Coral Browning

[tmtoucan]

I've had my tank set up for about two years now and I've noticed that over the past year my colony of mushroom coral has went from green to brown. I believe its a member of the genus Rhodactis, common name: Tonga blue mushroom. The coral is currently in a 40 gallon breeder at mid depth with two 96 power compacts for lighting, one is 10,000k and the other actintic. Also I've placed it in an area of low water flow and feed it phtoplankton about twice a week. I was hoping someone could tell me whats wrong and what I'd need to do to fix it. Also I've had trouble finding information on the dietry of this species so any info. on that would help as well.

 

[dburr]

How old are your lights?

 

[ssweet1]

I second dburr comment check your lights and keep an eye on the water temperature.

 

[tmtoucan]

The lights are two months old, but the ones before that were 1.5 years, I know I'm suppose to change them every 8 months So could the coral browning be an after effect of the over burt bulbs?

 

[tmtoucan]

Waters temp. 81 F

 

[tony detroit]

How clean do you keep your water. What is your maintenance procedure? Describe your filtration in detail?
Pretty hard to brown out mushrooms. I wouldn't feed them either. They can get whatever they need on their own.

 

[verde_ad]

I would guess it is a light issue. Usually when corals turn brown it is because they are adapting to less light or less usefull light. The zooxanthellae are a brown collar and they convert the light in your sytem into food for your mushrooms. Meaning, less light = more zooxanthellae = more brown.