Blue discosomas gone brown?

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Hi - noobie alert!

I am just in the process of setting up a 55 gallon reef. A couple of weeks
ago I put in about 60 pounds of indo-pacific live rock (which was excellent,
it cycled in about 3 days flat!). I inherited one rock with several blue
discosomas. As things have started to mature, the discosomas have grown like
crazy but turned brown. I have a 4 tube T5 VHO lighting set-up and have
tried the disco's at both low and high positions to see if they are affected
by the light levels (I've read conflicting information about their light
requirements - literally ranging from 'must be kept in the shade' to 'must
be kept near the top of the tank under MH's).

Can anyone tell me why they are turning brown? I really liked them 'powder
blue'!

I should probably add:

pH = 8.3
SG = 1.024
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 10 ppm.
Phosphates = as near to zero as I can measure.
dkH = 7
Calcium = 400 ppm

Regards

Mark

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[Mark Elliott]

Try adding some Iodine.


> wrote in message
...
> Hi - noobie alert!
>
> I am just in the process of setting up a 55 gallon reef. A couple of weeks
> ago I put in about 60 pounds of indo-pacific live rock (which was
> excellent,
> it cycled in about 3 days flat!). I inherited one rock with several blue
> discosomas. As things have started to mature, the discosomas have grown
> like
> crazy but turned brown. I have a 4 tube T5 VHO lighting set-up and have
> tried the disco's at both low and high positions to see if they are
> affected
> by the light levels (I've read conflicting information about their light
> requirements - literally ranging from 'must be kept in the shade' to 'must
> be kept near the top of the tank under MH's).
>
> Can anyone tell me why they are turning brown? I really liked them 'powder
> blue'!
>
> I should probably add:
>
> pH = 8.3
> SG = 1.024
> Ammonia = 0
> Nitrites = 0
> Nitrates = 10 ppm.
> Phosphates = as near to zero as I can measure.
> dkH = 7
> Calcium = 400 ppm
>
> Regards
>
> Mark
>
> Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.usenet.com

[Marc Levenson]

It could be a temporary color shift that will return later.

T5 lighting is not VHO lighting. T5's are High Output,
while VHO are Very High Output. 54w vs 110w with 4 foot bulbs.

Marc


wrote:

> Hi - noobie alert!
>
> I am just in the process of setting up a 55 gallon reef. A couple of weeks
> ago I put in about 60 pounds of indo-pacific live rock (which was excellent,
> it cycled in about 3 days flat!). I inherited one rock with several blue
> discosomas. As things have started to mature, the discosomas have grown like
> crazy but turned brown. I have a 4 tube T5 VHO lighting set-up and have
> tried the disco's at both low and high positions to see if they are affected
> by the light levels (I've read conflicting information about their light
> requirements - literally ranging from 'must be kept in the shade' to 'must
> be kept near the top of the tank under MH's).
>
> Can anyone tell me why they are turning brown? I really liked them 'powder
> blue'!
>
> I should probably add:
>
> pH = 8.3
> SG = 1.024
> Ammonia = 0
> Nitrites = 0
> Nitrates = 10 ppm.
> Phosphates = as near to zero as I can measure.
> dkH = 7
> Calcium = 400 ppm
>
> Regards
>
> Mark
>
> Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.usenet.com

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