Difference between bleaching and growth?

[elweshomayor]

Hey guys, I recently bought some SPS corals (about 3 days ago) and I'm wondering. How can you tell the difference between coral growth and bleaching?

One of the corals I bought has white tips, but I can't tell whether the coral is bleaching or not. I don't remember the coral having the tips when i got it, though I didnt put too much attention.

Its a small frag, but from what I can tell, the tip seems to be showing skeleton (maybe.. ill try to take a pic). On one of the tips though, i can see a single polyp. So, is the coral growing or bleaching?

the coral is placed on the high end of the tank, I also set my lights to 50% Blue, and about 10 percent whites. In terms of power for light acclimation. Maybe its too little light?
I bought an anemone who is lower in the tank and it seems to be happy where it is. So is my frogspawn which is basically near the sand. Candy cane also looks great and its a bit lower than this SPS.

Another reason im thinking might be that perhaps the flow is too high? It is near the powerhead though the flow is noton the coral directly maybe as the water moves it pushes too much water on the surrounding?
Though if that was the case, wouldnt the coral be bleaching from more places other than the tip alone?

Any suggestions? I got parameters tested and my calcium was a bit low in the 380 range. Though I did just dose to get it higher right before placing coral in tank. I havent tested but it should be 400ish now. I dont have that many corals yet.

These are the types of lights im using. Like i said before, I have the blue set to 50% power and the white to barely on around 10% power. For light acclimation. Is this too low, too high? Normally blues are at 100% and whites are about 35-50% on my tank.

This is where the coral is in respect to the powerhead. Its very close but the flow isnt towards it rather to the glass and upwards. Though it should be getting flow since its near it. Would this be too much? mind you guys, they are NOT glued, so i figured if it was too much they would be blown away perhaps.

 

[jda]

That is bleaching or tissue loss - cannot tell really. That is not new growth.

 

[elweshomayor]

That is bleaching or tissue loss - cannot tell really. That is not new growth.

so what can I do about it? LFS said parameters are good.. I dipped the corals before introducing.

Maybe too much light? too little? Tissue loss from too much flow? or somehow too little?

Im not sure on what steps to take to save the coral

 

[eder10986]

That is bleaching or tissue loss - cannot tell really. That is not new growth.

I don't entirely agree. But your picture isn't great. Looks like new growth to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[elweshomayor]

I don't entirely agree. But your picture isn't great. Looks like new growth to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry I dont know that I can take a better picture, though I will try tomorrow when i turn on the lights.

How can you tell between new growth vs. bleach/tissue loss

 

[Hentz]

Agreed with the quality of the picture. To get a better picture quality, reduce the blues on your lights so the whites are mostly on. Turn off all the flow so the surface of the water doesn't have turbulence. Then focus on the coral with your phone and this should allow you to get a better quality picture.


Aside from the quality issue, it is pretty hard to see which it really is. Looks like it could be tissue loss since there are multiple polyps on top around the white areas. Although, that could also indicate growth with new polyps forming which would be smaller.

Hard to tell!

 

[jml1149]

That's a green spongodes correct? My new growth is bright green, never white. Growth tips don't have full size polyps on them. I believe that's bleaching. The polyp extension looks good so the flow is ok. I'd leave your lights at the current levels and move it down. But make sure it's getting a ton of flow. More flow is more better.

Doesn't sound like you light acclimated it, and if you're manually turning on and off the lights, doesn't sound like the lighting is consistent. Those black box LED's are surprisingly powerful, I'd never even consider running an acclimated coral at 100%, let alone 50% on those bad boys.

The spongodes is pretty forgiving, so it should pull through fine.

 

[elweshomayor]

That's a green spongodes correct? My new growth is bright green, never white. Growth tips don't have full size polyps on them. I believe that's bleaching. The polyp extension looks good so the flow is ok. I'd leave your lights at the current levels and move it down. But make sure it's getting a ton of flow. More flow is more better.

Doesn't sound like you light acclimated it, and if you're manually turning on and off the lights, doesn't sound like the lighting is consistent. Those black box LED's are surprisingly powerful, I'd never even consider running an acclimated coral at 100%, let alone 50% on those bad boys.

The spongodes is pretty forgiving, so it should pull through fine.

I was under the impression I was light acclimating lol Normally blues are at 90-100% and whites are at 25-30%. When I add new coral I lower to 50%blue 10-15%white. I have another coral next to the one thats bleaching and it looks fine so far? or is this particular sps not need that much light and thats why it doesnt like it?
Are you sure the ones I have are this powerfull? I was hoping I could put coral near the top of the tank, but if they are that strong I would need to place them all even lower. Currently this coral is a little higher than midway in the tank. (mind you this is a standard 150G tank so its tall).

At what percentage should I be running the lights then? 30% blues, 10% whites? That seems so little doesnt it?
I'll lower the coral and see if that makes a difference though.

 

[jml1149]

Too little light and your corals would darken/turn brown. My frag rack in my tank is ~ 18 inches below a single T5 bulb and the color is great, the growth is present. Probably a fraction of what that light is putting out.

I thought you had a smaller tank, so I don't have much experience with those lights on something that large. One guy on here had that similar light over a 29g tank at 100% and wondered why things where dying.

In my opinion, based on tanks I've seen that use similar LED's, the tank looks generally darker than you would expect but the PAR is spot on. It's the nature of those LED's.

There's no limit to where you can put your corals, but you really should borrow a PAR meter and see exactly why you have.

 

[elweshomayor]

Too little light and your corals would darken/turn brown. My frag rack in my tank is ~ 18 inches below a single T5 bulb and the color is great, the growth is present. Probably a fraction of what that light is putting out.

I thought you had a smaller tank, so I don't have much experience with those lights on something that large. One guy on here had that similar light over a 29g tank at 100% and wondered why things where dying.

In my opinion, based on tanks I've seen that use similar LED's, the tank looks generally darker than you would expect but the PAR is spot on. It's the nature of those LED's.

There's no limit to where you can put your corals, but you really should borrow a PAR meter and see exactly why you have.

so I grabbed the coral and turned it around and it has a bald spot on the back of it. So For sure I know now that it is tissue loss. I lowered it to an adjacent lower rock and I lowered the lights to Barely on. 10% on each. Perhaps I will increase the blues to about 30% and leave the whites at 10. The fixtures are about 6-10 inches (more or less) from the tank. Maybe I can raise them a bit more so that I Can increase the percentage so tank doesn't look dark while remaining good. All the other corals seem ok except the SPS. Mind you though everything else is near the sand or midway.
This is why I am so confused, because I thought SPS needed higher amounts of light than say LPS (frogspawn or even an anemone).

 

[jml1149]

The problem is that LED's just look dark in general. Those LED's are little lasers that shoot light straight down, they don't scatter light like a T5 or MH. The best way to get the tank to look traditionally "bright" and use LED's is supplement with T5. And consistency is key, you've gone from 100% to 50 to 10 now to maybe 30? I would go to 30, drop the coral down to the bottom until it starts to recover, and slowly move up. Just be careful with your flow down there, needs to be sufficient for SPS