orange/red digitata turned pink

I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it looked great
and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it started turning pink
and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost white pink. I've been
reading about coral bleaching but nothing really matches my situation.
These have been pink for over a month, maybe even a couple of months. The
store I bought it from has his "parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of light
from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do
you have? Is the lighting brighter in your tank than
the store's tank? Going to a brighter tank, can
cause them to lighten their colors, and it can also
cause them to darken their colors. Also different
nutrient levels in the water can also make a change
in lightness and darkness of corals. And other
factors of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:
I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it looked great
and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it started turning pink
and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost white pink. I've been
reading about coral bleaching but nothing really matches my situation.
These have been pink for over a month, maybe even a couple of months. The
store I bought it from has his "parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of light
from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's lighting
is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his corals are a
couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star polpys, etc
at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness up. I
do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and phosphate
tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further examine this
problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely see
the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the blue-green
damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...
Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is the
lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a brighter
tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can also cause them
to darken their colors. Also different nutrient levels in the water can
also make a change in lightness and darkness of corals. And other factors
of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:
I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it looked
great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it started
turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost white pink.
I've been reading about coral bleaching but nothing really matches my
situation. These have been pink for over a month, maybe even a couple of
months. The store I bought it from has his "parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of
light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

You still have other corals besides the montipora.
And star polyps are still in the Anthozoa class. Yea
I can see the montipora in the picture.

I don't see anything in there that would cause a
problem.
What's the reason again that you have that bottle in
there?

How are your other corals doing? Or maybe I should
ask, how are you other Anthozoa doing?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:43 PM:
Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's lighting
is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his corals are a
couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star polpys, etc
at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness up. I
do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and phosphate
tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further examine this
problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely see
the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the blue-green
damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...
Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is the
lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a brighter
tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can also cause them
to darken their colors. Also different nutrient levels in the water can
also make a change in lightness and darkness of corals. And other factors
of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:
I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it looked
great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it started
turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost white pink.
I've been reading about coral bleaching but nothing really matches my
situation. These have been pink for over a month, maybe even a couple of
months. The store I bought it from has his "parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of
light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

How strong are his halides? Montiporas like a lot of light, but not like
acros do. Could be some but not all of the zooanthellae have been thrown
off (perhaps just one type, but not another - hence the color change
instead of full blown bleaching...)

My first thing to try would be move the digitata lower..


err... just looked at the jpg... it ain't that high up to begin with (I
don't keep my sps any deeper than 2-4 inches below water line myself)



Wayne Sallee wrote:

You still have other corals besides the montipora. And star polyps are
still in the Anthozoa class. Yea I can see the montipora in the picture.

I don't see anything in there that would cause a problem.
What's the reason again that you have that bottle in there?

How are your other corals doing? Or maybe I should ask, how are you
other Anthozoa doing?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:43 PM:

Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's
lighting is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his
corals are a couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star polpys,
etc at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness
up. I do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and
phosphate tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further
examine this problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely
see the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the
blue-green damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...

Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is the
lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a
brighter tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can
also cause them to darken their colors. Also different nutrient
levels in the water can also make a change in lightness and darkness
of corals. And other factors of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:

I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it
looked great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it
started turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say
almost white pink. I've been reading about coral bleaching but
nothing really matches my situation. These have been pink for over a
month, maybe even a couple of months. The store I bought it from
has his "parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of
light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

Wayne that cracks me up. I do remember you asking me that "glass in the
tank" question months ago but I never got back to you.
I had two decorative Kahlua bottles that I was using for decoration. They
have long since been removed as I needed the space for live rock and
livestock.

Fungia coral doing well, zoos look good and are multiplying well, trumpets
multiply too fast it seems. -They split before they are finished with the
previous split and the stalks aren't growing fast enough to give them room
between each other. Red Lobo brain didn't make it. Right from the start it
also turned to pink and was bony for months. One day I just gave up on
it... or it gave up on me I should say. I just cut a ton of growth off my
star polyps and gave some to the LFS. Getting an aiptasia problem. Inject
one and two pop up. I'll probably "rent" a Berghia to help here.
Everything seems to be fine or 'normal'. I'm getting tired of cleaning the
green algae off the glass though. haha. I have trace phosphates and very
little, indirect sunlight hitting the tank, definitely not over feeding.
The halides are feeding the algae and I can't do much about it.

