brown water?

[dryDiver]

hi bro/sis, need your input. My tank water is brownish. my white anemone with purple tip has turned brown, mushrooms also turning brown, light green fluroscent zoa starting to turn brown, this is despite recent water change for the past few weeks after i notice my anemone died (i had 2 anemone in the tank, now 1 left). during my water change which is 1 pail each time, i would siphon the dirt off the sand with the bell attachment. now i have added activated carbon which has helped to clear the water abit, but the anemone, mushroom and zoa still brownish. most of the light is from the sun, not direct though. can the brownish polyps turn back to their original color?

Appreciate ur advice.

[yikai]

water parameters?

tank size?

we need all these details if not we cannot help you.

[iskay]

From your description, maybe lack of the appropriate light spectrum.

[dryDiver]

From your description, maybe lack of the appropriate light spectrum.

Hi bro, could u explain more about the light spectrum. Tks.

[iskay]

Bro DryDiver,

I'm referring to you corals turning brown. Generally, this is because the light source provided is not intense enough or of the colour spectrums appropriate for the corals.

Your aquarium light bulbs gradually gets dimmer and produces lesser and lesser Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) that the coral needs. This changes cause your corals to react accordingly. With less light, they need to produce more Zoo to produce food. Making them appear brown in colour.

Corals rely heavily on photosynthetic Zooxanthellae (Zoo) inside them for nutrition and zoos prefer light in the blue spectrum (420 nm wavelength). It is their natural behaviour to take advantage of bluer light as water filters out light and the red spectrum are filtered out faster than the bluer ones. This is why the ocean appears blue and gets bluer the deeper you go.

How lighting affects colours - http://www.liveaquaria.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=114

About aquarium lighting - http://www.liveaquaria.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=34

Solution: select the appropriate lighting and change the bulbs regularly.

With respect to brownish water, Not really sure unless you can provide some water parameters. Could be algal bloom - another topic for discussion.

[onizukaa]

browish water? try change your carbon which might help.

[stevenkoh08]

or u can use ozone

[Terryz_]

or u can use ozone

Bro, Ozone not recommended for new reefer becos it will require precise dosage and constant monitoring of the ORP level... Overdose is deadly to the fish and harmful to human if it leak out..

I would recommend carbon if your water is brown, it will clear up your water...

For the browning of the coral, as what bro iskay have mention, it is light spectrum of the light tubes... It is most probably you need to change new tubes..

Edited July 19, 2010 by Terryz_

[BFG]

hi bro/sis, need your input. My tank water is brownish. my white anemone with purple tip has turned brown, mushrooms also turning brown, light green fluroscent zoa starting to turn brown, this is despite recent water change for the past few weeks after i notice my anemone died (i had 2 anemone in the tank, now 1 left). during my water change which is 1 pail each time, i would siphon the dirt off the sand with the bell attachment. now i have added activated carbon which has helped to clear the water abit, but the anemone, mushroom and zoa still brownish. most of the light is from the sun, not direct though. can the brownish polyps turn back to their original color?

Appreciate ur advice.

You can't depend on the sun all the time. You need additional light supplementation to have nice coral color. How long has this tank been set up?

[dryDiver]

hi all, appreciate ur help.

The charcoal is surely helping to clear the water.

Started this 4ft tank with 3ft sump in May2010 with sand n rocks from my old 3ft tank that was running for a year.

Yes tks for the info on the light, i will get the blue light replaced n probably switch on for a few hours a day.

Will check water parameters soon. but i think should be within range cus i add karlwatzer twice a week, dose trace elements n iodine once a week each, n recently changed water.

Question: can frozen nanochloropsis used to feed corals cause the water to turn brown when no wc done? doesnt it get trap in the filter wool?

[BFG]

How many tube and wattage of light are you using? Did you know, for T5 lights, you'll need to replace them yearly? Otherwise, the light spectrum will decay and would encourage algae to grow instead of coral. For sps keeper, 9 month is the max.

When you remove the sand and rock from the 3ft to the 4ft, it might start another cycle. Hence, the live rock and sand are not a year old, they are a couple of months old. Not enough beneficial bacteria to cope with the load.

Adding kalkwasser should be done after lights off to maintain ph as well as topping up of tank water. It should not be dosed straight into the tank. Kalkwasser should be added in ro/di water and dosed into the sump to maintain ph level as well as water volume.

[dryDiver]

hi iskay, ur links to light spectrum is good. tks

How lighting affects colours - http://www.liveaquar...cle.cfm?aid=114

About aquarium lighting - http://www.liveaquar...icle.cfm?aid=34

[iskay]

You're welcome. guessing is not a good way to determine your water parameters.

For fluorescent tubes, change every 6 to 12 months depending on photoperiod.

[dryDiver]

here are the tests results nitrate 20ppm, phosphate 0 ppm, ammonis 0 ppm. would be glad to hear ur analysis