A. Subulata SOS

[GT350pwns]

I need some help with my A. Subulata. I came home from work today and noticed a good chunk of the front of it COMPLETELY bleached.

I took a photo from the front of the tank and a top down.

Coral was drip acclimated for about 30 mins a week ago. put at the bottom of the tank. Moved to the middle after 4 days and put at the top yesterday. Could it be light shock?

I have a reefbreeder photon 24 and I run blues at 65% and whites at 30%.

Please give me some suggestions, don't want to lose this colony.

Top down from ~5 days ago.



Front shot from ~10 mins ago



Top down from ~10 mins ago



The coral has suffered some unintentional fragging from clumsy handling on my part and bits that had broken off during shipping. idk if that could contribute to it bleaching.

Testing params now

 

[jdm1114]

Yes, you moved it up too fast IMO

 

[GT350pwns]

KH - 9 (tad high)
CA - 340 (tad low)
Nitrate - 0
pH - 8.2

Don't test ammonia and nitrite as they haven't shown in my system since it was a month old.

All results are via API test kits..

 

[GT350pwns]

Yes, you moved it up too fast IMO

Is there anything I can do considering it is now attached to the highest rock in the aquarium? I'm guessing dim the lights for a week or two and slowly bring them back up.

 

[GT350pwns]

Well, just went through and dimmed the lights. Max strength throughout the day now is

20% on blue/UV channel 2% on whites... hopefully this is a sufficient enough change to help the colony become acclimated properly.

Really hoping it colors back up. This is the most sensitive coral I've purchased so far and didn't think it would take that long the acclimate to the lighting...


From an SPS noob, I appreciate it.

 

[GT350pwns]

Follow up on this.

The tissue is receding from the bottom up on the main colony. Should I frag it out in an attempt to save it? I still have a few frags from shipping to fall back on that aren't happy but they look healthy.

 

[Piper27]

If the skin is peeling off or rtning I normally frag off all healthy parts well above the affected area.

If its slowly dying and not peeling I sometimes try gluing the line where its peeling or cutting off good parts right above the stn.

Large wild colonies like that are hard to aclimate sometimes.

 

[Softhammer]

Depending on where it came from there may be a good chance that it's not enought light. I see too many people killing stuff with dialed down LEDs because the perceived brightness appears higher. It's really not. Rtn from the bottom up, or shaded areas is a good indication of too little light.

 

[GT350pwns]

Was a piece from the diver's den. I had it at the bottom of the tank where it was coloring up. As soon as it was moved to the top, there was a good chunk of it the day after that very bleached. That is why I dialed down my LED fixture from 65% blues and 35% whites to 25% blue and 5% white today.




Sounds good. I appreciate the input. A little sad the colony is declining, but hopefully I should be able to save a good portion of it

 

[RockOn681]

I had run into a similar situation with a large acro colony I purchased, my alk was substatially different from the souce I purchased it from and I ran into this issue. If you can ask who you bought it from what they keep their alk this could help identify the problem.

 

[GT350pwns]

Just got off the line with liveaquaria and they could only provide pH, salinity, and temp. Said that DD would take 2-3 days to reply on water parameters. my alk was a bit high 2 days ago and I've stopped that part of my 2 part until it is back down.

LA has started the warranty process on it, though. Sending them pics tonight. Going to try to save what I can tomorrow.

 

[sahin]

Sorry about the almost loss of the colony. Clip off healthy branches and hopefully a few survive. If they do, you can join them together later.

Are the other ACROPORA in your tank ok? Showing loss of PE? Other then light increase, have you changed anything else in the tank in terms of filtration?

 

[GT350pwns]

Sorry about the almost loss of the colony. Clip off healthy branches and hopefully a few survive. If they do, you can join them together later.

Are the other ACROPORA in your tank ok? Showing loss of PE? Other then light increase, have you changed anything else in the tank in terms of filtration?

my red planet has been settling into its spot and is beginning to show pe, as is my pink lemonade.

 

[GT350pwns]

Addendum to that last post of mine. I do have a nameless greenish acro frag that has shown good color since it has been in the tank, but it is also showing the same signs as the subulata. But, that one was one good stretch of my rainbow bta from getting stung. Think that may have happened to that one.

And no change in filtration other than upgrading from an ac50 to ac70 with a media basket. Was planning on adding gfo this weekend to help stem the tide of my slight hair algae issue.