sps help

[pancake]

I am new to the hobby. I have a 12 gallon nano cube with a viper 150w MH. I have about 25-30 pounds of LR and use purigen and cheato in the back chambers. I recently purchased an ORA- acropora-frogskin and placed it about halfway up in my tank. I left the lights off for 24 hours after placing the coral. I have the MH rinning 6 hours a day and have it the farthest the arm will allow me to put it away.
The acropora is kind of brown with a little green not much.looks the same as when i got it but not like the picture. the polyps come out on the coral but just barely.
al my water perameters are zero and my temp is 77-80 and ph is 8.2.
What am a doing wrong? my coral came on friday last week has it just not had enough time? What else can i do?

 

[aquaguy24]

how old is the tank. I would have started the light aclimation with the sps at the bottom of the tank untill it looks happy then slowly up every time it looks happy again(full PE). Wat else is in the tank. Give it some time spa usually take a month to fully aclimate and start growing.

 

[pancake]

i have had the tank for two months. but it was a gift from a friend of mine and he had it running fro several years. I have 3 fish, about 10 hermits a couple snails, couple mushrooms, couple different small colonies of zoos.

 

[aquaguy24]

Wat do u have for flow. If its not bleaching or loosing color I wouldn't worry, give it time.

 

[pancake]

i just have the pump that came with the cube. Do i need a small PH?
Do you think I need to move it to the bottom of the tank? that would only be like 5-6".
I was gonna increase my lighting period an hour per week until i get to 8.
Do you think i need a protein skimmer? I do about 20% water changes every week with reef crystals and ro water.
Thanks for the help.

 

[jemshores]

I also have the same tank/setup. I would upgrade your return pump-either a Rio 600 or 900 (not sure if the 900) will fit! I use the 600. If you can find room a nano PH would be fine. The 600 takes care of my flow quite well and I removed the PH. Light acclimtion is key-mayve place him in a corner on the bottom and move (if necessary) as he starts to recover. 20% weekly is good, considering your bio-load but could probably be less if you increase your flow. Good luck!

 

[nycbob]

if everything including nitrite and nitrate r zero, then a protein skimmer may not be necessary. most sps like fast indirect flow. as long as the polyps r extended, then its doing good.

 

[pancake]

here is a pic of the acro.
it has pretty much looked the same since i got it. I moved it to the bottom of the tank. i will see if this will help. you can see the tiny polyps on one of the branches if you look closely. most were closed when i took the pic.

thanks for the help.

 

[aquaguy24]

Nice frag. It looks okay to me. Just give it time.