coral help

[ubasst]

i bought some purple and some green acro frags from a friend after a week they started to turn white does this mean they died..very dissapointed they were so nice.i have a 30 gall with 170 watts of 10k and actinic lighting..i plan on buying a stronger metal halide light if i have this type of lighting will i be able to save them or is it too late.

 

[Hazmat]

It sounds like thay are ready to go if their not allready........
I would say it's more then likely your lights. Most coral's need MH lights.
Give them back to your friend ASAP untill you get your MH.

One question How big is your tank and how long has it been running??
Ok that's two

Hazmat

 

[ostrow]

170 watts of 10K... what type of lighting? Or is that the actinic?

Anyway, you can have 500W of metal halide and still have frags go RTN or STN on you (rapid tissue necrosis or slow tissue necrosis). No definite diagnosis of the cuase of either condition. How quickly did they go white on you? Was it over hours or days? Did you see tissue sloughing off?

Either way, your corals are already dead. Use them for rubble rock/attaching frags in the future. It is not necessarily anything you did, although you need to check all water paramaters, and that means all (temp, sg, ca, dkh, ammo, nitrite, nitrate, ph required, and others if you have the tests). You may find something in the tests, but you may not.

 

[Great Lakes]

It usually is lighting, and they do need a good flow also. Also, if they were wild fragged colonies instead of propagated, your chances worsen.

GL

 

[ostrow]

Good point, GL. But RTN can happen for no known reason at all. Happens to Mr. Shimek periodically, so can happen to anyone.

 

[Great Lakes]

RTN is an issue, but to all at the same time? Least he got all of them from the same source?

GL

 

[ostrow]

When I had a short RTN spell, I lost 3 corals in 2 days. I beleive it often occurs as an explosion, one to the other really fast.

 

[Great Lakes]

I am glad I don't find Acro all that attractive.

GL

 

[ste2k3]

I don't think it is the lighting. although lighting could be the problem, I don't think it would have had such a sudden effect. With the tank only being 30 gallon, there could be temp fluctuations as well as things such as Ph crashing at night. also, unless you have an auto top-up, then you could have S.G fluctuations. all these could have caused the problems. if the tank has a lot of soft corals in, then there could be fighting. if the tank is new, then you probably won't have the stability there yet. How much flow is there and make sure they wern't touching any other corals.

ste

 

[ostrow]

All excellent points ste, right on.

GL, you have been looking at the wrong acros!!! If you pass through Chicago you can have as much xenia and kenya tree as you want