Bleaching question

lokii_37

lokii_37

New member
So a couple weeks age I picked up a nice blue tenuis colony from a LFS. At the time it was under MH lighting and after consulting with the staff was told that is would be fine to put it near the top of my tank which is running T5's. Well now it is not so nice and it is pretty pale/white. There is new growth where I took some frags for the swap and that growth is nice and blue but the rest of the colony is not looking so hot. With my very limited experience i have not moved it because I have read that moving the corals around can stress then even more. I am aware that there are many things that can cause a coral to do this and it may not be the lighting at all.
What i am wondering is, should I put it down closer to the bottom to try to let it "heal" or should I just keep it where it is and let it do its thing at the top?

Thanks,
Nick
 
I think it might be a little too much light. I would move it down a little and then slowly bring it back up over time. T5's actually put out a decent amount of par, they just can't punch 24" into a tank.
 
Didn't think it possible myself but I cooked some sps with my T5s that was at about the same distance while my lps right next to it was fine. Since then I raised my light another 6" and never run all 6 bulbs together anymore.
 
It's not about type of light, it's about par. I often run 6 t5s at once on my lps tank, which has less average par than my sps tank.

With new corals, one must consider the light level that the coral had acclimated to prior to introduction. Sounds like the intensity of the lighting in the tank where your tenuis was positioned was less than where you set it up in your tank. Just because it had been under MHs doesn't mean it got lots of par.

I'd bet money that if you took a frag of something in Grant's tank that is acclimated to 500-700 par, and put that where your tenuis is, it would probably brown out from insufficient light.

In my opinion and experience, if one wants to establish and maintain deep blues and purples in acros, higher par levels are necessary.
 
The safest thing to do is learn a little bit about par and how quickly it drops off for certain types of lighting. MH 250W for example loses about half its par at 12". That way when you are at the LFS and you look at their lighting setup you can get a quick idea of what par they might be at compared to your tank. Most LFS employees are going to say their MH are putting out way more light than your T5's. But if you consider the LFS is running a 250w MH at 24" above the 12" deep tank. Their par might be around 300-400. Brand new T5's 12" above a coral might be around 400-500.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. I have moved the tenuis down a little as well as moving it under the glass center brace which should cut down on the light a little as well.
Reef bass from ready your post am I correct in assuming that a coral going from high intensity to low intensity will brown out rather than bleach?

Nick
 
Nick i'm skeptical that it is your light since i grew that piece from a larger colony that i have had for three years. It has been under 500w of MH with lumenarc reflectors and 14k Lumenarc bulbs for that whole time. The Lights are 10 in off the tank and the coral was 4" from the surface. SPS are a finicky bunch so check your parameters. Temp? What are you adding? Do you run carbon? did you do a big water change? That being said it was good idea to move it lower to see what happens. With this hobby we sometimes get tunnel vision about a problem and it turns out to be something that we never even thought of. thats just my 2 cents.
 
My parameters are pretty stable. I got 2 new heaters for Christmas and they have been keeping the temp right at 79-80. I check cal and dkh once a week and the cal is 420 +\-10 and the dkh is 9.8 +\- .3. I have to bring in some water to have the nitrates and phosphates tested but lasts time they were checked they both tested good. I don't run carbon. 2 weeks ago I did a 10% water change.
The only thing I have added recently to the tank were 3 PJ cardinals a lobo and a favia. All of which were added after the issue. I took the sinularia out of the tank in case it was poisoning the tank.
I'm also leaning towards the fact that the tank is still pretty new, just over 6 months
 
I'm also considering that I may have some sort of acro pest even though I have not seen anything. I will have to give the tank a good once over to see if i see any. My birds nest are doing great.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong anybody. I like to run my tank at 76.

What is your mag at?
Phosphates could be a hidden issue. My RO membrane has sat for a while and I think it is causing my phosphate problems. Chaeto is growing like a weed and I still get green on the glass after two days.

Good luck. Half the fun is all the mysteries.
 
mike- wouldn't say your wrong, but I keep mine at 78. My heaters are connected to my AC3 so the temp only swings .5 degreees. 77.9=78.4
 
I guess I always ran mine a little lower because of all the heat my halides put off. 76 gave me a bigger buffer during the summer.
 
I'll have to get my phosphates tested to see exactly where they are at. My cheato hasn't grown hardly at all since you gave it to me back in the beginning of November. That's one reason I have assumed my nutrient levels are pretty low.
 
The pale color could be lack of nutrients, do you feed your corals at all? My tank having so many fat fish takes care of most of the coral feeding but I still add phito and zoe once a week or so. The tank is also pretty new like you said. Are your parameters stable yet or do they fluctuate a lot?
 
I feed the LPS and the mushrooms either shrimp or scallops a couple times a week. I don't feed the SPS. I guess tomorrow when info get a few frags for the meet I will pick up some phyto and see if that helps.
 
SPS consume zooplankton (little animals), not phytoplankton (little plants). Some people will feed their tank phytoplankton to encourage other filter feeders and to feed any zooplankton, which in turn can be consumed by their sps. But if you're looking to specifically nourish your sps, use zooplankton.

I use Roti Feast, Oyster Feast, Reef Chili and Coral Frenzy.
 
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