Neptune Aquatics

Why Isn't My Incredible Hulk Acro Incredibly Green?

bluprntguy

bluprntguy

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Figured I would throw this out to the group to see what the recommendations are for getting my frag of Incredible Hulk Acropora to color up. Here's the problem in a nutshell:

IncredibleHulk_zpsd31a7414.jpg


Here's my parameters:

SG: 1.025 (Refractometer)
Phosphate: .02 - .04 (Hanna)
Nitrates .2 - .5 (Salifert)
Alk: 9-10 (Hanna)
CA: 450-480 (Elos)
Magnesium 1480'ish (Elos)
Lighting: AI Hydra (switched from Maxspect a few months ago)

I run biopellets and feed reef snow and aqua vitro "fuel" a few times a week. Everyone else in the tank seems to be doing well and getting lots of color under the newish AI lights.

So I had this guy at the very top because ATL said "high light" and "high flow". He was also in my sump for a while because the snails knocked him off the rock and into an acan and I thought he would be safer down there while he healed. He's probably tripled in size since I got him maybe three months ago.

I think most of the damage was from too much light because he seems to be doing better and have better PE now that he's sitting on the sand bed, but he's been down there a month or two and I don't see any green coming in.

If he's like the red planet frag that I have then lower light would lead to more green, but I'd have to put him in a corner or under a ledge to get him any less light.

Any thoughts on the best thing to do?
 
Did they mention what their lighting temps were? And what their lighting rig was? Even on top of that, we may not know the color correction.

Still, I would assume it to be way much more green regardless. =(
 
They run a combination of metal halides and T5's at 20K I think. I actually picked it up in person and she fragged it while I was there. I'd say the photo is fairly representative of how it actually looked in person.
 
In my experience with LED's........they often change the color of coral. I have a few things that took several months to get back to the original color. Possibly from Stress, possibly just from different tank params from where it came from. I like that you moved it down. IMO it looks pretty happy where it is. I would let it be for another month and see if the color begins to return......then you can start a slow move toward the light. I have a strawberry shortcake that has been in the tank about 3-4 months now. It has been a very dull grey color most of that time, however growing quite well. I moved it to a lower light spot and over the last month, its begun to get some color. I have hopes it will continue. Your params look awesome, so it seems you are giving it the best chance possible to color up. Good luck.
 
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