5 Nitrate

 

[X-37B]

Interesting, so changing your lights out made things better? Although by entire photoperiod has always been 12-hours, the man 6-bulbs were only on for 4-hours for several months and I then slowly ramped them up to 6-hous. I would think my bulbs are still fine, but maybe I should change them.

Just giving my observations. I run them 8 hours on and off.
I did see increased growth on all corals after the change as it was noticable.
Nothing else changed.
I dose trace and run a carx. Tank has been very stable.
I researched it and did not find much either.

 

[X-37B]

I did have a bit of a PO4 swing, maybe that has something to do with it.
My corals started looking pale so I bought a Hanna Checker for PO4 and Alk.

-4/17 = 0.00 on Hanna ULR, 0-Nitrate on Salifert (Started feeding more and turned skimmer off 12-hours each day)

-4/24 = .01 and 0.25 Nitrate. (added a large cleanup crew to eat a bunch of brown fuzz algae growing over all my rocks and over flow, which I assumed was consuming all of my nutrients)

-5/1= .02 and 0.5 Nitrate (Cleanup crew ate all the algae)

-5/8 = .03 and 2.5 Nitrate

-5/15 = .09 and 5 Nitrate (Acros started to brown out) Started skimming 24/7 again.

-5/22 = .02 and 5 Nitrate (Acros started their shift to purple)

-5/28 = .03 and 5 Nitrate

-6/4 = .05 and 5 Nitrate

I run .02-.04 po4
1-2 no3.
I feed 3-4 times a day equal to 2 frozen cubes at each feeding.
Those levels have been the same for 10 months.
I have always skimmed 24/7 and dont do water changes.