I can't figure out the bleaching???

[giants4pc]

My parameters are great-
My lighting is sufficient-
My flow is plenty-
My acros are bleaching...
I have a green slimer that was doing great and growing. Today, out of the blue, it is bleaching and turning white???
I have another acro golden frag that bleached last week.
Is some SPS easier than others? I don't know what the problem is.

 

[secrest]

Yes some sps are definately easier than others. Green Slimer being one of the easier ones as far as acros go.

Its kind of hard to give you any info on what the problem may be. When you say your params are great, and all that, what exactly do you mean? We need numbers here.

Also what other corals do you have in the tank? Fish? Possibly an invert who has fallen in love with your acros? See anything crawling on the coral?

 

[giants4pc]

Nothing is crawling on the acro's. Occasionally, my cleaner shrimp will go near it when food is around, but that's it.
My calcium is at 450
I haven't tested for magnesium. However, I use Randy's two part on a daily basis. That should take care of alk, calcium, and magnesium
My livestock consists of:
4 chromis
1 royal gramma
1 sebae clown
1 blue tang
1 firefish
1 sixline

 

[MarineFiend]

How much light? could be to much. I have found that some of my corals don't like as much light as some of the others.

 

[Sk8r]

Temperature: doublecheck your thermometers for accuracy.

As a far-fetched, include ammonia in your params.

 

[giants4pc]

temp fluctuates between 80-83
lighting...
2 175 watt 10k halides
2 96 watt pc actinic

 

[cwegescheide]

83 is getting pretty darn warm there and could be a real problem from what I've read. I'd try to keep the temp down a bit.. I try to keep my tank @ 80-81 24/7

Chris

 

[Philwd]

You didn't post alk and PO4. Alk swings are killers.

How long had you had them? Did you add anything recently? Any softies like leathers?

 

[MarineFiend]

Oh man it could be that flux on the temps that could be doing it. I had that issue with my 90 gallong years ago and could not keep an acro alive for more than three days.

 

[giants4pc]

that's probably it. I can't swing the price of a chiller. I took my canopy off and put a clip on fan on the back. This helped lower it from a day of 87!!! The frags have been in there for about a month. The 87 degree day was prior to that.

 

[chadfarmer]

acros cant take extreme swings at all

 

[panic]

Check for red bugs

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7670763#post7670763 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chadfarmer
acros cant take extreme swings at all

\

My acros swing from 74 to 81ish all the time, and have no problems with it, so I disagree.


That being said, that 87 day is probably whats bleaching thme. Sometimes it takes a couple days.

 

[Obi-dad]

I agree about the temp swings not a problem unless you go too high - have you seen the shots of acros out of the water at low tide just baking in the sun? And while snorkeling on the land side of reef crests you can be in warm water one second, then feel the cold water break over the reef from the ocean side. IMO alk swings are a much bigger problem.

 

[DitchPlains2]

temps

temps

83 is getting pretty darn warm there and could be a real problem from what I've read

I don't think is it or my acors would have died along time ago but their growing, its more about what your tanks water is doing, is it stable, is it high and properly balacned calc n alk, etc... I hate to say this but sometimes sps just rtn, stn, dtn for no good reason, often its stress, wrong position in tank, an unknown parasite, bacteria, etc... Do you have any other sps doing well? or are all dying?

David

 

[chadfarmer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7672296#post7672296 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
\

My acros swing from 74 to 81ish all the time, and have no problems with it, so I disagree.


That being said, that 87 day is probably whats bleaching thme. Sometimes it takes a couple days.

i had swings like that and my acros stopped growing

1 degree swing and the acros are doing great and growing

 

[giants4pc]

no red bugs
other sps are doing fine. It's just those two in particular.
I guess I need to test the water to determine for 100%

 

[REEF-DADDY]

If my memory serves me you just converted to barebottom. Don't under estimate the amount of extra light you are getting due to your new found water clarity. I ran my xm 10ks for 8-10 hours before I changed over. I found the tank only needed 2-3 hours after I made the change, and some of the less light loving acros bleached at about 5ish. I currently run 2 hours under 400 watt hqi radiums.

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7673401#post7673401 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by REEF-DADDY
If my memory serves me you just converted to barebottom. Don't under estimate the amount of extra light you are getting due to your new found water clarity. I ran my xm 10ks for 8-10 hours before I changed over. I found the tank only needed 2-3 hours after I made the change, and some of the less light loving acros bleached at about 5ish. I currently run 2 hours under 400 watt hqi radiums.

I think thats more of a nutrient thing than light clarity.


Someone in one of the old SPS lighting threads did some tests with a par meter using a BB ozone tank and a DSB softie tank, and the difference in PAR at any given tank depth was less than 10%. IE much less than a change in bulbs would cause.

 

[REEF-DADDY]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7673457#post7673457 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
I think that's more of a nutrient thing than light clarity.


Someone in one of the old SPS lighting threads did some tests with a par meter using a BB ozone tank and a DSB softie tank, and the difference in PAR at any given tank depth was less than 10%. IE much less than a change in bulbs would cause.

I had the low nutrient issue as well, but that was a gradual lightening followed bleaching over time once the coral was sufficiently stressed.

In many cases(such as mine) the switch to BB was prompted by the fact that the DSB was not working out well. In my case due to less than perfect aquascaping and flow. I never realized how bad the water looked until I went back and looked at old pictures and saw how yellow it is. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Don't get me wrong I am sure many of the beautiful DSB tanks I've seen would not have the same issue or have it as bad. But if the parameters are checking out and only a couple acros are bleaching I would look to lighting.