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jhale

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spykes said:
any type of iodine treatment will brown out a acro.
thanks Kasei and Dave, as this is the advanced forum I was hoping to get a reason why this happens, I know that it does :bablefish

what does the iodine do to the sps to cause the coral to loose it's color and turn brown? is it killing off all the zooxanthellae, the algae, that gives to sps it's color?
if so then why would some of the coral retain more color than others :scratchch

where are all our site scientists when you need them?
 

meschaefer

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jhale said:
thanks Kasei and Dave, as this is the advanced forum I was hoping to get a reason why this happens, I know that it does :bablefish

what does the iodine do to the sps to cause the coral to loose it's color and turn brown? is it killing off all the zooxanthellae, the algae, that gives to sps it's color?
if so then why would some of the coral retain more color than others :scratchch

where are all our site scientists when you need them?

ME
:iamwithst

I apologize if you were offended by the comment.

I don't think that the iodine in killing off the zooxanthellae. If the zooxanthellae where killed off the coral would expel them, resulting in bleaching as opposed to browning.

Iodine is a complex substance. expecially in reef aquaria. While an important trace element, it can be lethal when overdosed. As I understand it when dipping you are basicly creating an unlivable enviroment for the AEFW. It either needs to move out the enviroment or die. I beleive that the same would be true for the coral, and as such the coral would be very stressed. Stressed corals, have a tendancy to brown (thank your for stating the obvious)

Another possibility is that the iodine is actually a benefit to the zooxathellae, the only thing that has been definiatively demonstrated to use iodine in a reef aquarium, is algae. Zooxanthellae is an alaga, the possibility exists that the dip is a boost to the zooxanthellae causing them to reproduce in greater numbers. WHile zooxanthellae contributes to the corals color, it is also primarly brown.
 
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Dace

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i do think TMPC is alittle to strong for the corals especially if you leave the coral in too long. Ive had better results with lugol's solution with there recommended dosage and it does not bleach corals as bad. just my 2 cents
 

Quang

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DaRealDvs1 said:
Jon:
Besides the TMPC dip, would the sudden break-down of your established system & then basically setting up new........contribute to the color loss?
J, I remember you feeding your fish a lot too. Maybe having less nutrients in your water would play a factor in the colors browning?
 
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meschaefer said:
ME
:iamwithst

I apologize if you were offended by the comment.

I don't think that the iodine in killing off the zooxanthellae. If the zooxanthellae where killed off the coral would expel them, resulting in bleaching as opposed to browning.

Iodine is a complex substance. expecially in reef aquaria. While an important trace element, it can be lethal when overdosed. As I understand it when dipping you are basicly creating an unlivable enviroment for the AEFW. It either needs to move out the enviroment or die. I beleive that the same would be true for the coral, and as such the coral would be very stressed. Stressed corals, have a tendancy to brown (thank your for stating the obvious)

Another possibility is that the iodine is actually a benefit to the zooxathellae, the only thing that has been definiatively demonstrated to use iodine in a reef aquarium, is algae. Zooxanthellae is an alaga, the possibility exists that the dip is a boost to the zooxanthellae causing them to reproduce in greater numbers. WHile zooxanthellae contributes to the corals color, it is also primarly brown.

I kind of agreed your analysis, especially killing off zooxanthellae will cause bleaching not browning.

BTW I have always suspected Jhale's SPS always having brown colors in the old tank are due to the high nitrate levels contrary to froggie's idea.

Jhale, stay put and win the battle.
 
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jhale

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wingo :smash: what are you reffering to? what brown SPS?

don't make me have to post pics of my coral pre pro cure dip!

are you thinking of the hundreds of brown pocilipora colonies growing in my tank?
:arg: what happened to this thread ?
 

Quang

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Errrr....Wingo, by nutrients, I'm not meaning that Jhale's old tank had high levels of nitrate, phosphate, silicate and such.... maybe I used the wrong wording and misguided you.
And he never had brown corals:arg:
What I meant is that he always had an availability of food particles floating around his tank to which his SPS might have used for growth. I'm suggesting a changing in his feeding regimen and unavailability of food particles might explain his SPS responding by losing their colors.

I always thought Jhale had deep and full coloration on his corals unlike the really pasty, pastel colors in other people's tank I've seen...and I always attributed this difference to his feeding methods.
 

Quang

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Phil, what I'm suggesting is more nutrients/food particle = better color.
and now that his system is new and he doesnt feed as often, his corals is not used to that and is responding by producing more zoanthallae to produce the necessary energy, resulting in browning.

This is my line of reasoning:
browning result of increase in zooxanthellae
increase in zooxanthellae result of requiring food/energy through means of light
increase requiring food/energy through means of light due to decrease in other food producing methods
another food/energy producing method in SPS is taking particles/nutrients from the water
so with less particles/nutrients in the water....more zoanthellae was created to produce the necesarry food/energy the SPS needs

Hope that explains my line of reasoning, however flawed it may be :P
 
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jhale

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actually I am feeding my tank a lot of mysis and cyclopeeze, maybe not as much as before, but enough to keep the three fish and hermits happy.
I tested there was a trace amount of No3 today.
 
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jhale said:
wingo :smash: what are you reffering to? what brown SPS?

don't make me have to post pics of my coral pre pro cure dip!

are you thinking of the hundreds of brown pocilipora colonies growing in my tank?
:arg: what happened to this thread ?

Jhale, I mean the brown ones that you gave me and told me that they are supposed to be purple(Fritz also have that sps). Are they called purple digitdataz or something like that. Those turn into purple for couple weeks in my tank then they started to bleach when my tank was hit by the heat wave.

Sorry to misguide everyone thinking I was saying his sps are brown in general. I only mean the ones in particular that he gave me long time ago. I am still stuck in finding out why that particular sps turns back to purple in my not so equiped tank as compared to his fully equiped system.

I agreed in genereal, his tank is full of color and in good health.

I should rephrase the statement to
"BTW I have always suspected Jhale's (Purple Digitadatz) always having brown colors in the old tank are due to the high nitrate levels"
 
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meschaefer

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I am assuming that you dipped before you put them into the "rebuilt" tank. How long after the dip was it before they turned brown? Was it immediate?

Although Jhale is still feeding his tank, I wonder what the move did to the population of pods and other critters. Did you dip your rocks as well? Wouldn't a decrease in their population result in less food for the corals?

I agree that a change in the nutrient level of the tank (i.e. food availability) could cause browning, if the corals where not receiveing enough food. I beleive Zooxanthellae would increase to make up for the difference. But I don't think that this would happen overnight, it would take a couple of days at the least, if not weeks????


If they browned out very quickly, I would think it would be some other mechanism.
 

jhale

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from all the other reports I've read the dip does cause coral to turn brown.

the corals were dipped prior to being placed in the tank. ALL the old rock including what the coral was attached was not used in the main tank. It's all new base rock. The corals were chiseled off the rock where needed.

I would say it was no more than a day for the coral to turn brown after being dipped, some of them sooner than that.
 

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