Browning of corals

[kerry]

I dont use any kind of filter media at all. Its food the coral can eat if its allowed to return to the tank.

[SantaMonica]

I added one bag of high quality carbon and one bag of purigen to be on safe side and to stop coral browning.
To my big frustration nothing changed at all after one month. Blue acropora is still brown

You might note that most sps scrubber tanks do not have browning problems; only people with browning problems come to this site for answers. Using carbon to remove DOCs to fix browning is not a fix, and certainly not an established fix across many forums. Most sps scrubber tanks, on most forums, work great. So they don't come here. You only would know this, of course, if you spend time on 30 forums like I do. Only a few people, on this site, have said carbon has worked for them. Even Vanpytt is on RC now, asking what to do to fix his, since removing the scrubber did not help.

BTW what is brown mud that is collected inside filter bag when I use it ? Water seems absolutely clear , but amount of that stuff filter removes is frightening. And why it is not recommended to use filter bag in ATS system ?

It's food particles. And that's why.

[kotlec]

I am really not hanging on 30 forums and I never said I dont trust you SM. I'm not going to remove my scrubber as well as it controls P and N very nicely.
Statement that some people not have browning and few have does not help me in any way. I thing my single side 6x7 screen lit by 8 660nm leds and flushed by 600l/h for 16 hours must handle 1/10 of cube food with ease.

[Doompie]

Though About this allot..and the only real conclusion I can make is the display lights, or ca mg and str limiting..t5s should be replaced at least every 8 months, 6 even better. LEDs are still too experimental for me..I still believe the spectrum is incomplete most of the times..I've bought some frags which where all brown..after just 1 week most of the original color is already there..so i think docs cannot be the real browning issue..also I experience better SPS colors when only adding lime water as top off water..maybe the browning is because of growth limiting by a leak of ca and mg in combination with high feeding (much light and doc)..so to slow down growth, the coral algae browns..?

[kotlec]

Doompie,

I really noticed lack of Ca in my tank. I am strugling to raise it to proper region all the time. I am using DIY kalkwaser together with ATO and for raising calcium I use Tropic Marine Biocalcium. To prove it right or wrong I need to find way to rise Ca to proper levels and to maintain for some time at least. Or do you have other ideas ?

When I talk about SPS crazy growth , thats what I mean : May to December.




2011.12

[chrisfraser05]

WOW!!!!

I hope to see something like that one day lol

[dtyharry]

If you google some research on browning of corals it usually comes down to two issues, excess inorganic nutrients in the form of nitrogen which in aquaria is usually in the form of nitrate, in the ocean most nitrogen comes from ammonia. The other is insufficient light. The light issue is easy to remedy.
With regards to nutrients it is worth bearing in mind that even if your nitrate test kit is reading undetectable, the level is probably many times that of a natural reef, maybe ten to twenty times or even more. In such circumstances the zooanthellae algae can multiply without any help from their coral host and result in the browning that is often seen. Solution is to scrub even harder.
DOC is completely separate I believe and is to do with increased microbial growth smothering the coral and starving it of oxygen.

[kotlec]

1.Does increasing light for scrubber even more sounds right solution ? My screen was never green. It is rather yellow .

2. Does filtering out some food is better solution as I would be happy to reduce growth of SPS's as well. They already touching each other and I need to prune them on constant basis. Especially birdsnest ones.

3. Any other thing to try ?

[chrisfraser05]

The colour of the algae one I can deal with

Yellow means the light is too strong for the amount of flow really. Reducing light will reduce the amount of filteration however so the solution is to increase flow

[kotlec]

Thats may be worth to try !