All my corals are turning white,..why?

M

Mark75

New member
All my livestock are losing their colors. Acros, monti caps, ricordea, and zoanthids. Here are some pictures. They were taken about 3 weeks apart.
Before;
DSC00637.jpg

Now;
DSC00668.jpg


Before;
DSC00640.jpg

Now;
DSC00667.jpg


Before;
DSC00638.jpg

Now;
DSC00671.jpg


This is just a few examples. EVERYTHING in my tank is losing color fast! I am two weeks away from owning a very rare collection of albino corals. What do I need to do?:(
 
:p Mark, Those T5's must sure be bright. The corals appear to be bleaching. I would either shorten the lighting time or put a screen between the lights and the tank. If you lose any I'll gladly help out with more frags.

Art
:bum:
 
Thanks Art! What is weird is they are growing. They are encrusting more than growing up but I see growth. Does a bleaching coral grow? Also it is not happening to only one type of coral. Everything in my tank is turning white, those nice zoanthids I got from you are solid white, no color what so ever, the ricordea is grey and getting lighter. Even my coralline algae is white, or the new growth is anyway. Can it be these cheap'o single reflector T5's are that bright?
 
Parameters? Changes lately? How long have those corals been in the tank? How long has the tank been setup? etc.....
 
1.026
PH 8.3
Cal. 440
Alk. 9
Nitrate 0
phosphate 0

The frags have been in my tank 3-4 weeks. It has been a steady decline in color. The color loss has been slow enough that it only became real apparent when I compared an old photo with a new one. I have good polyp extension and they seem to be growing. I am not sure if they are growing as fast as they should as I am not very familiar with sps. I drip kalk and add kents two-part for alk. and cal. The alk. stays between 8 and 9, no major swings. I run my lights for 10 hours a day. There have been no major changes and my tank has been set-up for 4 months.
 
How many fish are in the display and how often do you feed? What type of lighting and what bulbs are you using?
 
10 hours is a long photoperiod for full-intensity lighting IME. I usually only run the halides 6-7 hours, and that's after full acclimation. If you have T5s, you may want to stage it so full intensity is only present for a brief period of time. Also, some iodine/iodide can help with light shock, but only temporarily, and you must be extremely careful or you can do more harm than good.

Also, after only being setup for 4 months with (I'm assuming) minimal biological load, your corals could be starving somewhat. What kind of skimmer are you using; it could be stripping what little nutrition is left in the water?

Last pertinent question would be type of salt and frequency of water changes. I see a little cyano in the cap picture, indicitive of insufficient flow or possible water quality issues. Good luck and there are many good people here willing to help.
 
One Green Mandarin that I do not feed. My tank was over run with pods so I got this fish to keep them in check. I do target feed my candycane coral once a week with 3 or 4 Omega shrimp pellets. I also feed my 3 Nass. snails 1 pellet each twice a week. I would say that I feed my tank 8-10 Omega shrimp pellets per week.

I have two Korilla 2's and a MJ1200 for flow(30 gallon long). I can't put anything in my tank that ways less than five pounds or it gets blown around. I have a skimmer in sump powered by a Rio 800, I skim about 2 cups of light brown skimmate per week. I use RO/DI water for all water and Reef Crystal salt. I change 5 gallons every Sunday.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like nutrients too low combined with excessive light cycle to me. Do you also run GFO? I skim about 2 cups a week on a 125 and I have 13 fish and a ton of other critters in a 4 year old+ tank.
 
Sounds like nutrients too low combined with excessive light cycle to me. Do you also run GFO? I skim about 2 cups a week on a 125 and I have 13 fish and a ton of other critters in a 4 year old+ tank.
 
I have just started running GFO because I have a slight brown hair algae problem. It is not the GFO because I had this problem before I used it. Should I feed more? I have noticed that any green algae turns clear in my tank. I added a frag that had some green hair algae on it and it turned white. The only type of algae I have is brown. So what ever nutrient makes algae green is absent in my tank. I have been VERY diligent in keeping nutrients low in fear of algae, maybe I have done too good of a job. This tank has been setup for 4 months and I have really not had any outbreaks of algae. The algae I have had and still do have is very minor. How do I raise nutrients and keep from having algae? I thought sps liked low nutrient levels?
 
Sounds like they are acclimating to light and possibly getting too much(especially if you are running daylight bulbs ie GE 6500's, anywhere in your lighting setup).
It could also be your tank is a bit new for starting SPS.
Could also be too low nutrients. SPS like relatively low nutrients but they do need some. SPS like wat I guess you could call "transient nutrients" IME they like the presence of a high bioload but also with the benefit of a high amount of nutrient export provided by a large skimmer etc...
So basically what everyone else said:p
Chris
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11066252#post11066252 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by awcurl
:p I would either shorten the lighting time or put a screen between the lights and the tank.
Art
:bum:
Click to expand...
quit skimming as hard.
 
I would cut back the lighting period to 6 or 7 hours, just the daylights if you can, and still run atinics and see what happens in a few weeks.
 
Chris, I thought about my tank being new also but that does not explain why my zoanthids and ricordea are white? It is almost like I am missing some element that causes pigmentation. If it was only affecting sps I would be more inclined to think nutrient levels but it is also affecting ricordea, zoanthids, coralline, and micro algae. My lights are ATI Blue plus, ATI Aquablue, Slimpaq 10K, and Slimpaq 460nm. Does anyone see a problem here? I want to thank all of you guys for trying to help me with this, I hope I am not coming off argumentative here. I am just making sure I give you all enough information.
 
Temp is 79.5-81.5 , I use a cheap coralife digital thermometer but I checked it with an accurate thermometer and it was right.

Salinity is 1.026 and I use a swing arm hydrometer. I calibrated it with a refractometer. The swing-arm was reading 1.026 when it was actually 1.028. Now I just allow for it being off .002 points off.
 
My battle plan! I am going to run my two daylight bulbs only 6 hours a day, I am going to feed my tank more, and I am going to turn my skimmer down. I have been debating on adding a pair of true perculas, this may help feed my corals. I guess in my efforts to prevent algae I have created too sterile an environment. I am finding this hobby is about balance. Calcium is good, but not to much, phosphates are bad but not to little. I have a lot to learn, I am trying to stay positive. Everything in the right proportion. It is also about misleading information. I believe I read a thread on the sps forum about how low nutrient levels cause those brilliant colors in sps we like so much.
 
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