LTA losing color? Advice please.

~RuSh~

~RuSh~

New member
29g tank, 20g sump - Aquaticlife 4x 24w T5HO. 2 ocellaris clowns, 2 talbot damsels.

Looking for some help and advice here.

In the past month my LTA has been slowly bleaching. At first I thought the color change was maybe a delayed reaction from the newer bulb combo but in the past two weeks it has become extremely light in color and is significantly smaller than normal.

I had been feeding it about once a week - shrimp raw, shell on - I did remove the shell before feeding but that is the way I bought it. I thought that maybe the shrimp was bad (it was almost a year old in the freezer) so I bought a new bag and have fed him twice with the new shrimp but it hasn't seemed to improve his condition.

I thought maybe his diet was lacking something so I tried some mysis shrimp last night which he took willingly. I'm not sure if I just need to feed more often? Or if I need to vary his diet more?

Any tips? Advice?
 
I'll get a pic when I go home for lunch. It's pretty bad.

I'll have to test parameters maybe tonight. I don't expect that they are any different than normal but I will test them all the same. I am using RODI water.
 
Pic. Lights haven't come on yet. Usually when the lights turn on, it stretches out a bit more and looks even more pale.

IMAG0491.jpg
 
Same thing happened to mine a while back. The only thing i was doing different was feeding it heavily and noticed it bleaching into a similar colour to yours. I stopped feeding and the colour came back after about 4-5 weeks.

This could have been coincidental, but i did read another reefer who fed his nem heavily to keep the nicer colour and keep the tan colour away.

Other people have suggested it may have been a sudden removal of phosphates...but i don't remember doing anything different at the time.
 
So you stopped feeding yours completely?

I'm not sure I want to do that with mine... it seems to be getting smaller along with the bleaching symptom.
 
Mine didn't get any smaller, my lta is always fed a little by my pair of maroons. At the time of target heavy feeding it was getting at least a prawn or scallop every day. But i did stop target feeding.
 
Sorry guys, I didn't get a chance to test last night. My 3 week old son is sucking all of my left over energy out of me when I get home from work. I'll do it tonight for sure.
 
Honestly, without knowing the parameters, it is hard to say what to do -- like to get rid of as many variables as possible before suggesting a course of action.

You stated that it has been bleaching for the past month, how long have you had it?
 
He is almost completely bleached (as you are aware). If this happened gradually, it is probably due to lighting. Have you replaced your bulbs recently? This anemone has higher lighting requirements than the LPS corals and zoos you have in your tank - it is tough to strike the right balance between high light creatures in the sand, and low light creatures on the rocks. You may need to consider upgrading your lighting.

I am not aware of supplemental feeding and presence of zooxanthellae being related. Heavy feeding will not bleach an anemone, nor will lack of feeding cause it to grow more zooxanthellae.
 
I recently changed my bulb combo yes. I went from 2 10K bulbs and 2 actinic bulbs to a Coral+, 2 ATI blue + and a ATI Purple +.

Fixture is a Aquaticlife 4x24watt T5HO. Recommend I go back to the 2 10k bulbs and 2 actinic bulbs?
 
I think I've found the problem.

I finally got around to testing the parameters today. I got my Salifert test kits in the mail about 3 weeks ago (the night my son was born infact) and put them to use today. I started out with Mg because that is one test I've never had.

Mg - 60-90ppm.

I was stunned. I tested twice more. Roughly the same results, between 60-90ppm. Craziness.

KH - 8.0-8.3

Ca - 60ppm.

Soooo yeah, obviously these levels are waaay out of whack. What is my first step? What do I do first? Dose? Secondly, what the @#$% could have caused this?
 
EDIT - Nope, I was reading it backwards lol.

I suspect you're inverting the result lookup, and that the calcium is 440 ppm and the magnesium is 1410 ppm or so. There's some sort of testing error.
Click to expand...

So yea, embarassing.
 
water changes are the best way to get back to normal start with a 25% for 12 hours then another 25% check youre readings if you need another wait twelve hours and repeat.the amount of time shouldnt shock anything.there was still some brown in him sop not all the zooanthia is gone.gl
 
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