Micro and Paly lack of color?

[Archaic37]

Quick info

40B

-Low Nutrient (0.00 Hannah Phosphate, 0 nitrates, high alk, cal and mag)

- Catered to SPS but had plenty of LPS and softies in it.

- LPS and zoas looked okay while they were in my 40B, but some weren't colored up and there was mixed growth rates.

 

20L

- All LPS and softies were transferred to a 20L about 4 weeks ago.

 

Ever since the transfer most corals have improved in color and looks. For example a hammer coral was barely making a hammer and was really stretched out. Now it is bunching up nicely and making nice hammer ends. The growth has improved too.

 

But there are a select few corals that I don't know where I should place them as far as lighting goes and they do not look like they should. I am unsure if they are browned out, bleached, not enough nutrients, too much nutrients or just need more time.

 

Corals with Issues

 

2x Micromussas

 

Both these are off to the side. The micro on left has colored up a bit due to me placing it in the shade (literally under a overhang) but I had to move it out for a picture. There is some color to it but I would consider it more purple than anything.

 

Micro on the right has been off the side of the light and hasn't done much. I had it shaded in the 40 when I noticed color loss.

 

Colony picture of micro on right (getting this from the store it looked very similar but was under lower light)

Colony picture of micro on left. WYISWG and it came in looking like this.

 

Bubble Yum paly

 

These guys came in looking fairly bleh. They have colored up slightly from basically brown to this very faint brown pink with silver skirts. They are growing well, but no color really. I have them in fairly high light and I am not sure if they should be shaded or even higher.

[Archaic37]

Bump

[jservedio]

While the pictures of the colonies are helpful, I think more information is needed - what kind of lighting and what is the schedule, what are your current nutrient levels in the 20L, and more importantly, how are the rest of the corals looking? A few pictures of happier colonies might help.

 

Also, FYI, those look way too big to be Micros - they look like regular Acan Lords. IIRC, micro's never grow more than 8mm across and the micros I have in my pico have polyps about 1/3 of the size of that and are less puffy even when fully expanded.

 

IME with acans, if they are browned out, but still fully extended it is too little light. For me, low nutrient levels never mattered for color as long as they are target fed. In my 20g, I have sub-0.5ppm of nitrates and consistently test under 10ppb of phosphorus, but still maintain acan color through target feeding. Really, really high nutrients can lead to browning out of acans, but that is pretty hard to do.

 

If you target feed them and your nutrient levels aren't through the roof (which considering your pictures aren't full of algae, doesn't seem to be a problem), it is probably just a lack of light. Give them more light and as long as you are feeding them, they should have no problem dealing with much more light.

 

As for the zoas, I only have a few colonies and less experience with them so I won't venture a guess, but since they are lagoonal, they can handle acro-levels of light. But, since they can thrive from 50 PAR to 500 PAR or more, getting your particular morph colored up can be a bigger challenge than acans.

[Archaic37]

While the pictures of the colonies are helpful, I think more information is needed - what kind of lighting and what is the schedule, what are your current nutrient levels in the 20L, and more importantly, how are the rest of the corals looking? A few pictures of happier colonies might help.

 

Also, FYI, those look way too big to be Micros - they look like regular Acan Lords. IIRC, micro's never grow more than 8mm across and the micros I have in my pico have polyps about 1/3 of the size of that and are less puffy even when fully expanded.

 

IME with acans, if they are browned out, but still fully extended it is too little light. For me, low nutrient levels never mattered for color as long as they are target fed. In my 20g, I have sub-0.5ppm of nitrates and consistently test under 10ppb of phosphorus, but still maintain acan color through target feeding. Really, really high nutrients can lead to browning out of acans, but that is pretty hard to do.

 

If you target feed them and your nutrient levels aren't through the roof (which considering your pictures aren't full of algae, doesn't seem to be a problem), it is probably just a lack of light. Give them more light and as long as you are feeding them, they should have no problem dealing with much more light.

 

As for the zoas, I only have a few colonies and less experience with them so I won't venture a guess, but since they are lagoonal, they can handle acro-levels of light. But, since they can thrive from 50 PAR to 500 PAR or more, getting your particular morph colored up can be a bigger challenge than acans.

Thanks, they are micros when compared to my acans they are deffinitely a lot smaller. From what I've read there's 2 types of micros, one has tiny heads and the other is fairly similar to an acan lord.

 

Haven't tested nitrates and phosphates but last they were was 10ppm nitrates and .04 ppm.

 

They have been coloring up slowly so I think they just need more time in a nutrient rich environment.

[jservedio]

Thanks, they are micros when compared to my acans they are deffinitely a lot smaller. From what I've read there's 2 types of micros, one has tiny heads and the other is fairly similar to an acan lord.

 

Haven't tested nitrates and phosphates but last they were was 10ppm nitrates and .04 ppm.

 

They have been coloring up slowly so I think they just need more time in a nutrient rich environment.

 

Glad they are coloring up, but they never should have browned like that even in a nutrient poor environment as long as they were getting even a tiny amount of food. I have probably a dozen different acans sitting in my acro tank (it's basically acros and acans) and haven't had nitrates in close to a year (I have recently been dosing Potassium Nitrate to slowly bring it up to around 0.2-0.5ppm) and none of them lost color. Yes, adding more nutrients got them to look a little better, but nothing like the pictures you have.

 

AFAIK, there is only one species of micromussa in the hobby - M. Amakusensis - and they look just like slightly flattened, miniature Acan Lords and the general consensus is if the polyp is under 8mm puffed up, it is a micro but you can't tell for sure unless it is dead - apparently the septae are different. The polyps are around the size of a smaller zoa and distinguishing between micos and small lords can be difficult since lords can get pretty small too (I have lords with polyps as small as just over 1cm and others over 3cm). This is the typical size of a micro polyp on a small frag plug for scale and what I am familiar with (not mine) and you could easily fit 25-30 polyps on a single 1" frag plug:

[Archaic37]

You definitely are right on it being a A. Lord. The defining factor is that a micro shares walls where as an acan lord does not.

 

As far as the browning out I am not sure, all my other acans looked fine except these two. They may have browned out since I placed them in the shade since they were getting too much light and were not opening enough.

 

Micro

 

Lord

 

[jservedio]

Thanks for looking that up! I knew there was some skeletal difference, but I didn't realize it was the shared wall. I hope a little more light and time in your take that has some nutrients will get them colored up to their original form - they are definitely awesome looking acans (from the second 2 pictures!).

 

What kind of lighting are they under?

[Archaic37]

They are under a DIY LED which has been running for 1 week and this past week things have colored up really nicely.

 

2 Luxeon M RB,

1 Vero 10 NW 90CRI

4 Rebel CB

2 Rebel Cyab

2 Rebel Deep Red

2 Rebel Lime

4 Hyper Violet