I have a favia and an open brain that are just not doing well in my tank. I have tried different things from flow, to lighting and they just will not regain any color. Are there any successful brain coral owners here that would be willing to give me a hand in figuring out what I am doing wrong, or even fostering them in your tank until I can figure out how to care for them properly?
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Wanted!!! Any successful Brain Coral Owner!
- Thread starter jerseyguy1996
- Start date
I don't understand it. Mine is under VHO's at the bottom of the tank. They bleached out within a week of putting them in the tank. The water conditions test very well. PH 8.2, Amm,trite,trate all test 0. Calcium 420, alk 10. Temp fluctuates a lot and I have been working on that. It floats between 78-82. On another forum it was suggested to place them in the shade because they don't like high lighting but then I hear about people keeping them under metal halides without any problem. Mine were brown/green when I got them and now one is completely white and the other is white with a bit of light flourescent green but it has lost all other color. Any ideas on what in my system may be causing them stress? My only other LPS is a torch coral which is thriving in my tank.
I just added an open brain yesterday. How do you feed it mysis shrimp? I took mysis in a syringe and shot it into the coral (slowely) and it did nothing to it.
I have a "closed" brain that I have had for several years. I do not feed it at all, it seems to do just fine. I have this guy about mid level under 2x250 XM-10K MH. This particular specimen has survived a tank move that killed off many of my SPS colonies, so this one is a survivor. He's a little bigger than fist sized.
Are you sure there isn't something that is causing your brain to bleach (ie. somebody sending out sweepers close by?). How are the other corals doing in the tank?
My water temperature in my 90 gallon fluctuates from 79 - 85 degrees almost on a daily basis (the chiller is now on my 180!). I was always under the impression that these guys were fairly hardy.
I hope things work out for your brains.
Herb
Are you sure there isn't something that is causing your brain to bleach (ie. somebody sending out sweepers close by?). How are the other corals doing in the tank?
My water temperature in my 90 gallon fluctuates from 79 - 85 degrees almost on a daily basis (the chiller is now on my 180!). I was always under the impression that these guys were fairly hardy.
I hope things work out for your brains.
Herb
For those that have it under Metal Halide. What color brains are they? I have heard that the red ones do better than the green ones under higher light. Is it possible that maybe I should allow them more light or is somewhat shaded areas still going to be better for brains?
I would guess you are not giving them enough light. You say you have VHOs which would generally be considered a low light level to medium depending on the amount of watts and Kelvin rating of the bulbs you are using.
The favia is going to want medium light which I'd guess would be high up in your tank not low. Same with the brain. However this is only a guess at this point.
What size tank is it?
How tall is the tank?
How far above the tank are the lights?
How many watts and what type of bulbs are you running?
Do you know the particular name of the favia you have and are you sure it's not a favite?
What is the particular name of the open brain. Open brain could be several things but it's important to know what type of brain.
I almost hate to say it but once they start tuning white they are often on a one-way path regardless of what you do.
Carlo
The favia is going to want medium light which I'd guess would be high up in your tank not low. Same with the brain. However this is only a guess at this point.
What size tank is it?
How tall is the tank?
How far above the tank are the lights?
How many watts and what type of bulbs are you running?
Do you know the particular name of the favia you have and are you sure it's not a favite?
What is the particular name of the open brain. Open brain could be several things but it's important to know what type of brain.
I almost hate to say it but once they start tuning white they are often on a one-way path regardless of what you do.
Carlo
What kind of flow do you have as well.
With corals it's typically flow, feeding or lighting issues.
I have favia and lobos that are doing fine mid level in a 120 gallon with a lot of flow (random) with 175w mh and vho actinics.
With corals it's typically flow, feeding or lighting issues.
I have favia and lobos that are doing fine mid level in a 120 gallon with a lot of flow (random) with 175w mh and vho actinics.
