I have 3 green acro's with purple tips. last night they were dark green and the tips really blue. This morning all 3 are a faded lime green color and the tips are purplish now. What could cause this. Tested all and nitrates, ph ,alk, and calcium is 400. All levels are good except my ph rises to 8.4 just before the lights go off and is 8.2 in the morning. Oh all other acro's are great color and thriving.
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Acro lost color over night
- Thread starter rrcjr1972
- Start date
Try moving them down further in the tank. It sound like the starting steps of bleaching. Thats a big light change you put in there and they are probably getting a suntan.
Check for Po4.... But I agree with the change of light.. If you dont want to lower your corals cut down the length of MH.. When I was running 14k for 8 hrs then switch to 10k I run the first week 4 then work your way up.. mine took a month before I run it for 8 hrs on 10.. good luck
steve
steve
rrcjr1972 said:
I think it's due to a pretty quick and dramatic change in the light they are getting.
If you don't want to move them, you can try adding a few layers of window screen over the top and gradually removing a layer at a time. You might want to reduce the photoperiod as well. Are all of the lights on the same timer circuit? You can play with running them on different photo periods and gradually building up to the new level.
After cutting down on lights and moving them down, they haven't gotten any worse. They still have polyp extention and have remained the same color. I guess it will take some time to color up after the shock. The levels tested sg 1.025- cal 450- mag 1000- alk 11 dkh- nitrates 0- nitraes 0 ammo o- Phosphates undetectable . Well live and learn. Too much change too fast. (patience grasshopper)
Definitely the light change - just going from a single 175 to a 250 is dramatic as the 250s are much brighter and if the change was from a SE 175 to a DE 250 HQI - then you also went to a much more focused light (narrower light dispersion) - then you went from 3 175 to 4 250 - this is almost a night to day change.. Not only should you immediately lower the corals down in the tank but the 250 fixture would be several inches higher from the top of the tank then the 175s so if the 175s were 8 inches above the water surface - raise the 250s to at least 12 inches - reason is not only the fact they they are brighter bulbs and more of them, but also I assume they are new and the 175s are older. In addition, you may see a rise in water temp due to the new lights keep an eye on that - you also may see a sharp increase in Dissolved oxygen because the algae in the corals and in the tank may suddenly accelerate in terms of growth due to the increase in light - too much DO can also cause a "bleaching" effect.
So lower corals ASAP and raise fixture higher than the old fixture - if you have a light meter (Milwaukee makes a $80 to 90.00 unit that has a waterproof sensor and measure the light output of the old fixture at the level of the corals and compare to the new- you do not want it to be much higher at first - over time you can take advantage of the new fixture by slowly lowering it to the point where you want it and it will give the corals time to adapt.
Not to cause anyone to panic - but this kind of drastic change if not corrected can kill the corals in a very short time (few days to a week) - It happend to me upgrading from an old style Hamilton "Big Black Box" fixture containing a couple of 40 watt actinics and 2 175 SE bulbs (15K) to an Aquamedic Ocean Light fixture containing 2 x 250 W DE HQI 10Ks and one x 150 Watt DE HQI 20K and 2 T5 54W actinics (70 gallon tank) - I killed 70% of my corals, clams and the fish didn't come out from the rocks for a week - also my DO went up like crazy and algae growth (never had it before) went nuts, plus the tank temp rose by 3 degrees during the day!! - So I raised the fixture by 6 inches, placed fans across the top of the tank, lowered the corals and reset the timers so the 250s went on for 5 hours per day instead of the 8 hours a day the 175s were on -
then over 6 months I lowered the fixture an inch per month and increased the daylight timer by an hour a month until I got to where I wanted to be
I wanted to raise the awareness of how drastic changes like this can affect the livestock and it is not a "I'll get to it this weekend if I have time" sort of thing
Chris
So lower corals ASAP and raise fixture higher than the old fixture - if you have a light meter (Milwaukee makes a $80 to 90.00 unit that has a waterproof sensor and measure the light output of the old fixture at the level of the corals and compare to the new- you do not want it to be much higher at first - over time you can take advantage of the new fixture by slowly lowering it to the point where you want it and it will give the corals time to adapt.
