My Alveopora has turned completely white..

[Jonna43]

Hello...I'm pretty new to the hobby, but am loving it so far. However, I have lots of questions, so I apologize if this is a dumb one...

I have a biocube, and I bought an Alveopora a couple months ago. At this point in time, it has turned completely white. It still retracts at night, and comes out in the light, although it's not as full as it used to be. That combined with the color change makes me nervous that I'm somehow killing it....or have already killed it. I'm hoping that it is still salvageable, so if anyone can help me with advice/information, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks so much!

 

[Daddi0]

Are you feeding it?
Cheers! Mark

 

[Dsekula]

Ime Alveopora and gonipora like lower light, mine are near or on the sand bed and partially shaded by over hanging coral or rocks. The way yours is acting sounds like it is in more light than it is used to. It will either slowly acclimate itself (if the light is acceptable but just more than it's used to) or die if the light is just too much if this is the case (if you leave it in that spot). The easy way to check this is to place something between the lights and the coral so it only shades that specific coral. Needle mesh, or sheer cloths work well. If you do this and it looks better and better after a week or so, once it looks all happy I'd move it to a shady spot. If you want to try to acclimate it slowly allow a little more light to hit it by moving the coverage or starting with a few layers of coverage and removing one a week or longer.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Jonna43]

Are you feeding it?
Cheers! Mark

I'm not feeding it anything specific...should I be? I feed my fish mysis, so if they need to have something other than that....I've basically starved them to death (or near death), it sounds like....how awful do I feel at this moment??? It's upsetting that my local aquarium store didn't give me this info....it may have made a huge difference.

 

[Jonna43]

Ime Alveopora and gonipora like lower light, mine are near or on the sand bed and partially shaded by over hanging coral or rocks. The way yours is acting sounds like it is in more light than it is used to. It will either slowly acclimate itself (if the light is acceptable but just more than it's used to) or die if the light is just too much if this is the case (if you leave it in that spot). The easy way to check this is to place something between the lights and the coral so it only shades that specific coral. Needle mesh, or sheer cloths work well. If you do this and it looks better and better after a week or so, once it looks all happy I'd move it to a shady spot. If you want to try to acclimate it slowly allow a little more light to hit it by moving the coverage or starting with a few layers of coverage and removing one a week or longer.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

The alveopora was DEFINITELY in the direct light....and I placed it higher up in the tank...so, that makes a lot of sense. The Xenia is pretty low, however, it's only a 32g biocube, so perhaps it's still somewhat close even though it's placed lower than the other one was....and it IS in the direct light. I will definitely try what you suggested....and I appreciate the info!! fingers crossed...

 

[shallowreefsteve]

Yeah Alveopora like it lower in par and medium flow. Lower half of tank usually.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Water temperature?
The zooxanthellae may bail out if it gets too hot (or too much light). I don't know a lot about Alveopora - but it could also be white because the zooxanthellae are huddled as tight as possible in the tissue trying to shade themselves.

I am not sure that I would shade it and wait - I would get it to lower light right away.