Reef nutrition

Bubblegum Digi Green Tips

S

SeanMc

Supporting Member
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I know that a lot of people in the club keep these bubblegum digis. I’ve had mine for a little over a year. Growth is acceptable, but I’ve only had a couple brief periods where the tips were green. My system seems pretty stable so it seems like a good time for some experimentation. I wanted to see what other members thought was the key to getting the green tips out of the bubblegum.

I know that my alk is very low. Usually around 4 something. Phosphate is usually 0.08-0.01. It’s not a ULN. Calcium is low too, ~350ppm. I try to avoid the water chemistry thing. Water changes have settled into 20% per week with NSW. Light used to peak around 500 PAR, but it’s definitely lower now. I haven’t had chance to borrow the PAR meter since I moved, but I’d guess it’s around 250-300.

Tank journal, fyi

Bought in late July 2023. It had green tips around September and October, but iirc not since then.

July 2023
PXL_20230801_225554421.MP.jpg


September 2023
PXL_20230917_024259963.jpg


September 2024
PXL_20240915_004833218.jpg
 
Mine gets about 250-300 PPFD, but my phosphate is a good 10x higher and I'd consider those to be ULN (what do your nitrates look like?) Lots of flow, stable alkalinity and it's a damn weed. I literally smash pieces off to put into extra cups for the swaps and let my acropora kill it when they touch. You're fishless right?
 
Darkxerox said:
Mine gets about 250-300 PPFD, but my phosphate is a good 10x higher and I'd consider those to be ULN (what do your nitrates look like?) Lots of flow, stable alkalinity and it's a damn weed. I literally smash pieces off to put into extra cups for the swaps and let my acropora kill it when they touch. You're fishless right?
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Yes, fishless. You might be right about it being closer to ULN than not. I'd have to test the nitrates later. It's not something I keep track of. I could run the skimmer less or overfeed the shrimp to bump up the nutrients. The concern, of course, is letting the algae get out of control.

The growth seemed OK to me. Are you saying the green tips are a function of fast growth?

The alk is mostly stable, it's just low. In my heart, I feel like raising the alk would do it, but I really have no idea. It's something I'm interested in doing regardless, just to see how the tank reacts. I just don't know the best way to do it for this system.
 
Funny I was just going to start a thread on this. I also have a bubblegum digi - it lacks the yellow tips. It had them at one point, now they are gone. My colony is much bigger than yours and grows really fast, but no yellow tips! I've tried very high light, and fairly low light recently - maybe it's a trace element thing?

For me No3: 35+ and Po4: 0.15ish

Edit - Looked back at your tank journal, looks like yours is getting very high PAR? Like 500ish? Maybe we are giving it too much - I'll keep you posted if I get some yellow in the new (lower light) spot.
 
boun11 said:
I placed mine pretty high in my tank and it gets the yellow tip. @derek_SR the one you got from me not developing any yellow tips?
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The one I got from you was so nice and yellow - then the yellow tips went away. The bigger one I got from @iani came without the yellow, then got yellow in my tank, then lost the yellow...lol. Drives me nuts.
 
@SeanMc do you want to pick up a frag from my tank and see if the yellow tip will stay? Maybe bring me a frag from yours and I'll see if the tip will turn yellow. I don't think it is the light.
 
Bubblegum is an actual lineage right? I think i have a bubblegum-adjacent one that looks the same according to google images but I don’t know it actually is
 
derek_SR said:
Funny I was just going to start a thread on this. I also have a bubblegum digi - it lacks the yellow tips. It had them at one point, now they are gone. My colony is much bigger than yours and grows really fast, but no yellow tips! I've tried very high light, and fairly low light recently - maybe it's a trace element thing?

For me No3: 35+ and Po4: 0.15ish

Edit - Looked back at your tank journal, looks like yours is getting very high PAR? Like 500ish? Maybe we are giving it too much - I'll keep you posted if I get some yellow in the new (lower light) spot.
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It was getting 500 at one time, including when it briefly had the yellow/green tips. In June 2024, I move both the frag and the angle of the light, so that it now penetrates the glass, which reduces the intensity. It's now in the old monitpora cap spot which was getting 275. There's no way it's currently getting 500 and the tips haven't come back.
 
I assume we're all passing around the same lineage here the Bay Area. I got mine at High Tide Aquatics in Oakland. I've seen some of Kenny's with bright tips. When I bought mine it did not have them, but they did appear at one point, so I know this digi can do it.

IMO, it does not feel like a lighting issue. It feels like water chemistry or just one of those things. The reef gods can be mysterious.
 
SeanMc said:
I assume we're all passing around the same lineage here the Bay Area. I got mine at High Tide Aquatics in Oakland. I've seen some of Kenny's with bright tips. When I bought mine it did not have them, but they did appear at one point, so I know this digi can do it.

IMO, it does not feel like a lighting issue. It feels like water chemistry or just one of those things. The reef gods can be mysterious.
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I got mine as a tiny piece of a mariculture coral. So i’m not sure whether the source is the same
 
Just checked and compared with older pics: the very apex of each point is gray, then a band of green (that apparently comes and goes; only some pics have it) then the bubblegum-pink polyps.

Weird.

Never had yellow tip as far as I can see in pictures.
 
boun11 said:
Here is what my bumblegum digitata before my tank redo. It is not happy right now since it is at the bottom of the tank and some pieces have been broken off.
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Looks pretty happy to me!

I see yellow tips there but I could see how one could also see green. Guess it depends on the pic @tribbitt
 
Darkxerox said:
It's basically the same thing as the forest fire right?
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They are very different in my tank, but looking online they get confused a lot. My "FF digi" has deep red, really fuzzy polyps, and green skin everywhere under the red.

The bubblegum digi I have is red polyps, less fuzzy, grey/blue skin, and (under certain conditions) bright yellow tips. No green.

There's also like a blue polyp version out there that sometimes gets called bubblegum digi too, so who knows!
 
derek_SR said:
They are very different in my tank, but looking online they get confused a lot. My "FF digi" has deep red, really fuzzy polyps, and green skin everywhere under the red.

The bubblegum digi I have is red polyps, less fuzzy, grey/blue skin, and (under certain conditions) bright yellow tips. No green.

There's also like a blue polyp version out there that sometimes gets called bubblegum digi too, so who knows!
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My forest fire is dark green skin everywhere. @Darkxerox gave me another “forest fire” but it only has green tips, a lighter green, and much fuzzier. And my bubblegum has pink polyps, not orange or red, and the green tips come and go
 
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