Bleaching Acro

[peiloy3196]

I added a few Acro frags to my new setup about a month and a half ago. Kept them on the sand bed and moved them to final location over two weeks. One of them is nearly white now. PE is there but only at night. No Tissue loss. So I imagine it is bleached. Color loss did not happen over night, just slowly. Tank is 5 months old and low in nutrients due to the age so I have been feeding reef chili daily and dosing aminos. Lighting is 400 watt radiums, plenty movement with two mp60's. Alk is 8, calcium 430, mg 1350, Phos 0, Nitrates 0. I know I can move the frag but it is glues into its final location (Bottom 1/3 of the tank) and my experience with sps is when they are stressed they can go south quickly if you interfere too much. Should I just continue what I am doing and wait it out to see if it will color up or should I intervene and try to move it. All other Acros are fine and growing. For what it's worth I am seeing some light blue encrusting growth at the base of the bleached acro.

 

[swhobbie1]

what test kits are you using for phos, nitrate ? Is it really 0? any temp swings? what kind of acro is it? how much flow is it getting? sounds like it was stressed but recovering if you are seeing growth at base.

 

[peiloy3196]

what test kits are you using for phos, nitrate ? Is it really 0? any temp swings? what kind of acro is it? how much flow is it getting? sounds like it was stressed but recovering if you are seeing growth at base.

No Temp swings. Hooked up to a chiller and monitored by Apex. 78 to 80 daily. Phosphate is Hanna Meter and Nitrate is by LaMotte. I changed both reagents recently so I am pretty sure. The flow is from two MP60's on a 6' 230 gal. Set to 60% on various modes controlled by apex thought the day. Any higher and thee will be a sandstorm. As to the acro I don't have the name but it is your standard run of the mill branching acro. It is not deep water.

 

[toothman]

I also have 400 watt radium, and I can say I generally can put any coral right at the top with out worry. They are great lights. Sounds like your nutrients are too low. In my tank if my nitrates are 0 the coral begin to look light. If you see a lot of pe I may assume it is a millie. I would try feeding the tank more. I would shoot for nitrates less than 5 and more than 1. Phosphate at .03 or less works best in my tank. I would also remove gfo for a wile if you have.

 

[peiloy3196]

I also have 400 watt radium, and I can say I generally can put any coral right at the top with out worry. They are great lights. Sounds like your nutrients are too low. In my tank if my nitrates are 0 the coral begin to look light. If you see a lot of pe I may assume it is a millie. I would try feeding the tank more. I would shoot for nitrates less than 5 and more than 1. Phosphate at .03 or less works best in my tank. I would also remove gfo for a wile if you have.

I agree that my nutrients are low but I am not running gfo or anything. It just seems to be because of the age of the tank and low fish bio load. I'll keep feeding to try to bring up my numbers.