Show Me You Acroporas

[excentric13]

Hi there i know this might be a stupid question that has been asked before.

which is the best way to get acros to colour up.
reason for asking is i bought a wonderful acro it was white with bluish tips and now it has gone brownish and green under attinics.

Our lighting is 3x 250 halides 2 blue attinics

or could it be my chemistry

salt 1.025
ph 8.4
amo 0
nitri 0
nitra 25
cal 404
mag 1040
kh 7
phos 0.1


thanks val

[excentric13]

Bump :( i only wanted to find out why my acro is turning brown

[sgl101]

What Kelvin are the 250W halides

Regards Steve

[simon garratt]

Hi Val,

Its probably more to do with Po4 and No3 levels to be honest. 0.1ppm Po4 is quite high for SPS, and although No3 is less of a problem, it does lean towards an indication of exess organics in the system, insufficient filtration or skimming would be my guess. These are the major contributors to browning in Acros. If levels are low ie N03> 1.0ppm and Po4 > 0.03ppm then acros will pretty much colour up under any halide lighting regardless of kelvin rating as long as the intensity is there.


Regards

Si..

[excentric13]

Originally posted by simon garratt@Nov 4 2005, 10:49
Hi Val,

Its probably more to do with Po4 and No3 levels to be honest. 0.1ppm Po4 is quite high for SPS, and although No3 is less of a problem, it does lean towards an indication of exess organics in the system, insufficient filtration or skimming would be my guess. These are the major contributors to browning in Acros. If levels are low ie N03> 1.0ppm and Po4 > 0.03ppm then acros will pretty much colour up under any halide lighting regardless of kelvin rating as long as the intensity is there.


Regards

Si..
sorry to sound thick is No3 phosphate that is cumming down its 00.5 now what is best thing to get it down to 0
N03 Nitrate ?
i didnt think it was lighting they are 1000k

when you say intensity does this mean how old are my bulbs ?

thanks Val

[zimreef]

Hi,

No, NO3 is nitrate. Can be reduced or pretty much eliminated by fine-tuning your filtration methods e.g. if using live rock but haven't got enough flow around it, then increasing the water turnover will assist in reducing nitrates. If using mechanical filtration as part of a number of filtration methods then washing the filter media in fresh rather than old tank water to prevent it becoming a biological filter will also prevent nitrate buildup (if mechanical filtration is your ONLY source of filtration then don't do this!). Eliminate deadspots in the aquarium where debris can accumulate and break down by increasing water flow in that area. Lastly, can do a series of water changes but I do not advise large water changes to deal with nitrates alone but rather by ensuring the cause of the problem is dealt with which will in itself eliminate the nitrate slowly over a period of time.

Phosphate (PO4) can be reduced by use of RowaPhos or other phosphate remover - have a search on the forum for the various techniques used.

Light intensity is lost with age, but not a significant amount. It's more to do with the shift in the spectrum of light emitted when used over an extended period of time that means you have to replace bulbs. The intensity is governed by the wattage of the bulbs, and the distance away from the light source. Where are the acros placed and how far above the water surface are the halides?

I concur with Simon that the most likely cause of your brown acros is the excess nitrate and phospate

HTH

John

[excentric13]

thank you all will deal with both :D