Australomussa and lighting

[FishyReef]

Until today my Australomussa coral has been looking great, feeding regularly, puffing up, expelling waste - really awesome coral! I know it's an uncommon coral and not sure if anyone else here has one, but from what I've read they seem to be pretty hardy corals once acclimated. Well, I thought mine was acclimating well (been in the tank for over a week and a half now), but today it looks like :pooh: My water params are good (ammonia <0.1 - but I measured it shortly after feeding this morning, so its likely 0 as it has been every other time I measured, 'trites 0, 'trates 10ppm, pH 8.3, temp 79.4, alk 3.5-4.0, salinity 1.023), and I've done two water changes since getting the coral. I'm trying to figure out what has changed in the last few days and the only think I can think of is lighting - I haven't changed my lights (I am running 2 AI Sol super blue units suspended about 5in about the water surface), but I have added a few more inches of water to the top of my tank which I suspect has impacted how the light is refracted by the time it reaches the bottom of the tank where I have the coral placed. How much would adding a few inches of water change the amount of light reaching my coral? Would it be enough to cause a noticeable difference/decline in behavior and coloration within a few days, or is that something that would happen over a longer period of time?

I had also adjusted a powerhead last Friday to try to better hit a deadspot where I'm getting a lot of hair algae, but moved it back to its earlier position this morning in case the change in flow was negatively affecting the coral. My understanding of this coral is that it likes low-medium light and medium-low flow. Any ideas what else I might do to improve the situation?

Edit: I should that I feel like I can see a noticeable difference in light intentsity while I'm sitting and looking at my tank today, which is what led me to think that maybe the extra water in the tank has made that much of a difference for the coral.

 

[little_fish]

How exactly does it look? is it sending off slimy things, is it retracted? More info please

 

[Northstar24]

Also, what are you running your Sol's at? I was melting corals on the bottom of my 180 when I turned them up all the way once i got them...the AI's are VERY powerful

 

[FishyReef]

Hannah, it looks like it has a layer of dust on the top of it, and it looks flatter than it normally does. While it is not a very puffy coral, the tissue at least normally looks inflated and up until today, I watched it's center regularly puff up and open and close throughout the day while it would feed and expel waste. Today it looks much flatter, some of the orange/pink coloring on the outer edge appears to be expanding inward, and its center didn't puff up at all throughout the day. It's mouth is a bright orange center, and today I could barely see its mouth almost all day. I did get a feeding response when I target fed tonight, it showed and opened its mouth, but didn't puff up. I also watched it get little divits, about the size of a needle mark, in its tissue today off and on - one would appear, then disappear, which isn't something I've witnessed before. I don't see skeleton yet, which is apparently a pretty "toothy" skeleton when it does appear that can easily damage tissue. I don't see anything that looks like a slimy coating on it, but colors do appear duller, and it appears like it has a whitish dust or powder covering it.

As far as the lights, I'll have to get back to you with the settings (they are at my office). I have tried to be careful about intensity, since I read about melting corals, etc., with the AI Sols. I did place the coral on the bottom of my tank, closer towards the center where the light is a little less intense due to the middle bar on my tank. I don't think that area gets very intense light because it is one of the few areas where I haven't experienced much algae growth - the areas with the most intensity clearly have a lot of algae at this point. I'll post actual settings as soon as I can!

 

[little_fish]

The white dusting has me worried, when my stunner chalice tried to die, it kinda flaked off its skeleton. However is there any way you can get a pic? Even with a camera phone?

 

[FishyReef]

Yes, I'll get a picture of it tomorrow with my phone (my real camera has been MIA since I last uploaded pics) and see if I can post it from work (not sure I can access flickr or not, but will do my best)

 

[little_fish]

I am also with north on the concern that the LEDs might be part of the problem, so if you could also let us know what the intensity you have your fixture running at would also be helpful.

 

[FishyReef]

I have my lights on the controller that came with the package I bought, so they are varying intensities at 14 different points throughout the day to follow the rising sun, setting sun, rising moon, setting moon)! I actually wrote them down at the end of last week because I was thinking of posting a new thread to see what other AI Sol owners had their settings at - so will post my settings as soon as I get to work in the morning! (no way I can remember all the settings off the top of my head LOL)

I also wanted to post a few other links that I've gotten info from (there isn't much out there, but I've found a few posts on other sites with pieces of info that seem helpful). You are welcome to read through them if you'd like!
Red Australomussa - Australomussa sp. | ThatPetPlace.com
australomussa rowleyensis? - Reef Central Online Community
Australomussa rowleyensis - UltimateReef.com
Australomussa....Picture thread.

