corals bleaching

[splateee]

Hi.

I am having a problem with all my corals. This is what is happening.

The following corals are bleaching, Open brain, frogspawn, hammer. I belive it was caused by temps being to high for to long. During the day the tank would be around 85 degrees. Well one day i noticed my bubble coral was not looking normal and when i went to investigate the temp was 90 degrees. Well i have fixed the temp problem and i am at 76 to 80 with the lights on.

The Hammer coral extends fully but the color is not to good and the frogspawn is starting to extend more but not like it used to and the color is not well. Now the brain is almost clear looking with just a bit of green but it is still feeding and is puffed up in the mornings. Will the corals make a come back?

Tank parameters are:
55 gallon
2 x 96 watt Power Compacts
Bakpak skimmer
Power filter
salinity 1.024
Ph = 8.0 to 8.1

Im not sure what calcium levels are, i do not have a test kit. I dose with liquid calcium at half the recommended dosage every week when i do water changes.

Thank you

 

[oddballs]

what is your nitrate and nitrites at?if they are ok it probably was the high temps.just make sure the water quality stays good and the have a pretty good chance at recovering.id feed them if they will eat to!

 

[keckles]

Those temperatures could definitely cause your coral to bleach.

The corals can make a comeback, but it will require good water condition and stability. You may also find supplement feedings to be of some help. Anything small and meaty will work for the Frogspawn and Hammer feedings; mysis, cyclop-eeze, etc. The open brain and bubble coral can be fed these items as well as slightly larger items such as krill or silversides cut to size.

Good luck and keep us updated with any progress or questions :thumbsup:

 

[splateee]

Thanks for the replies.

I do feed the corals, but it is not on a regular basis.
I am going to need to test for nitrites and nitrates.

Today the frogspawn was much fuller then it has been in a long time. The rest of the corals are doing alot better also.
The bubble coral is almost back to its full size.

I have the temps at 76 and 80 with the lights on.

Thanks again

 

[phljess]

I would shoot for less than a three degree change throughout the whole day. Another thing you might want to consider is Calcium and alkalinity balance.

 

[Sk8r]

Temperature. Ran a thread on this topic in the newbie forum and someone chimed in with some real interesting info re the combination of temperature and high light, along with some links. I think it should still be accessible. It's something about heat...a warning...

 

[phljess]

Another thing that could be a problem is your pH swinging because of in balance between calcium and alk. You really should test cal and alk if you want to be successful with LPS corals. Do you have a refugium and are you running a reverse light cycle on your refugium? This would help stabilize pH.