Brain Coral turning white

[maitai123]

Hi guys,

I have 3 brain corals in my 300g tank. Each were added approx 2 weeks ago. They are all currently on the sand bed, in medium flow, generated by tunze pumps 3 feet away. The tunze pumps are at the surface, so the corals are not getting blasted..

2 are doing fine, however one is starting to go white. The "white" is slow by steadly creaping. I am worried about this coral. The other 2 are 6 inches away from it.

Nothing appears close enough to "sting" the coral.

I have 4 VHOs and 3 250w MH lamps running. The tank is 25 inches deep and the MH bulbs are approx. 33 inches from the corals.

My water parameters are fine, so not sure why this particular coral is having problems.

Any suggestions or advice?

 

[organism]

sometimes corals can have much longer sweepers than expected, especially at night, I'd move it somewhere in the shade, and try feeding it until it gets better, do you know what kind of brain coral it is?

 

[maitai123]

Yes, it is a "favities" (sp)?, at least that was what the local pet store identified it as.

What do you recommend I feed it with, for a fast recovery?

 

[Justin tinnin]

I'm having the same issue with mine . I thought the lights were bleaching it so I put a book to block the light. Is been about a month now with nothing changing.

 

[tnchines]

I need help with this subject. I am new here so I cannot post pics as of yet. I have a Red Wellsophyllia. It looks healthy but has been losing its color since i purchased from LFS. All my water params are within range.

My lighting consists of 2 EcoTech Radio XR30W Gen two running at 40%. They are running the Radiant Color scheme and come on at 7am and go completely out at 9PM.

Please help

Tracy Hines

 

[kurt_n]

Where is the Wellsophyllia in your tank? On the bottom is probably where it wants to be as it's a lower light coral.

I'm not an LED person, but even at 40% a 14 hour lighting period seems pretty darn long. That might be your issue there.

 

[tnchines]

Hi Kurt,

The coral is indeed at the bottom of my tank. I should tell you that the lights slowly ramp up to 40% and then slowly fade back down during the day. It is only running at 40% for approx 2 hours. It starts the moon lighting cycle at about 7 and then slowly fades until they go completely off. Can you or someone else tell me the optimal amount of time to have the lights on?

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Tracy

 

[charliet21]

14 way to long! I only run mh 2 1/2 a day

 

[chrisfont23]

Lighting intervals are a matter of interpretation based on the fact that every tank is different. To put it bluntly, no one here can really tell you how to do it. The intensity of the lighting should dictate the amount of light you run and for how long. Obviously your MHs are going to be more intense than a T5 or simple ballast. Acclimation is also another thing we seem to forget. When I put my new LEDs on my tank, I started at 10% the intensity and didn't ramp up to where I am now for almost 3 months. So patience plays a key in the survival of your corals as well. I have found that with my 3W LEDs, most of my corals are able to sustain an 80% "blast" of light for about 2 hrs a day.

Controllers and automatic dimmers that mimic the rise/fall of the sun provide the best method for getting this right. Using a Photon 48 by Reefbreeders, I have my photo period of about 12 hrs with the first and last 2 hrs of each day being sunrise/sunset and the middle 8 hrs being the rise/fall of the sun, mimicking a normal day. I have a few favites at multiple levels in my tank that are doing well.

I have had many brain corals in the past which were affected by light, most notably before dimmers and controllers were readily available or integrated within the lighting component itself. Moving them lower - away from other corals that they can sting/be stung by - usually did the trick.

 

[chrisfont23]

14 way to long! I only run mh 2 1/2 a day

Varying lighting intensity plays into this more than duration and simply classifying it as "way too long." Have you ever been to a reef? I have been all over the world and many reefs I have been to get well over 2 1/2 hours a day of intense lighting at varying degrees of depth.

What you are doing is simply mimicking the peak period. There are many articles on this and pros/cons. I tend to recommend trying to mimic nature as much as possible.

 

[kurt_n]

Hi Kurt,

The coral is indeed at the bottom of my tank. I should tell you that the lights slowly ramp up to 40% and then slowly fade back down during the day. It is only running at 40% for approx 2 hours. It starts the moon lighting cycle at about 7 and then slowly fades until they go completely off. Can you or someone else tell me the optimal amount of time to have the lights on?

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Tracy

Like chrisfont23 pute quite well, with all the variables, there's really no way anyone can say with the amount of info available here what the optimal lighting time is. The ability to ramp LEDs continuously through the day, as it sounds like you're doing, makes it tough to make a one-size-fits-all recommendation. You might Google some articles written by Dana Riddle - he does a good job describing the relationship between lighting intensity, time period, and how the two play together.

My comment regarding too much lighting came from the fact that 14 hours of lighting, regardless of the intensity, seems pretty rare.