What causes an acropora to be partially brown?

Miami Reef · Apr 15, 2023

This was a beautiful all yellow mariculture acropora.

It fell behind the rock work a few months ago, and it looked like this ever since.

How can I get it colored up back the way it was when I got it? Why is it only partially colored up?

This is it right now:

neonreef3d · Apr 15, 2023

I would guess hi Po4, Testing will reveal the answer

LVMIERE · Apr 16, 2023

Honestly with ACROS, theyre super temperamental corals.

Personally had an acro that ended up completely brown after putting him in my tank and stayed that way for a couple of months. Once I started really ensuring all levels kept stable as best and not let it swing left right and center that its tips started recoloring up.

My advice,
A) place him back in his spot as I see you have already done.
B) Use a turkey baster and blast your rocks every few days, they love the **** coming off the rocks.
C) Lastly make sure youre levels are really really stable.

The rest will be history and it should color back up but time wise, be patient. I had a brown stick forest at the center of my 20gallon for 4 months in my face and sucked but if there is no STN from the base then leave him be to stabilize himself and will color back up.

Cant speak for him now, had a tank fire that took out my chiller and he has gone kaput as well as all my other acros.

May the odds be ever in your favor ;o)

thatmanMIKEson · Apr 16, 2023

Miami Reef said:
This was a beautiful all yellow mariculture acropora.

It fell behind the rock work a few months ago, and it looked like this ever since.

How can I get it colored up back the way it was when I got it? Why is it only partially colored up?

This is it right now:

View attachment 3111055

It's very encrusted, was it brown after it fell and before it encrusted? Or did it encrust on the rock then turn brown?

i cant think · Apr 16, 2023

Miami Reef said:
This was a beautiful all yellow mariculture acropora.

It fell behind the rock work a few months ago, and it looked like this ever since.

How can I get it colored up back the way it was when I got it? Why is it only partially colored up?

This is it right now:

View attachment 3111055

One of my many Acros did this and it only regained colour in my current tank after a few months (It browned out under my RS LED 50 of the Max Nano).
It’s now gained colour again and is a nice green for the most part. From what I’ve experienced Acros can really take months to colour up. That brown is likely going to be normal from it falling into the back and being under little to no light. You’ll likely find that leaving it be for a while will help it colour up to its fullest.
I’ll try find a photo of my Acro from being in the max nano to recently.

mtraylor · Apr 16, 2023

There are allot of things that can cause an sps to brown out. Like. Lighting, phosphate, lack of nutrients, swinging parms, etc. So how did that encrusted sps fall behind the rock work?

To help. You may want to give detail on what happened. Post tank parms, lighting schedule and what light you have etc. Floor in tank.

Miami Reef · Apr 16, 2023

This is how it looked the day I purchased it:

I used glue on the base that it was mounted on. It just fell randomly (glue + epoxy works much better).

I noticed it fell after a day or two. When I finally got it, it was brown. I fragged it in half and put them in different spots of the tank. Both pieces are encrusting.

I probably should post a detailed list of my parameters and system. Let me have some time to retest.

mtraylor · Apr 16, 2023

Ahh I see. Beautiful coral BTW. Great pick. I can see now that the coral was really nice and encrusted on a small rock and you didn't have to break it from the rock or anything before you mounted it.

This is all hypothetical since there is not enough to go on and then it would just be a better guess anyway. LOL. Well since this coral is maricultured. It will not be used to tank lighting and environment. Not sure if you dipped it or not, but that could play a roll in the health of it as well. But the bottom line is that it fell behind the rock work...maybe upside down or on the side with maybe bad flow etc and not much light.

The maricultured mini colony might have came from an alk in the 7's. Not sure what yours is because its not posted. You add up a coral from the ocean that is bagged up and then sent to fish store/wholesaler under simlated lighting then to your tank where it was knocked behind rock work for 2 days with no so optimum placment. I would say the coral is stressed and browned out. Simple as that.

You did what I would have done, and that is frag it. 9/10 the fragged piece if small enough will grow without the issues of the colony as its not trying to repair itself from the trauma.

When I used to purchase allot of maricultured and wild corals. i ran may alk around 7.5-7.8. Had most success of maintaining corals. Most of them morphed color within 6 months but they were alive and usually turned into something really beautiful.

Your coral has been encrusting since the day it was traumatized so its growing. So parms should be pretty good. I would probably dose a bit of amino's if all your other parms are good to give it the ability to fully heal.

AKL1950 · Apr 16, 2023

I will start by saying I am in no form or fashion an expert on corals yet, but I’ll give my own spin and see if I get slammed for it.

First, what makes a coral brown. Two things in play. Pigment produces color. Algae is brown. Just like a living plant. If the plant is not getting enough light, it’s color will turn dark green because it loads up with more chlorophyl to absorb more light. More light and it will remove chlorophyl to keep from getting to much energy at once. It has to balance the two. Corals are the same. They will absorb more photogenic algae if they are not getting enough light, which will turn them brown. Pigment produces color and helps them counter too much light just like we get a tan. Not enough light, mean more algae and less pigment producing a brown color. More light means less algae required and more pigment needed which produces vibrant color.

I suspect your light is not as intense as it was where you bought the coral and it would have turned brown even if it hadn’t fallen to a dart area. Just not as fast. It will probably stay brown until it feels it needs less photosynthesizing algae and needs more pigment to maintain the energy level it likes. This will not happen over night. Just like us tanning, it has to be done slowly. Too much light all at once will force it to dump all its photosynthesizing algae and it will turn white and die.

As others have said, stability is extremely important as well, so increasing light must be done very slowly so the coral (and all your other corals) can make the transition without getting stressed out.

Miami Reef · Apr 16, 2023

Salinity: 35ppt
Temperature: 78F
Alkalinity (Red Sea Pro): 8.9dKH
Phosphate (Hannah ULR): 0.04ppm
Nitrate (Red Sea Pro): 0.75ppm

I feed the tank a nice amount 2x/day.

I think like @AKL1950 said, the lighting might not be strong enough to get the colors I want. I think maybe the coral needs to grow more to get more light.

AKL1950 · Apr 16, 2023

Miami Reef said:
Salinity: 35ppt
Temperature: 78F
Alkalinity (Red Sea Pro): 8.9dKH
Phosphate (Hannah ULR): 0.04ppm
Nitrate (Red Sea Pro): 0.75ppm

I feed the tank a nice amount 2x/day.

I think like @AKL1950 said, the lighting might not be strong enough to get the colors I want. I think maybe the coral needs to grow more to get more light.

Another consideration may be to look at your nitrate level. Nitrates that low might be a little detrimental to good coral growth. Like all living entities, corals need nitrate to produce (build) complex proteins which are needed for a lot of normal biological functions. In the area we are discussing, that would be pigment which provides radiation protection and give the coral color. I’m not fond of letting my nitrates get up to the 15-20 range, but I like to keep it between 8-15. That way I know they have enough. If algae is a problem, I would shoot for a little less, maybe around 5. The corals will still have enough, and less nitrates will keep the algae from becoming too problematic.