bleaching

[joeycadre]

so some of the corals, i got from a friend about 6 weeks or so ago, have started bleaching out. my water params are all in good order (cal 440, no nitrates or nitrites or ammonia, alk is in the good range ((damn red sea tests, i need a salifert)), ph 8.2, temp 78 ((with a chiller)) and so on) and the 250w hqi is a good 12" over the water. what gives?

the couple of sps's i got from a lfs 2 or 3 weeks back were doing fine, but now they are starting to bleach. they're been down on the sand for the whole time.

the tank is a 45g, 24x24x17 tall.

for flow i have a mag 12 going through a 3 outlet closed loop. plenty of flow i think.

what could be going on here?
any ideas?

 

[icliao]

There are too many possibilities and I will list a few that came to mind now. In any case, 2-3 weeks are not long enough for the SPS to be stablized. That means, anything could happen.

Any filtration chemical recently used? Carbon? Phosban or such?

Big swing of KH within short period can also cause bleaching.

Did you perform major water change recently?

Does your current blow directly at the coral?

Any potential parasite or fish/ crab nibbing at the coral?

RTN can still happen without any apparent reason. If you add new corals recently, it could pass the disease to the "old" corals. And most interestingly, the new old may survive while the old ones go bleaching.

 

[SanFranTodd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7670893#post7670893 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by icliao


Does your current blow directly at the coral?

Is that a good or bad thing ?

 

[joeycadre]

the only direct current comes from a hydor on one of the closed loop returns.

no water change in a while. and even though i have just been using the red sea test kit, the color of the result is constant. i use seachem reef buffer every other week with sea chem advantage calcium, and nothing else.

i've looked for parasites but haven't seen anything. and the only fish in the tank is a very small chevron tank and a fire fish.

i was running carbon in my sump but i pulled it out last week.

what should i do with these corals? a couple of the older ones have turned almost completely white (acros), i read if there is still tissue then they are alive and it doesn't look like any of the tissue is gone. do i just shade them (which i've done) or get them out of the tank?

one other thing, the tank only about 12 weeks old. i'm going to bet this has something big to do with it.

 

[comatose]

Check for red bugs?, maybe your friends SPS's had them.
what kind of corals were they that you got from your friend, it's so hard to say

Are they close to other corals that may effect them. there are so many things it could be.

maybe your light is to strong if they came from a tank with a weaker light.

 

[icliao]

Well, your tank is new and relatively small. The water might not be stable yet.

 

[joeycadre]

you can see this one bleaching on the underside.

you can see this one starting to bleach around the base where it was epoxied to the rock.

slimer losing color.

also i had 2 frags of pink birdsnest that have slowly been turning white from the base up. the green slimer has lost a lot of color but isn't turning totally white. orange digi is doing the same as the slimer.

the newer corals that are just starting to bleach are acro millepora and some kind of coral that had some wacky name (it's a acro looking thing with red polyps and blue tips) also a small frag of spongoza, or something like that. all of these corals are still putting out their polyps but i can see there are small parts bleaching near their bases. i'll get photos tomorrow.

 

[SanFranTodd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7670893#post7670893 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by icliao


Any filtration chemical recently used? Carbon? Phosban or such?

Is it not recommended to start carbon/phosban treatment after the addition of new colonies?

 

[clkwrk]

Did you just epoxy these down very recent?

 

[joeycadre]

the ones in the photo have been in for 5 weeks or so

 

[clkwrk]

Are they white but yet still have good polyp extention ? If so move them up or one up and see if that helps . Usually if they have great PE but are losing color they need more light .

I myself have this problem with caps. I recently partially shaded a cap that is 15 inches from the light(250 de PHX 14k Par 78) well it has only been a week and its bleaching . I know its from less light . Also some of my dense large colonies are white deep within or on the underside but still have great PE its because they aren't getting enough light.


If your corals don't have any PE or very little then it very well could be an issue of too much light .

This is all asuming you feed good and their not starved.

JMO