Not to cause anyone to panic - but this kind of drastic change if not corrected can kill the corals in a very short time (few days to a week) - It happend to me upgrading from an old style Hamilton "Big Black Box" fixture containing a couple of 40 watt actinics and 2 175 SE bulbs (15K) to an Aquamedic Ocean Light fixture containing 2 x 250 W DE HQI 10Ks and one x 150 Watt DE HQI 20K and 2 T5 54W actinics (70 gallon tank) - I killed 70% of my corals, clams and the fish didn't come out from the rocks for a week - also my DO went up like crazy and algae growth (never had it before) went nuts, plus the tank temp rose by 3 degrees during the day!! - So I raised the fixture by 6 inches, placed fans across the top of the tank, lowered the corals and reset the timers so the 250s went on for 5 hours per day instead of the 8 hours a day the 175s were on -
then over 6 months I lowered the fixture an inch per month and increased the daylight timer by an hour a month until I got to where I wanted to be
I wanted to raise the awareness of how drastic changes like this can affect the livestock and it is not a "I'll get to it this weekend if I have time" sort of thing
Chris
You are correct. I did raise the light and lowered the corals. They have gotten the color back and look better than ever. The growth on other corals have picked up as well. Will slowly over time move the corals up. I also had the 175 hamilton black box and upgraded to aquamedic 4x250 de hqi. Didn't loose anything though. The new lights are the best purchase I have made. Coral color and growth is better than I had ever before. Lesson learned and hope this thread save someone in the future from making same mistake.
Glad to hear it!
I agree that the Aquamedics MH Fixtures are some of the best (if not the best) MH fixture made - price, quality, looks - etc.. - you did the right thing with the adjustments - goes to show you too much of a good thing can kill as fast as the opposite.
BTW - I did have one problem with that fixture and it applies to all Aquamedics MH fixtures and pendants - the clips that hold the bulb sometimes arch over time - according to Aquamedics, this is caused by salt water entering the connector clip that holds the bulb - when this happens, the bulb end welds itself (melts) and eventually, the clip burns up and destroys the bulb end cap along with it.
The "fix" according to Aquamedics is to place a small amount of white Lithium grease to the clip where is holds the bulb - before inserting the bulb - this provides a coating to the metal bulb holder and prevents salt spray from entering the connection - according to Aquamedics. It does smell a bit for a day or two and then the smell goes away - sort of like the smell you have when you buy a new car and the grease on the catalytic converter burns off.
Since it is a pain in the neck to replace these bulb holder clips and Aquamedics will provide the clips for free but they will not replace the $90 bulb - it is well worth the expense of the grease which can be purchased in any automotive or homedepot type of store.
Chris
BTW - I did have one problem with that fixture and it applies to all Aquamedics MH fixtures and pendants - the clips that hold the bulb sometimes arch over time - according to Aquamedics, this is caused by salt water entering the connector clip that holds the bulb - when this happens, the bulb end welds itself (melts) and eventually, the clip burns up and destroys the bulb end cap along with it.
The "fix" according to Aquamedics is to place a small amount of white Lithium grease to the clip where is holds the bulb - before inserting the bulb - this provides a coating to the metal bulb holder and prevents salt spray from entering the connection - according to Aquamedics. It does smell a bit for a day or two and then the smell goes away - sort of like the smell you have when you buy a new car and the grease on the catalytic converter burns off.
Since it is a pain in the neck to replace these bulb holder clips and Aquamedics will provide the clips for free but they will not replace the $90 bulb - it is well worth the expense of the grease which can be purchased in any automotive or homedepot type of store.
Chris