Carlo said:
What size tank is it? 50 Gallon AGA with 20L sump
How tall is the tank? 18 inches tall
How far above the tank are the lights? about 4 inches above the surface
How many watts and what type of bulbs are you running? 3X95 Watt VHO's 2 URI Aquasuns and 1 URI Superactinic
Do you know the particular name of the favia you have and are you sure it's not a favite? See pics
What is the particular name of the open brain. Open brain could be several things but it's important to know what type of brain. See pics
When I first got the open brain it looked like this.
Now it looks like this.
The favia looked like this when I got it.
Not it is pretty much all white but I don't have a picture.
120gallons said:
Flow is from 2 MJ1200's pushing water horizontally across the back of the tank. The streams are directed towards each other to hopefully give a hint of random motion. There is also some flow from my return pump which is a mag 7 with about 5 feet of head.
I think I'd get them up much higher in the tank. I'd base this on the fact that both types of coral need "moderate" amount of light. They could both use more light then "moderate" so I wouldn't be concerned at all with them getting to much in your system.
That one picture doesn't look to good. It's pretty white and I'm not sure it's going to be able to recover but keep your fingers crossed.
I think light might be one part of it but not the whole story. I don't think they would loose color that fast if it were only a light issue. Have you checked PO4 levels? Any cyano outbreaks or anything unusual on the algae front?
Anybody else got any ideas, thoughts or suggestions? Anybody disagree with moving them up higher under the lights?
Carlo
That one picture doesn't look to good. It's pretty white and I'm not sure it's going to be able to recover but keep your fingers crossed.
I think light might be one part of it but not the whole story. I don't think they would loose color that fast if it were only a light issue. Have you checked PO4 levels? Any cyano outbreaks or anything unusual on the algae front?
Anybody else got any ideas, thoughts or suggestions? Anybody disagree with moving them up higher under the lights?
Carlo
The corals actually look pretty healty except for the bleaching. Ther isn't any of the skeleton showing through the flesh or receding. I would keep the trachyphllya (open brain) where it is since it prefers soft substrates in nature. I would move the favia down to the bottom of the tank and to far right or left where the light is the dimmest. Then just watch them for at least a week or two. It easier for a coral to adapt to less light than stronger light. When the pigments come back then you start to slowly move them to where you want them to be. by moving them over and then up. Try not to raise them up more than an inch or two at a time every couple of weeks.
That's interesting Jcurry@wesketch. My thought was that, they were probably under a lot more light at the LFS then in jerseyguy1996's tank and was having trouble adjusting to lower light levels already in the tank so they were bleaching while trying to adapt to the different nutrient uptake.
This is why it's always a good idea to get multiple feedback.
Carlo
This is why it's always a good idea to get multiple feedback.
Carlo
Carlo said:
At the fish store they were under VHO's as well but his VHO's are quite a bit higher above the tank than mine. I also don't know how long they were under the VHO's in his tank.
It sounds like Jcurry@wesketch is probably correct and I went in the wrong direction.
As he said they can always adjust to lesser amounts of light easier and you can always raise them up a little at a time. I think you should follow his advice on the lights.
But I still can help but wonder if something else is off also. Have you done a phosphate test?
Carlo
As he said they can always adjust to lesser amounts of light easier and you can always raise them up a little at a time. I think you should follow his advice on the lights.
But I still can help but wonder if something else is off also. Have you done a phosphate test?
Carlo
I've never done a phosphate test. Are brain corals particularly susceptible to phosphates? I've never had a problem with anything else in the tank. I also do regular water changes to try to keep the water as pristine as possible.
I've burned a lot of corals in time and it's always been from placing them from mid tank and higher. Now I always start everything on the bottom and to the sides and then move them over and up as the weeks pass. One caveat, I only keep soft coral & some low light LPS. I have no clue about the care of those colored sticks. They may bleach from lack of light, I just don't know.
So I guess a good question to ask would be this. If I did bleach the brains by exposing them to too much light and subsequently moved them into the shade, would they be expected to color back up in the shade or would I now want to slowly start introducing them back into higher light in order to get them to color back up?