Getting an aiptasia problem. Inject one and two pop up. I'll probably
"rent" a Berghia to help here.

B


"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
link.net...
You still have other corals besides the montipora. And star polyps are
still in the Anthozoa class. Yea I can see the montipora in the picture.

I don't see anything in there that would cause a problem.
What's the reason again that you have that bottle in there?

How are your other corals doing? Or maybe I should ask, how are you other
Anthozoa doing?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:43 PM:
Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's
lighting is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his corals
are a couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star polpys,
etc at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness up.
I do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and phosphate
tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further examine this
problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely see
the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the blue-green
damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...
Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is the
lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a
brighter tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can also
cause them to darken their colors. Also different nutrient levels in the
water can also make a change in lightness and darkness of corals. And
other factors of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:
I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it looked
great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it started
turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost white
pink. I've been reading about coral bleaching but nothing really
matches my situation. These have been pink for over a month, maybe even
a couple of months. The store I bought it from has his "parent" frags
growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of
light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

Yea it doesn't need to be lowered.

I've grown montiport right up to the surface of the
water under 400w mh lights where the bulbs were
about 10" above the water. Of course the corals
don't grow very far out of the water :-)

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


Add Homonym's home account wrote on 3/12/2007 3:04 PM:
How strong are his halides? Montiporas like a lot of light, but not like
acros do. Could be some but not all of the zooanthellae have been thrown
off (perhaps just one type, but not another - hence the color change
instead of full blown bleaching...)

My first thing to try would be move the digitata lower..


err... just looked at the jpg... it ain't that high up to begin with (I
don't keep my sps any deeper than 2-4 inches below water line myself)



Wayne Sallee wrote:

You still have other corals besides the montipora. And star polyps are
still in the Anthozoa class. Yea I can see the montipora in the picture.

I don't see anything in there that would cause a problem.
What's the reason again that you have that bottle in there?

How are your other corals doing? Or maybe I should ask, how are you
other Anthozoa doing?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:43 PM:

Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's
lighting is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his
corals are a couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star
polpys, etc at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness
up. I do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and
phosphate tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further
examine this problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely
see the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the
blue-green damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...

Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is
the lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a
brighter tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can
also cause them to darken their colors. Also different nutrient
levels in the water can also make a change in lightness and darkness
of corals. And other factors of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:

I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it
looked great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it
started turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say
almost white pink. I've been reading about coral bleaching but
nothing really matches my situation. These have been pink for over
a month, maybe even a couple of months. The store I bought it from
has his "parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty
of light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

All sounds good except:

your brain bleaching and dying, and then your
montipora looking the same. Sounds like some low
levels of toxin in the water like coper. Coper would
not show up on a test kit as it would be too low for
any hobby test kit to catch.

What kind of water are you using?

Also try adding some milk of magnesium.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 5:27 PM:
Wayne that cracks me up. I do remember you asking me that "glass in the
tank" question months ago but I never got back to you.
I had two decorative Kahlua bottles that I was using for decoration. They
have long since been removed as I needed the space for live rock and
livestock.

Fungia coral doing well, zoos look good and are multiplying well, trumpets
multiply too fast it seems. -They split before they are finished with the
previous split and the stalks aren't growing fast enough to give them room
between each other. Red Lobo brain didn't make it. Right from the start it
also turned to pink and was bony for months. One day I just gave up on
it... or it gave up on me I should say. I just cut a ton of growth off my
star polyps and gave some to the LFS. Getting an aiptasia problem. Inject
one and two pop up. I'll probably "rent" a Berghia to help here.
Everything seems to be fine or 'normal'. I'm getting tired of cleaning the
green algae off the glass though. haha. I have trace phosphates and very
little, indirect sunlight hitting the tank, definitely not over feeding.
The halides are feeding the algae and I can't do much about it.

Getting an aiptasia problem. Inject one and two pop up. I'll probably
"rent" a Berghia to help here.

B


"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
link.net...
You still have other corals besides the montipora. And star polyps are
still in the Anthozoa class. Yea I can see the montipora in the picture.

I don't see anything in there that would cause a problem.
What's the reason again that you have that bottle in there?

