Help! My Montipora seems to be bleaching?

[KMS.Kyle]

Hello!!

So my tank is just over a year now and my parameters have all been really good/steady and I'm always on top of water changes, etc.

Recently I took a rock out to clean it off algae (in tank water moved to a bucket) - On this rock my Montipora had been encrusting and growing quite rapidly.. Until I cleaned the algae off and put it back into the tank. (Note: this took about 10 minutes)

Now it seems to be bleaching? (Picture below)

That day I also moved my lighting around which mind you brought it a lot closer to the montipora so I'm assuming it MIGHT be the lighting change / it being too strong for it in the new location? (Note: I have since reduced the lighting by 35% using acclimation mode on my hydraHD26s) -(Note: my lights are about 2-3 inches above the water because I modded my Red Sea Max250 Lid with them)

Nothing else in my tank seems to be having issues.. Does anyone have any suggestions that I haven't tried? This was one of my first corals and I'm incredibly sad to see it losing its color.

I read that it might be smart to break off a healthy part of it and frag it elsewhere? Is this a good idea or will it cause more stress to the coral?

Thank you for your help.

Parameters:
Salinity - 0.024
Amm - 0
Nit - 0.02 - untraceable at times
Mag - 1300
Calc - 410
KH - 11
PH - 8.1

 

[m0nkie]

the light change might have stressed it..

also your alk seems a little high. try lower it naturally a little.

I would stop messing with the lights. keep things stable. if anything move the coral lower.

fragging is always an option if you see this piece dying. It's not at the point of dying yet IMO. just some corner bleaching. You can always frag a piece to preserve your coral, but it will add stress.

 

[KMS.Kyle]

Ok - Thank you very much for the information!

I will stop messing with the lights - I was meaning to try and move them a bit to create more spread (which was why I moved them).

I won't touch them again.

Do you think running my lights down by 40% ramping up over like 10 days would be a good idea or even longer?

Also - Note - My alk has been roughly 10-11 ever since starting my tank - it doesn't seem to fluctuate much.. A random 9 once or twice in the past - so I'm assuming the coral has been used to it.

 

[C.Eymann]

Could you post a better pic of the coral? could be M. danae, and they tend to be incredibly sensitive to changes in lighting, they bleach very easily when over illuminated compared to other species.

 

[m0nkie]

ramping slowly is fine. but once you find the spot, leave it alone. Move corals up and down instead.

if your alk always hover around 10-11, I'd look into switching salt brands.. I think 9 is a good number. at 11, you have no wiggle room. one high alk dose to 13 or 14 and your corals are gone. This can happen from dosing, unstable salt mix, etc.. too many variables.

In my personal opinion:
High alk + high nutrient + high light = works
high alk + low nutritent + high light = easier to get burn tips on corals. corner bleaching etc..
lower alk + low nutrient + low light = works

you have at times undetectable nitrate, so your system is fairly low in nutrient. that + high alkalinity and LED could result bleaching. LED are also very focused. So at certain spots, the PAR is much higher than surrounding areas

 

[KMS.Kyle]

Thank you!