bleached and pale? Help!!

[parkavenuereef]

what could cause my acropora to look like this? I seen the post by montreal ray.. Hopefully not hijacking his post.

ca-380/400
mg- 1300
alk- 9
sal-1.026
temp-78 slight swings
po4-zero
nitrates-zero

lighting 400W 14k hamilton - i replaced my 20k xm
actinic supliments

2 year old tank

 

[allsps40]

Wow those are bleached out bad. My guess is it was the lighting change. Did this start to happen shortly after changing lights? I would cut the lighting time way back to around 3-4 hours a day and move your lights up if you can. How high are your lights from the water? Give more details about your lighting change please.

 

[parkavenuereef]

Its 400W Halide currently a 14K Hamilton bulb about 8 hours a day on icecap ballast. I was running a 20K XM bulb.. the light is about 6-7 inches from the water.. My custom hood wont allow the bulb higher.. I would have to blow a huge hole in the top of it and mount it higher. Icecap 660 running 2 x 75W Super actinics about 10Hrs a day. that acro is about 12 inches from the water surface so about 16-18 inches from the bulb..

It's been a battle for a while.. I did have 2 x 400W then cut down to one cause i was worried it was too much over a 150 cube. So would you recommend cutting down halide light to 3-4 hours? these corals at one point looked great, then they bleached and havent come back in color since.. PE extension is minimal...

I checked for RED BUGS or AEFW which i thought i had this weekend but after a dip nothing came off...

I believe this is a validia acropora, green polys w purple skeleton. Any help would be great!

 

[smtank]

I would cut back the time on the lighting and if you are not feeding the sps you may want to consider that as well. But I think the photo period is too long. I do 6 hours on mine with good results.

 

[smtank]

Duplicate post hmmmm

 

[allsps40]

Yeah cut back on the MH time for sure. Like I said 3-4 hours, you should be fine keeping the T5s running. Cutting them back a hour or 2 would not hurt. Changing from a 20k that is lower in PAR to a 14k with higher PAR will require you to acclimate your sps to the new bulbs. I agree that feeding will help to color them back up and increase survival through the bleaching. IF you using SE bulbs are they shielded with a UV glass?

 

[parkavenuereef]

The bulb is mounted to my wooden cabnet with a spider reflector. no glass. I will cut down the photo time to 3-4 hours... and t5's to 8-10... i do feed on occassion but not much... my skimmer has been slow to pull waste i fear it due to low bioload and nutrients as well...

 

[smtank]

If you have a DE bulb you need a shield, the SE bulbs have it built in. The results of decreasing the photoperiod take at least a couple of weeks to see, but I am pretty sure you will see an improvement.

Good Luck

 

[parkavenuereef]

If you have a DE bulb you need a shield, the SE bulbs have it built in. The results of decreasing the photoperiod take at least a couple of weeks to see, but I am pretty sure you will see an improvement.

Good Luck

Its a single ended... I hope so.. I will keep everyone posted.. thanks everyone.:thumbsup:

 

[parkavenuereef]

Well here we are about a month after the fact... I moved the acro to the floor level and cut down light to about 4 hours.. I see the tips starting to turn purple... Should I increase light at this point? Any idea's?

 

[parkavenuereef]

A few more pics

 

[parkavenuereef]

One more comment.. I moved 60% of my live rock to my sump for a more open feel in the tank.. Seems to be better and tank stays cleaner... Should I run a light over the rock or just leave it in the dark?

 

[rocking]

leave ur lights a lone right now let it recover

 

[rocking]

surnent lighting on my tank is 2 mh 150w 2 t5 true blue 2 t5 altenicks and 1vho purple rose
everything is doing well
timeing is 5 hours mh 10 altenicks and rest of the time i have moons on