How are your other corals doing? Or maybe I should ask, how are you other
Anthozoa doing?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:43 PM:
Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's
lighting is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his corals
are a couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star polpys,
etc at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness up.
I do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and phosphate
tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further examine this
problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely see
the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the blue-green
damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...
Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is the
lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a
brighter tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can also
cause them to darken their colors. Also different nutrient levels in the
water can also make a change in lightness and darkness of corals. And
other factors of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:
I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it looked
great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it started
turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost white
pink. I've been reading about coral bleaching but nothing really
matches my situation. These have been pink for over a month, maybe even
a couple of months. The store I bought it from has his "parent" frags
growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of
light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

thanks Wayne.

I'm afraid I started making my own water from.... sigh tap without RODI...
a long time back. Actually it was after the brain coral started changing
but maybe it didn't help. The water quality out here is very good and I
watched a fish store's tanks for a while that also made their water w/out
the RODI factor. I was afraid that my water may be a factor but then again,
I saw the brain turn before making my own water. Alas, maybe it would have
gotten better if I kept buying the RODI.

So I'll have to do a water change and test this. Thanks for the copper idea
and the help. I'll let you know the results.

B


"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
link.net...
All sounds good except:

your brain bleaching and dying, and then your montipora looking the same.
Sounds like some low levels of toxin in the water like coper. Coper would
not show up on a test kit as it would be too low for any hobby test kit to
catch.

What kind of water are you using?

Also try adding some milk of magnesium.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 5:27 PM:
Wayne that cracks me up. I do remember you asking me that "glass in the
tank" question months ago but I never got back to you.
I had two decorative Kahlua bottles that I was using for decoration.
They have long since been removed as I needed the space for live rock and
livestock.

Fungia coral doing well, zoos look good and are multiplying well,
trumpets multiply too fast it seems. -They split before they are
finished with the previous split and the stalks aren't growing fast
enough to give them room between each other. Red Lobo brain didn't make
it. Right from the start it also turned to pink and was bony for months.
One day I just gave up on it... or it gave up on me I should say. I just
cut a ton of growth off my star polyps and gave some to the LFS. Getting
an aiptasia problem. Inject one and two pop up. I'll probably "rent" a
Berghia to help here. Everything seems to be fine or 'normal'. I'm
getting tired of cleaning the green algae off the glass though. haha. I
have trace phosphates and very little, indirect sunlight hitting the
tank, definitely not over feeding. The halides are feeding the algae and
I can't do much about it.

Getting an aiptasia problem. Inject one and two pop up. I'll probably
"rent" a Berghia to help here.

B


"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
link.net...
You still have other corals besides the montipora. And star polyps are
still in the Anthozoa class. Yea I can see the montipora in the picture.

I don't see anything in there that would cause a problem.
What's the reason again that you have that bottle in there?

How are your other corals doing? Or maybe I should ask, how are you
other Anthozoa doing?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:43 PM:
Thanks Wayne,

My lighting equipment is the same as the store however the store's
lighting is probably about 4+ inchies higher off the water and his
corals are a couple of inches deeper in the tank.

This is my first coral. I have other items like a torch, star polpys,
etc at the bottom of the tank but no corals like the digitata.

All water tests seem fine except I do fight to keep my water hardness
up. I do the typical ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, calcium and
phosphate tests. Can you think of one I might check into to further
examine this problem, if it is one?

http://www.geocities.com/bryg30/83106-fulltank.jpg -you can barely
see the red/orange digitata in the upper right (under one of the
blue-green damsels) back when it was its original color.

-Bryan




"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
ink.net...
Do you have other corals? If so what other corals do you have? Is the
lighting brighter in your tank than the store's tank? Going to a
brighter tank, can cause them to lighten their colors, and it can also
cause them to darken their colors. Also different nutrient levels in
the water can also make a change in lightness and darkness of corals.
And other factors of water conditions can cause a change.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


*Mr No name* B wrote on 3/12/2007 1:55 AM:
I bought a orangish red digitata frag several months ago and it
looked great and grew fast for a long while. Over a month ago it
started turning pink and now it's very pink, I'm afraid to say almost
white pink. I've been reading about coral bleaching but nothing
really matches my situation. These have been pink for over a month,
maybe even a couple of months. The store I bought it from has his
"parent" frags growing great.

Any idea why this happens and what I can do? It's getting plenty of
light from my halides and actinics.

Thanks for the advice.

B

It may be that I just missed it, but what is the temperature in your
tank? That could be a major factor in the bleaching. Are you sure it
was a digitata and not a Seriotopora sp. ? Any leather corals close
to it?

-Rob