Bleaching monti

[galbavi]

Hi All,
In just the last day my encrusting monti has changed color. It looks like it's bleaching. I've searched for answers and seen things all over the board: lighting, nudi's, chemistry...
I'm looking for ideas and wondering if I need to panic.

Here's my pic:
http://i.imgur.com/8IUoX0v.jpg

Here's my story:
29 gal. Mostly LPS. Torch, candy cane, duncan, hammer, pipe organ, acan, blasto, some mushrooms, couple zoa's, and this monti.

I haven't added anything to the tank in months.
I've had the monti since february and it's been growing like a weed.
The monti has always been that beautiful blue/gray on the base with nice orange polyps since the day I bought it.
I got home from work today and there's this huge non-blue patch.

I had an issue with temperature over a month ago (up to 83). Since then, I've used a fan to keep the temp in line (77 - 80).
Only change in the last month is changing my flake food to Ocean Nutrition Prime reef Flakes. Everything else has been the same for ages.

Water params are not perfect, but not way out of whack. No ammonia. Nitrate less than 10. phosphate 0.5. ph 8.2 I'll do a water change tonight.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Pife]

That's Meteor shower Cyphastrea not encrusting montipora. Can the torch touch it?

 

[Logzor]

The coral looks like it's lightening a lot on one area. The polyps look fine, though, so that's good.

Do you test alkalinity? Coral bleaching can be most often attributed to too low or too high alkalinity. Try to maintain between 7 and 10 Dkh on a consistent as possible basis.

 

[galbavi]

That's Meteor shower Cyphastrea not encrusting montipora. Can the torch touch it?

Thanks Pife. The guy at the frag swap told me it was an encrusting montipora and a quick google search was a "close enough". Thanks for pointing me to the cyphastrea. Funny that when I google it, one of the first things to pop up is a thread on how to kill it.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2503104

The torch couldn't really touch it, but the duncan may have. I moved it when I did a water change tonight. I put it lower in the tank (hoping lower light will help) and only a candy cane and little zoa's close by.

 

[Bpb]

Meteor shower cyphastrea (or any cyphastrea) are a pretty adaptable coral and can tolerate a super wide range of light, from upwards of 500+ par down to barely any light at all. But...they do bleach very easily with any light change or disturbance and take a long time to regain color

 

[galbavi]

The coral looks like it's lightening a lot on one area. The polyps look fine, though, so that's good.

Do you test alkalinity? Coral bleaching can be most often attributed to too low or too high alkalinity. Try to maintain between 7 and 10 Dkh on a consistent as possible basis.

The lightening is in one spot and it happened in one day. Less than 24 hours actually. That's why I kind of freaked.

Thanks for the tip on dKH. I just tested it and it comes out at 8ish... it's an api dropper test so, between the 7th and 8th drop.
I don't test it regularly and I don't normally dose for it. Little 29gal with regular water changes always seemed to keep things in order.
I do have some alkalin8.3 in the cabinet that I used over a year ago when I needed to stabilize things.

I also just read another post here about reef crystals, which I use, being high KH and it being a problem. I haven't tested to tell if it is a problem for me, but I've used it for some time now. I'll keep testing it to make sure it's not fluctuating for some reason.

 

[galbavi]

But...they do bleach very easily with any light change or disturbance and take a long time to regain color

So, moving it could hurt more than help. :sad2: I'll leave it where it is now. Bummer that it takes awhile to regain color. It really is a beautiful blue base. The picture doesn't do it justice.

 

[Bpb]

Looks like the polyp extension is still pretty good so yeah don't sweat it. Maybe run a little lower alk and make sure all your other measurables are spot on and stable and you should see recovery. Mine started off as a tan/off white/khaki color when I placed it. Left it and kept it fed and kept the water stable and it turned this color after a couple months

 

[galbavi]

Looks like the polyp extension is still pretty good so yeah don't sweat it. Maybe run a little lower alk and make sure all your other measurables are spot on and stable and you should see recovery.

Thanks. My salt and water changes set my alk. I don't dose for it specifically. The only thing I do regularly is use purple up or purple tech a few times a week to try to keep up with all the coraline that my blue tuxedo eats. I'll do some research on how that may affect KH.
Great looking coral you have there!

 

[Pife]

Thanks. My salt and water changes set my alk. I don't dose for it specifically. The only thing I do regularly is use purple up or purple tech a few times a week to try to keep up with all the coraline that my blue tuxedo eats. I'll do some research on how that may affect KH.
Great looking coral you have there!

I would use up what you have of those potions and get some real alk and calcium.