Bleaching Montipora_Help

[siloxane]

Hello,

Recently one of my orange montipora has started to bleach. There was some sand on it for about half a day, though I am not entirely convinced this is the cause of the problem. The tank parameters are fine.

A picture is included below. Any insight or suggestions to help this coral out would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ade]

If you are talking about the rim that is new growth, what kind of test kits do you use, if poss check another brand or someone elses test kit. Do you have new bulbs? I also seen that you have some lps next to it, do they touch at anytime day or night?

 

[siloxane]

Hi Ade,

I am currently using the Red Sea test kits. Once these are consumed, I will definitely get something better. The lights have not been changed, and the lps do not come in direct contact with the montipora. If that was an issue, it seems the bleaching most likely would occur on the edges.

The bleached zone is in the flat middle area and has grown over the past 48 hours from a pencil tip eraser to a dime size.

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[siloxane]

I spent some time looking for signs of nudibranches (3-4 hours after lights off) and did not see anything last night. Here are some stats:

1. temp - 76 - 82 C
2. calcium - 450 ppm
3. alkalinity - 2.5 meq/L
4. nitrates - not detectable
5. pH - 8.5
6. salinity - 1.026
7. magnesium - do not know

 

[vetdog]

How long was the sand covering that area? Sand can cause focal spots of die off on the coral if it sits for too long but its usually not a big deal as the area, especially on a monti cap, will quickly grow back over the spot.

 

[siloxane]

Hi Jonathan,

The sand was on the montipora for at least a day. Have you had local bleaching from similar exposure?

Thanks for your help

 

[manderx]

is it bleaching or dead in that spot? it's pretty normal for caps to get dead spots like that when sediment sits too long, but that should take much more than just a day or two. the rest of it looks great, so i would not suspect anything is 'wrong' with the water quality or lights.

 

[siloxane]

dead spot

dead spot

Hi Matt,

The area is a local dead spot, and the remaining areas seem to be okay. The bleached area slightly extended today, so I am hoping the recession will end soon.

Have a great day.

 

[BCashion]

Sediment should have taken more than a day or two to cause that spot. Is it possible that you had some "salt creep" fall from the tank edge and land on it? I've had that happen plenty of times in my last set-up and it doesn't take long at all for undissolved salt to kill a section of coral. Regardless, the rest of the specimen looks good and I imagine this will be self-limited