bleaching or growing?

[msweeney1994]

Im fairly new to keeping sps corals, the only two i have in my tank are a hollywood stunner chalice and a green slimer. i woke up this morning to what looks like the green slimer either bleaching or growing. i know when sps corals grow the tips usually turn white. if im wrong correct me but anyway the tips of a couple of the branches are white. it looks like the polyps inside are still alive. the things thats worrying me is that the middle of the coral, the part thats encrusting the plug has spots of white. can this mean branches are going to grow from that or is it bleaching? the coral is very high in the tank under t5's, the water paremeters check out fine and the chalice is doing great.

 

[reefmanmatt]

might have put it up too high to begin with if its a new piece . if the polyps are still out and the rest of the coloration is normal i would say growth .. if the polyps look smaller or the base gets anymore discolored i would move it to the sand just in case its over lit . i have a new bali green slimer i burned with the halide a week ago , its dying so i can give you a picture if you want to compare ! it came bleached (pictured) thenstarted greening up nicely within a week . i moved it right up to the top and now it looks like this again ...minus polyps hahahahah ya win some ya lose some =)

 

[msweeney1994]

It has been in the tank for almost a week and today is the first symptoms of bleaching i have seen. If i were to put it lower how low should i go? I am only running t5's so i would be worried it might not be getting enough light

 

[reefmanmatt]

well if its a week old i would personally hold out + see what happens . if the lighting was the issue it would have been very quick to change

 

[reefmanmatt]

post up a picture !!! seriously ... i posted up one of a dead coral , you wont get anymore flack than me hahahah

 

[msweeney1994]

I moved it down to the middle of the tank and the polyps are out. Color hasnt changed much but im thinking it may have been getting burned. Like you said it wouldve died a lot quicker if it wasnt getting sufficient lighting. Ill get a pic up as soon as i can but ive got some stuff i have to do first. Until then i hope i solved the problem

 

[DustinB]

FYI, just because you have T5's doesn't mean you don't have much light at the bottom of your tank. It all depends on what setup you are using, how high the lights are, and how deep the tank is.

Example: I'm running a 4x39w ATI Sunpower over my 40B and everything is bleaching. I now have the light 15" above the water and the corals almost at the bottom. The color is slowly returning.

 

[droth335]

Do the tips look white like on the picture below? That is the white of a growing slimer. If it doesn't look like this it may be bleaching. Good luck with it!

 

[reefmanmatt]

FYI, just because you have T5's doesn't mean you don't have much light at the bottom of your tank. It all depends on what setup you are using, how high the lights are, and how deep the tank is.

Example: I'm running a 4x39w ATI Sunpower over my 40B and everything is bleaching. I now have the light 15" above the water and the corals almost at the bottom. The color is slowly returning.

those are killer fixtures too , the bleached out one i posted up came from a 90 with a 6x t-5 ati .. i wanted it as soon as i saw it for sure =) awesome green slimer droth!!!

 

[droth335]

those are killer fixtures too , the bleached out one i posted up came from a 90 with a 6x t-5 ati .. i wanted it as soon as i saw it for sure =) awesome green slimer droth!!!

Thanks!