Bleach from lighting? Is my lighting too intense or too long? How can I tell?

[Zpmada]

Hi

I'm trying to fine tune my lighting for my coral. I have two coral that seem to be turning slightly white on the points closest to light that are facing light.

How do I know if my lighting is too intense and needs to be adjusted in intensity, verses lighting too long and needs to turn off sooner?

Thank you!

The two coral in the photo are encrusting SPS I think.

The green with Orange polyp is a leptastrea of some sort?

The pink is a Cyphastrea.

 

[Zpmada]

No option to add pictures sorry

 

[Daddyrawg]

That happened to me recently due to the rising temps not my lighting.. have you been monitoring your temp?

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[Tcook]

What lighting do you have? What settings. How far off the water? Have you made any par measurements?

 

[Member No. 1]

If it's only at the very top of the tips, what you are seeing could be new growth.

 

[Timfish]

There's multiple reasons that corals could bleach. As pointed out above it could be new growth as well as big changes in lighting levels. It could also be there was a large change in lighting from the previous system your corals were in (how long have they been in you system?). But water parameters could cause bleaching also. Insufficient phosphates, excess nitrogen, Labile DOC (aka "carbon dosing"), bacterial shifts in the holobiont as well as the coral's "memory" can all be factors.

I would encourage you get Forest ROhwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" (kindle $10, paperback $20). It's an excellent introduction to the antagonistic roles that can exist between algae and corals. As well there is an excellent refference section if you want to cahse the research. And here's a video published bu the University of California:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2BMEfQGjU

And "Changing Seas"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7hsp0dENEA


Here's some more recent research:

Sugar enrichment provides evidence for a role of nitrogen fixation in coral bleaching
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.13695

Phosphate Deficiency:
Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Nutrient enrichment.pdf

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00103/full

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301601?via=ihub

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022098111004588

High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/16/2749.full

Decadal Environmental Memeory in a Coral.
https://www.academia.edu/11590694/Decadal_environmental_memory_in_a_reef_coral

Indirect effects of algae on coral: algae‐mediated, microbe‐induced coral mortality
Coral seperated from algae with a .02 µm filter die. Treatment with aampicillan prevents death.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00937.x

Influence of coral and algal exudates on microbially mediated reef metabolism.
Coral DOC improves oxygen (autotrophy), algae DOC reduces oxygen (heterotrophy).
https://peerj.com/articles/108/?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_campaign=PeerJ_TrendMD_0&utm_medium=TrendMD

Effects of Coral Reef Benthic Primary Producers on Dissolved Organic Carbon and Microbial Activity
Algae releases significantly more DOC into the water than coral.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027973

Pathologies and mortality rates caused by organic carbon and nutrient stressors in three Caribbean coral species.
Starchs and sugars (doc) caused coral death
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2005/294/m294p173.pdf

Microbial ecology: Algae feed a shift on coral reefs
https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201661

Coral and macroalgal exudates vary in neutral sugar composition and differentially enrich reef bacterioplankton lineages.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23303369

Sugar enrichment provides evidence for a role of nitrogen fixation in coral bleaching
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.13695

Elevated ammonium delays the impairment of the coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis during labile carbon pollution
(here's an argument for maintaining heavy fish loads if you're carbon dosing)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X19307192

Excess labile carbon promotes the expression of virulence factors in coral reef bacterioplankton
https://www.nature.com/articles/ismej2017142

Unseen players shape benthic competition on coral reefs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22944243

Allelochemicals Produced by Brown Macroalgae of the Lobophora Genus Are Active against Coral Larvae and Associated Bacteria, Supporting Pathogenic Shifts to Vibrio Dominance.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27795310

Macroalgae decrease growth and alter microbial community structure of the reef-building coral, Porites astreoides.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22957055

Macroalgal extracts induce bacterial assemblage shifts and sublethal tissue stress in Caribbean corals.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23028648

Biophysical and physiological processes causing oxygen loss from coral reefs.
https://elifesciences.org/articles/49114.pdf

Global microbialization of coral reefs
DDDAM Proven
https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201642

Because sponges are essential players in the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycle(s) on reefs here's some links to research done with them.

Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.)
https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/14/4191

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges
(Chris Kenndall had a problem with low PO4 and had problems raising it with Neophos. Samples sent off showed phosphorus crystals developing in some of the sponges in his system accounting for at least some of his systems consumption.)
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/14/4381

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.12758

Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279061640_2013_deGoeij_Science_Sponge_loop

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3934968/

The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.
https://search.proquest.com/openvie...9d1e5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

And since we're discussing favorable and not so favorable bacteria here's a paper looking at how different corals and polyps are influencing the bacteria in the water column.
Aura-biomes are present in the water layer above coral reef benthic macro-organisms
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28828261

 

[Zpmada]

Pictures and tank information (55 gallon)

Pictures and tank information (55 gallon)

I had to use a desktop for the manage attachment button to work, so here are pictures. Some parts of the frags are whiter than other parts. I've had these for about a year.

Lighting:
3 weeks ago I added two 48" HO T5 lights, so I'm hoping for more growth. Bulbs: (1) Korallen-zucht 54W Fiji Purple and (1) ATI Blue Plus 54w

These two HO T5 are set on a timer to come on from 10am to 4pm.
The T5 bulbs are about 4" from the water surface.

LED:
Two 48" 30w each 453nm Actinic Blue LED strips (TrueLumen Pro LED by Current USA).

These are programmed on the Ramp Timer Pro to a max intensity of 75%. They are on from 8am to 6pm, with 4 hours of moonlight (2% intensity) after than. There is 15 minutes of sunrise and sunset. Total darkness from 10pm until natural light (around 6am?).

The LED strips are about 2.5" from the water surface.

Circulation
I have 1 MP40 wave maker set to lagoon (yellow), at the 4th white LED for intensity.

Fiilter

Aquaclear 70 with filter floss, bag of BRSGranular Ferric Oxide, and bag of Kent Marine Reef Carbon.

CPR Aquadic HOB reefugium with cheato and pink grow LED on during the day. A handful of rock rubble.

Reef Octopus HOB 100 classic skimmer runs 24 hours per day.

Waterchanges

I replace 4 gallons of water every week, sometimes every other week. I figure this is 10% given I have about 40-50lbs of live rock and 35-40lbs of live sand taking up space.

Salt

LiveAquaria professional reef salt with salinity around 1.025. Water temp around 78F

Inhabitants

Aside from the coral, I have:

1 Clownfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Tiger Pistol shrimp
1 Bubble tip Anenome (brown with slight green tint)

Misc snails, bristle worms, brittle stars, 5-6 hermit crabs.

I see small white flatworms on the glass near the MP-40. I think these are the harmless kind because I haven't seen any damage to my red people eater zoa, which went from 2 polyp to 17 polyp the past 2 years.

I would like to get a manderin goby eventually, and hopefully they eat those tiny flat worms.

Few notes: My Anenome went from being bleached (white/transparent) to brown with a green tint over the last 4 months. I don't feed it.

0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate. Phosphate is undetectable (I was never able to make out any color on the Salifert kit, so take that with a grain of salt)

 

[Zpmada]

I am hoping to get the manderin goby in a month or so, as soon as I can give my tiger pistol (~3-4 years old) to someone since it's large and I suspect that I killed my Yellow Watchman goby after being paired with it the past 3 years.

 

[Zpmada]

I forgot to thank Timfish for taking the time to post all of those resources. I will take a look. I also just attached an entire tank shot to give an idea what everything looks like. Yes, I realize my floor isn't very level When I top off the water, it doesn't show.