Also, for comparison purposes when I post pics tomorrow, this is what it looked like from the diver's den picture - colors are obviously different because they are photographed under 20k lights (mine looks blue/hot pink under my royal blue lights, and more orange/red under my white lights) - but at least it gives an idea of puffiness, etc., at the time of purchase: Drs. Foster and Smith Diver's Den - Australomussa rowleyensis

 

[FishyReef]

Here's a pic from my camera phone


Here is a comparison pic shot under my blue lights, so colors are different but you can still see some differences in puffiness and dusty appearence on the top - the differences are more noticeable in person.


AI Sol settings are:

6:00am - White 0%, Blue 0%, Royal blue 15% - 30min ramp-up
6:30am - White 10%, Blue 20%, Royal blue 6% - 45min ramp-up
7:30am - White 30%, Blue 50%, Royal blue 0% - 60min ramp-up
8:45am - White 50%, Blue 25%, Royal blue 0% - 90min ramp-up
10:30am - White 80%, Blue 8%, Royal blue 12% - 90min ramp-up
12:30pm - White 93%, Blue 4%, Royal blue 0% - 30min ramp-up
2:30pm - White 60%, Blue 60%, Royal blue 20% - 90min ramp-up
4:00pm - White 25%, Blue 70%, Royal blue 70% - 30min ramp-up
4:30pm - White 0%, Blue 50%, Royal blue 49% - 30min ramp-up
6:00pm - White 0%, Blue 38%, Royal blue 45% - 60min ramp-up
7:00pm - White 0%, Blue 20%, Royal blue 20% - 1200min ramp-up
9:00pm - White 0%, Blue 0%, Royal blue 13% - 15min ramp-up
10:30pm - White 0%, Blue 0%, Royal blue 6% - 15min ramp-up
12:00am - White 0%, Blue 0%, Royal blue 0% - 15min ramp-up

The only changes I made between last Friday and yesterday were:
* added about 2 more inches of water to the top of the tank
* changed the lights out setting from 12:00 am to 10:30 pm (still 15min ramp-up, or more accurately ramp-down period)
* moved powerheads higher up in the water column because of the additional water in the tank
* aimed one powerhead away from the side of the tank that the coral is on to try to hit a dead spot
* aimed a second powerhead more towards the bottom to hit a second dead area

I am thinking either (a) the coral isn't getting as much light as it initially was, or (b) it isn't getting as much flow from the left-side of the tank, or (c) is getting more flow from the right-side of the tank

Let me know what other info I can provide!

 

[Northstar24]

I honestly don't think its a water penetration issue, your lighting schedule has the LED's running at 80% at points throughout the day. When I ran mine that high, I literally melted some Green Slimer Acro because I severely underestimated the amount of PAR these things put out (and when lit by LED's a tank looks far dimmer than it does with T5/MH lighting)

I'm thinking its something else. If you really are worried about the light though, blue penetrates water better than white, you may want to turn the white down during the day a little bit, and turn up blue or royal blue by the same amount

 

[FishyReef]

North, what do you run yours at now?

 

[FishyReef]

Well I have no idea why my coral looked worse the other day, but I got a huge feeding response last night so am not worried about it any more. I've come to realize that this particular coral is just super sensitive to small changes, but bounces back rather quickly. Who knows, maybe a snail walked across it the night before and that's why it looked cruddy the next day! Here are some pics of the various changes I've seen it go through in the few days

Weird divits that appear and disappear on it - see the far right side of the coral and the indentation towards the center



This is what it looked like after I moved it around a bit (and urchin got on the side of it and I moved it an inch out of the way, then moved it back after the urchin was gone) - it totally shrunk and you can easily see its toothy skeleton




This was about an hour after moving it back, you can still see some skeleton but it was puffing back up



Here it is the following morning, all puffed up



Here it is right before target feeding last night





And here is the feeding response I got!







I have to say I really love this coral - it is fascinating to watch and seems very hardy. I had no idea how it would go as a beginner coral but I think it is going to be just fine in my tank and already brings me a ton of pleasure! Can't wait to watch it grow, I have seen some more definition around the secondary eye, but hard to know if that's growth or just that its become acclimated to my tank. Regardless, I'm loving this guy!!! :Cheers:

 

[little_fish]

glad to hear it!

 

[JustinsReefTank]

Looks good!!