Acro Very Pale but Growing Well?

Zakary2003

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Hey everyone. I'm new to acropora. I have a 20 gallon waterbox AIO mixed tank that has some very happy montiporas, so I wanted to try some acropora.

I bought jello shot, paletta pink tip, and green slimer acros from my LFS.

The paletta pink tip and green slimer are looking and growing great, and both have great color (for a green acro) and great polyp extension.

The jello shot acro is the exception. It started out red, then turned green after a few weeks in my tank. Now, it's totally pale and only shows flourescence under violet or UV light. The weird part, however, is that it's actually growing faster than the other two acros. It's the only one that has encrusted off of the frag plug and onto the main rock.

Is the coral unhealthy/dying or is it healthy but just not showing the best colors? What could I do to help it color up again? It's been in my tank since early November.

Params:
Calc 420 (red sea test kit)
Alk 9.1 (hanna checker)
pH 7.8 (neptune apex probe)
Mag 1370 (red sea test kit)
Nitrate ~0.2 (salifert test kit, it could even be 0)
Phosphate .03 (hanna checker)
Salinity 35ppt (waterbox brand refractometer)
Ammonia and nitrite 0ppm (API marine master kit)

I feed reef roids 1x per week. I also dose amino acids 2x per week at the recommendations of the LFS owner.

Parameters are maintained with All for Reef, but since my alk uptake is higher than my calc uptake I sometimes have to add extra alkalinity in the form of the alk part of 2 part.

Jello shot acro is under ~300 PAR, and it was under ~350-400 PAR at the fish store according to the owner. Light is an AI Hydra 32.

I've heard that low nitrates can make corals pale and I'm thinking that's probably my issue, but I don't want to take any actions without getting an opinion from someone with more experience.

I've attached two different pictures of the coral taken just now from two different angles.

20250105_125852.jpg 20250105_125836.jpg
 
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Zakary2003

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Probably the low nutrients those are both within testing margin of being actually zero
Alright. How do I raise my nutrients? I already feed heavy and don't go out of my way to control them... I just have a couple mangrove plants for decoration in the filter and a protein skimmer. Are mangroves really that efficient?

I feed frozen food and pellets 2x per day, plus the reef roids 1x per week and amino acids 2x per week.
 

bradreef

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