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Thread: Did We Ever Figure Out the Brown SPS Issue?

  1. #1

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    Did We Ever Figure Out the Brown SPS Issue?

    I've been a busy lil beaver over the last year and have been incognito to say the least.

    I know this was a debate, and hope no one gets butt-hurt bringing it up again. Anyway, what I recall (correct me if wrong) was a problem (mine also) of browning SPS on scrubber only systems. This appeared to be helped some by running GAC.

    Of course, none of what was posted was definitive, mostly a lot of anecdotal reports. Just curious if any new info arose.

    I'm currently scrubber less; relying on PWCs and GFO/GAC to filter. But I'm itching to be done with that biz once my new Ca reactor shows up.

  2. #2
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    I have this unsolved. Blue acros always end up in brown. But green acros always nice green. Another mystery or possibly key...

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aeros View Post
    ...and hope no one gets butt-hurt bringing it up again...
    LOL

    I don't think there was a definitive answer, and there might not be for a while since no one is really experimenting with this.

    But I think that a good approach to keeping SPS has always been very clean water (low waste nutrients) and a very high diversity of life, which means the inclusion of some kind of macro algae for pod and mysid generation to provide for a larger food web.

    This means: scrubber, skimmer, an carbon, at a minimum, IMO. Small amount or carbon, changed weekly, and MAYBE a small amount of GFO (very small).

    If phosphate is very low without GFO running, it can probably be left out. If phosphate remains consistent at low levels (0.02 ish) then a very small amount of regular GFO is in order. Do NOT use high-capacity BRS or Premium Aquatics Phos-blast/ROWAphos, both of which have much higher capacity and will pull down P to the point of limitation, quickly. BTW, if you do have a bad phos problem and regular GFO is not solving it, the high-capacity stuff or Phos-blast/ROWA works many times better and faster.

  4. #4
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    Yes, run some GAC and a skimmer. Problem solved. Scrubber kept my po4 on check so didnt need gfo.

  5. #5
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    Many folks have great colors with scrubber-only. Not pale like with zeo, but good.

  6. #6
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    Once you learn how zoothanthellae grows (nutrient and lighting requirements) the answer becomes crystal clear to the 'browning' issue.

    Bottom line, if you have brown corals that look healthy other than the color, you have either too much nutrients, too much lighting, or both. Algae scrubbers most certainly will aid in the browning of corals due to the nutrients it gives off. Some systems can handle the excess without causing browning, but for most people, it is one of the major issues with using an ATS only for an SPS tank. Most of us on here have enough experience with algae scrubbers now to see the issues they create for the majority, and take steps to control them (ie. GAC/GFO as needed). I am pretty sure Floyd has by far the most experience with the most amount of tanks to be able to give a good synopsis on all the different 'results' he has seen on the dozens/hundreds of ATS's he has sold and supported now, and from what I have read from him the results run the entire range of 'doesn't seem to help much' to 'solved all the issues with the tank', which just shows how different things can be between different tanks.

  7. #7
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    Came across this while searching for affects of yellowing compounds, don't know whether it would actually get to the zooxanthellae though, to produce this affect;

    http://aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_13/issue_4/0598.pdf

    ABSTRACT Humic substances, in small amounts, exert a stimulatory effect on marine dinoflagellates that is reflected in increased yield, growth rate, and ‘“C uptake. Humic acid was found to be more active than fulvic acid; in both cases the growth responses were dependent on concentration. Of the various fractions isolated, the low molecular weight fractions of humic acid produced the greatest growth response in unialgal cultures of dinoflagellates. The positive effect of humic substances on phytoplankton growth is, for the most part, independent of nutrient concentration and cannot be attributed entirely to chelation processes. It appears that growth enhancement in the presence of humic substances is linked with stimulation of algal cell metabolism. Because of their high concentrations in coastal waters, humic substances may thus be regarded as an ecologically significant entity influencing phytoplanktonic production

  8. #8

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    I never had problems with coloration and polyp extension on any of my sps corals while I was using turbos L2 but I did had hair algae problems. I had Oregon tort, Shades of fall nasuta, strawberry fields, ice fire, plus a lot more they were all frags but never lost any color at all.

  9. #9
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    I added a bit of carbon when I had just the L2 running.. the difference for me was incredible.. withing a few hours the water was so clear it looked like the fish where floating. Within a week my 1yr old cap when from pale do bright red/orange, my red plannet was red again and my tabling acro started getting blue tips.

    The scrubber still had my nitrate and po4 at 0. but the corals wanted something more. In this case probably something less..

    Since that Happened I stopped feeding like i was, And my corals kept growing at the same rate.

    I still preach the scrubber only tank for softies and lps tanks, but for sps Carbon and/or skimming is a must If you want your sps to look as good as they can. In my experience.

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