Favia bleaching?

[Taqpol]

Hi, I picked up a nice favia sp. about a month ago. Its green on the inside with brown ridges. All during last week we had a heat spell, and even with me floating bags of ice and running fans my tanks temp still skyrocketed, with potential temp swings of 4 degrees... Also in the past few weeks while getting my auto top off straightened out I had some fluctuating Sg, but it was always corrected slowly

Anyways, since then I have noticed what appears to be bleaching on some of the brown ridges. Just in case its not the temps, I'll go ahead and post my other specs:

4x24w T5HO
Sg 1.026
Ca 400 ppm
Alk 10 dKh
Amm, Nitrites, Nitrates 0 ppm

The favia came from the store with one tiny spot of bleaching, i just assumed it was due to the 400w halides they were running.

All other corals are doing fine except for a turbinaria "pagoda cup" which is not extending polyps in one stretch where it might have fallen during some minor rearranging.

I am definitely new to coral, so hopefully someone can help me with this. I can add pictures later if needed.

 

[Reefer07]

How high is it up in your tank? and for the heck of it...how is the flow in the area of that part of the tank?

 

[Taqpol]

It was about (I've since move it to the sandbed in the shade of a rock) 10" from the lights in an area of medium flow.

Here are some pictures (I even got to whip out my fancy extension tube/macro lens). I sure hope this helps, because my freakin clownfish attacked me when I stuck my hand in there to move the coral to a shadier area...

 

[Reefer07]

That looks similar to how my closed brain has been looking lately.
I would move it and it would start to color back then a week later it would do that again.
I am on my 3rd move and it has been coming back for about a week and a half and I think it likes the spot it's in.
I don't think your flow is really the problem I would just try moving it, perhaps to a area a few inches down.
Those are nice lights you have on that tank and I was actually planning on getting a 30" x24 watt USA sundial for my 29. I was told that 96 watts of T-5 would be plenty sufficient for my tank so maybe it is a little overpower for your tank? That is why I think if you moved it down a little it my help.
What brand are your lights and what are the dimensions?

 

[9501gle]

I dont have a favia but most online retailers reccomend MH's for lighting.

 

[roblack]

Check your Mag level, may be a bit low. It's hard to keep alot of LPS in such a small tank, do you do regular water changes?

 

[Taqpol]

Yep, weekly water changes. I don't have a mag test but I have been dosing some calcium that says it should maintain the mag. I use Instant Ocean, unfortunately not the reef crystals yet.

 

[Taqpol]

I posted this on the newbie forum also, and they stated that its proximity to a frogspawn (and the frogspawn attacking it) could have caused the bleaching, is this true?

More importantly, does anyone here think my coral is going to die or do I just need to nurse it back to health?

 

[Taqpol]

Does this look like it could be caused by a protosoan infection to anyone? If so, I am prepared to try a freshwater or lugols dip if someone can give me the proper instructions.

 

[Taqpol]

Woops, protozoan. Can Favia's handle freshwater dips?

 

[Reefski's]

a four degree fluctuation is nothing to worry about. what did it peak at?

do you use carbon, ozone?

Carl

 

[Taqpol]

ah... It peaked at 86 with the average being 82-83. I know theres a big debate going on now about whtehr its fluctuation or peak temop thats the worst, and I sort of sided that my corals were acclimated to 82 so 86 wouldn't have been that bad. Maybe I'm completely wrong.

This weekend I just started running Purigen in lieu of carbon.

 

[Dancing4raiin]

I think it being to close to the light is what caused it. I have mine on my sanbed, and have great color.

 

[Reefski's]

can also be a synergistic effect of high light and high temp, and low flow. corals can withstand high temps and high light if they have better flow.

how are you controlling the temp now?

the parts that look bleached don't look like they are the top most parts which would have the most light. are they?

Carl

 

[Peter Eichler]

T5s in particular can be pretty brutal on favids because of the way they deliver light. I have some that even on the bottom of the tank will lighten considerably unless they're shaded.

 

[Taqpol]

First let me get this out of the way, from the pictures does it look like bleaching or tissue recession?

I rotated the coral for better picture taking, so yes the bleached parts are the parts of the coral closest to the light. Coincidently they are also the closest parts to the frogspawn, I hope I didn't put them too close...

How do T5's deliver this brutal light? I will admit I don't have the highest amount of wattage and I don't have true individual reflectors (Its one big reflector contoured around the individual bulbs), but i'm confused as to how my T5's could be more harsh than the 400w MH's at the LFS.

 

[Taqpol]

Would it help anyone if I said that after looking at pictures online I am quite sure the coral is a Favites or potentially a Goniastrea? How different are they from favias?

 

[Taqpol]

Ok heres a more directed question that i hope someone can answer for me, I moved the coral to a shaded region away from other corals six days ago. About how long do you think it should take to start getting colors back if it was a light related problem?