Palau Green Nepthea

[Jamie]

Hi everyone,

I got to taking some pics of the tank and figured maybe you guys can help me out.

I got this Palau Green Nepthea a couple weeks ago and it has yet to turn green. It has been this shade of white for about 2 weeks now. It seems healthy otherwise...it shrinks when the lights go out and opens up when they come on. I'd even venture to say that it has grown some since I got it.

I have it in the bottom third of my tank under an all T5 set-up. It is getting plenty of light and based on how nicely it opens up...I'd say that it's happy...just not green and happy. It's actually a little bit retracted in this pic. Anyone have any ideas?

[MissT]

what bulbs and fixture are you running? how's the flow? carbon? specific water params?....

[Jamie]

I'm using all T5's 6X80 with individual reflectors. The bulbs are Geismans; 2 aquablues, 2 actinic +, 1 pure actinic, 1 mid-day. Flow is 3 Koralia 4's plus my return pump.

I'm not running carbon but do run a phosban reactor.

My params...
NH4/NH3, NO2, NO3, PO4 all not registering on the test kit.
Ca is around 400ppm
Alk around 10dKh
pH around 8.3
SG is a little low...around 1.023, but I'm slowing bringing that up with my ATO

All of my other corals are growing very well. In the month and a half that I've had corals in the tank my xenia has tripled in size, my GSP has doubled, all of my Zoa colonies have grown a few to several more polyps, I even got a green slimer, green digi, and some unknown acro that have shown good growth. Oh...and my euphillia are doing great...one is going from 3 heads to 9 plus new baby branches coming off the side...and the ScubaSteve hybrid, though not growing as fast, has picked up a couple heads. My monti's are growing...but not as fast. The favia I got a couple weeks ago is just now starting to liven up...not really any growth that I can see.

I don't know what could be causing the discoloration. It's obviously alive...but I see no polyp extension or anything.

[Bill S]

Wow. Anytime I've tried to keep a coral with that coloration, it's slowly browned on me and then died. I believe several others here have had similar experiences - they can be very difficult to keep.

Is it a wild colony, or aquacultured?

[Jamie]

Entered in error...double post.

[Jamie]

It's aquacultured...a frag from a guy in Tenessee I think. Well...it's been a couple weeks and it's still kicking. I have seen pictures of palau green nepthea and it looks really nice. I hope this frag can pull through.

[Richard]

With nitrate and po4 undetectable, your water might be a little too clean. Leathers like a little organics in the water. Try feeding it and see if it perks up. I would try something like phytofeast along with something like DT's oyster eggs.

I've seen plenty of leathers like that which have done nicely. Although I don't know how green it will get. It seems people are calling everything a Palau Green. For comparison here's a pic of a guy's Palua Green Nepthea (which is probably actually a sinularia)...
http://www.utahreefs.com/ReefTour2002/pages/DSC01261.htm