help bleaching

[pimp2daizzo]

hey,

my digitata's are bleaching from the base over the past two days...one of my ballest just went out about 4 days ago and i just changed my light bulbs out a week ago, so could it just be the light changeing so much?

my level:
cal: 500 wich is high
kh: 12 high again
ph:8.4
mag:1250 maybe 1300 it get hard to tell the colors apart
nitrate: 0
phos: was 5ppm

 

[Felixc395]

Well a lighting change like that can be a shock. Were you using MH and how long were the lights off for? A couple of days can cause some dramatic effects on corals color but I don't know about bleaching.

And if your phosphates are 5 ppm I think that you have a huge problem. Did you mix up the numbers for nitrate and phopshate or did you mean to say 0.05?

Also your high kH may be a factor. Have there been any large swings?

 

[pimp2daizzo]

Well a lighting change like that can be a shock. Were you using MH and how long were the lights off for? A couple of days can cause some dramatic effects on corals color but I don't know about bleaching.

And if your phosphates are 5 ppm I think that you have a huge problem. Did you mix up the numbers for nitrate and phopshate or did you mean to say 0.05?

Also your high kH may be a factor. Have there been any large swings?

ya i ment .5 and no t5s but i just got in to a new light cycle and its a total of 10 hours but i rly just put the bulbs in a weeks ago and about 3 or 4 days later it went out, and no its been at 11 and this week it moved to 12

 

[GhostCon1]

Bleaching usually occurs from the top, are you sure it is not STN?

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

+1 for STN

 

[GhostCon1]

My advice: slowly lower your Ca and alk values to the appropriate levels and then see if the stn stops. STN takes awhile before you are in danger of losing the whole thing so I would frag about two pieces off (depending how large the piece is) and then see if the stn stops.

Frag the pieces as a back up in case you lose the whole colony.

If it still STN's then use a dip for your coral. I use CoralRX and it seems to work pretty well.

Either way, frag a piece off for preservation.

Good luck.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

so i looked today and my ORA spongodesspongodes, oj dig, and a ora bird of par is doing the same

 

[pimp2daizzo]

but the only reasons i thought lights is b/c i went from 2-460's and 2-10ks to 1-12k 1-420 1-460 and 1-pinkish red one forgot the name

 

[GhostCon1]

I am about 100% sure it is not your lights. Your alk is way too high and your Ca is pushing it.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

k so just dose any cal? and should i go ahead and do a water change?

 

[rc4kinu]

I recently have the same issue. Started with a frag then went next to a large colony next to the frag. Every coral in tank is doing fine. No spike in alk, water parameters were ideal. Frag was gone within 2 days, then as I watched colony slowly receding, fearing the worst, I caught a huge, I mean HUGE bristleworm eating away at the SPS colony. The only way I managed to see it was late at night when the night lights were out with a flashlight. So check this option out, when all else seems ok. It might just be.

 

[GhostCon1]

NO! Don't dose Ca; your's is too high. You should do some water changes with RO/DI water to lower your levels.

I'm not sure how feasible this would be, but one time in my 20l I had high Ca/Alk and my LFS told me to take out one gallon and replace with fresh RO/DI water to stop the STN I was having and it did work.

Reason why I say this may not be feasible is because you may lower your SG too much. If you decide to use FW to do this, make sure you keep an eye on your SG.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

i think your rite that would help the ca and kh...what store do you go to in ga?

 

[GhostCon1]

Bio-Reef and Coral Logic.

Bio-Reef was the one that told me to do the WC (didn't really go to Coral Logic much back then).

 

[pimp2daizzo]

so should i just take 1 gall out a week untell it lowers? and where are they in ga?

 

[GhostCon1]

Oops, they are not in GA, they are in Jacksonville, FL. Sorry, I was doing some audio thing and misread the post.

I only did this once. I had no access to RO/DI water so used distilled, I took out one gallon (out of 20) and replaced it with the fresh distilled water.

My SG was kind of high and it lowered it down .001 to 1.026 (I think those numbers are right). Again, if you decide to do this keep an eye on salinity!

 

[Felixc395]

Well when the OP says that their phosphate is 0.5 isn't this a problem? I though that this was really high? I don't know if it can cause bleaching but it can't help.

 

[GhostCon1]

High phosphate generally leads to nuisance algae problems. High Ca and Alk generally are contributors to STN and/or RTN and lighting issues are related to bleaching.

 

[pimp2daizzo]

o opps my phos are at .25 not .5 sry had to look back at the color card

 

[mike_cmu04]

Definently the alk that is pretty high and the light change im sure didnt help