Faded or bleached favites

[bureau13]

Hey,

I got a medium-sized favites about two months ago, it was a reddish brown color, with more of a cream-colored area inside each polyp. I put it sort of half on the sand, but propped up against some low rocks. It seemed to be getting moderate flow..at any rate I made sure nothing was settling on it and just sitting there. I would say its about 30" down from the water surface, and I have 250W 13K or so HQI lighting (AB 10000 lamps).

I have never seen it go into any feeding mode...I think I've seen pictures of the polyps opening up a bit with short tentacles, etc...nothing. I noticed that the reddish areas started lightening. Its almost totally white now, everywhere. Is it dead? Was it sick to begin with? I've never had one of these before, but I thought they were supposed to be relatively easy to keep.

FWIW, my water parameters are as follows:

SG: 1.024 (a tad low)
Alk: ~8 dKH
Temp: 82 (a tad high)
Nitrates: 0 (was up to about 5 for a bit, now its back down)
Phosphates: 0
pH: 8.2
Calcium: 325 (a bit low)
Magnesium: 1280 (a tad low)

A couple of these are not quite ideal, but I think they're all within an acceptable range. I have frospawn, candy cane, hammer, bubble, torch, a few zoas, some yellow polyps and gsp, all of which seem fine.

I will try to get a good picture, if that will help.

jds

 

[bureau13]

Here is a picture shortly after I noticed the bleaching start:

And here is a picture now that its pretty much all bleached:

 

[redFishblue]

It looks like skeleton to me w/ algae starting to grow.

 

[Justin74]

Man, I wish I had an answer for you It looks like it could be 1 or 2 things or a combination of a few. My first guess when I saw the first pic, was light and too much of it. I made this assumption by the lower shaded coralites/polyps are darker as opposed to the top. Any time you see this shade it more. But from the second pic Im kinda thinking light may have had something to start it going downhill but it looks like it may have been a water quality issue, or too much flow. My hunch is light and water quality though

Alls it takes sometimes is a temporary spike to pi$$ things off, whether it be an amonia spike or alkalinity. If you havent already may I suggest making sure its not getting a strong current, and put some fresh carbon in if its been more than a week.I notice you said 0 phosphates, but noticing the deposits on its tissue makes me think theres access nutrients somewhere, and would be suspicious of that reading, as you may be aware of phosphates can be hard to detect, especially if there temporarily locked in algae.

-Justin

 

[bureau13]

Everything I can measure in terms of water quality looks great, and all of my other corals are doing well...but you're right about the phosphates....I am getting a lot of algae film on the glass too...its got to be getting nutrients from somewhere.

Its under 250W HQI, but its about 30" down....if that's still too much light...yikes.

Are these harder to keep than I've been reading? Based on what I thought, I would have expected my other stuff to go downhill just as fast as this one, but that's not happening (fortunately!)

jds

 

[Justin74]

what about the flow?What is the current going around it like?

-Justin

 

[bureau13]

Flow in that area is pretty light, really. I've been questioning if I have enough flow low in the tank. I have the 2 return nozzles and a pair of MJ900s w/ the Maxi-stream mod, both mounted about 2/3 of the way up (cord limited ) so its certainly not getting pummelled. I wanted to make sure detritus wasn't settling on it, so its getting some.

jds

 

[David Grigor]

It's all relative to what it was in prior to your tank. If it was a LFS under some bare minimal lighting then yes, even 30" down could be quite a shock......

 

[bureau13]

Hmmm, good point there. I have no idea what it was in then, I got it from an online vendor. A reputable one, but still.

jds

 

[dvanacker]

it looks like a goner to me too. I could be wrong but I think you guys are talking about a skeleton. Sorry for you loss if this is true.

I say a prayer for it tonight.

 

[jjmcat]

Have you tried feeind your coral?Most of my favias dont open un less its dark.In fact ive only got one that does send out its sweepers during the lighting period

 

[bureau13]

Yes, I did...like I said before though, I never saw it put out any sweepers or feeders at all, even after dark and having various types of food sprayed around it.

jds