Fleshy Coloured Corals Sick? Lighting?

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Relofish

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
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I have several different kinds of corals all which boasted many different colours when I bought them. Since putting them in my aquarium, I have noticed that they all changed colour and now look the same pink/beige fleshy colour. I've attached a picture of my aquarium. It includes various different types of soft coral: elegance, gonipora, zoanth, polyps, mushroom, trumpet. Is this an issue with my aquarium lighting or water conditions? I have tested the water and it looks within spec. My tank is 29 gallon eclipse with two 18 watt lights (T8)? Any suggestions?
 

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I have the same setup as you. I just started a couple months ago so it only has LR and a couple Occelaris Clowns right now. I am reseaching the coral aspect. What I am hearing is that the lighting that comes with the eclipse hood is not good enough to support most corals, mabey Mushrooms if anything. Are you using the same light bulbs that came with the hood?
 
OMG 36watts only for a 29gallons, okay, that's totally not enough, you need at least a T5 or a strong PC bulbs to support those corals.
 
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You do need more lighting. That`s just regular flourecents right? You`ll need some more intensity. As mentioned some PC`s or better.
 
Yup... browning out due to lack of lighting. Without additional lighting, those corals are most likely on their way out.
 
Kurt my man you are a closer buddy way to finalize the upgrade in my friends mine

Bravo

:)
 
Also there I realized you have a blue tang on the 29 gallon, I Hope you plan to give that away when it grows 2 more inches... because that tang belongs to at least 70gallon tank.
 
Maybe he has a friend who he works with who can help him out with that problem

:)
 
The Long term plan for the Tang is to swap it for some higher powered lighting. Seriously, I went to LFS yesterday and the guy tried to sell me different bulbs (a blue and i think a replacement white light); with same or lower wattage. Would this do anything for the colour? Note that most of those corals have been living with that poor colour for up to 6 months. Are they dying or just low colour? Also, I thought soft corals were ok in lower light?
 
Those are NOT soft corals... except for the mushrooms and zoanthids, they're LPS. Yes... LPS are softer than SPS, but they have a skeleton and in no way are consider softies. Some LPS are light demanding, some are not. But none of them will survive long term with the lighting you have.

Hard to say if they're in the process of dying or not... it all depends on if they're getting supplemental feedings. If you've been target feeding them meaty foods, then they can probably last quite a while but will never be colorful. Will they be happy? No... not by any means. But they'll be alive. Kind of like keeping a human in a closet with no light all their life - they can survive, but will not be like most other humans and have some definite problems.

Color of light is not the issue, it's wattage. In order to make those corals happy, you'd need somewhere around 120W at a minimum.
 
My LFS found a retrofit kit for my tank; but it only has one 65watt bulb with both colours. Is 2 watts per gallon still to low then?
 
ok i was woundering i have some yellow polyps and thay r doing the sane thing i have a nova extreme light and i was woundering if i stack it up ant the top of the rocks neer the light will it b better for them my lfs said that the light i have is strong enough for them yet thay r loosing color fast what can i do to stop this
 
You can move them up, some like high lighting and some do not. Yellow polyps should also be spot-fed unless you normally feed heavily.
 
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