need help with orange digi............

[Naperville Reef]

recently my tank has gone through a major transformation. over a 3 week period i removed my SB and replaced all my live rock and turned my tank into a BB. my SPS were VERY stressed and lost lots of color. unfortunately the LR i bought was uncured, even though i was told differently, and my tank went through a short cycle. all my SPS survived although i did have to frag one that was STNing. (all the frags survived and look great by the way).

current readings are(using all Salifert test kits):

1.026
NO2 0
NH4 0
NO3 0
PO4 0
Ca 380
Alk 10.6dKH
Mg 1200
pH 8.1

i just purchased some Kent Tech M to bring up my Mg which was recently tested at 1110. my Ca has been pretty stable but my Alk has bounced around in the range of 8.6 to 10.6 dKH.

now on to my problem........ ALL of my SPS are regaining their color and some look better than before. i have an orange digi that was a deep orange but over the last few days it has started to turn pinkish. it still has GREAT polyp extension. i know, or think, there is not a pink montipora digitata so i don't understand why this is happening.

could the recent increase in Mg be causing this?
is the orange color just fading?
should i start fragging this and charging $100 per inch for my recently discovered PINK digi????


seriously, any thoughts????????

 

[pk1]

My orange digi does that when it gets more light, or has a growth spurt. did you place it closer to your lamps?

 

[Naperville Reef]

it is in about the same spot but about 4 inches lower.

 

[Naperville Reef]

here are the before and after pics. the digi pictured in the after pic was a frag from the original that grew quite well for a few months.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

[pk1]

Pink? That looks white. That looks dead actually. Does it have any tissue left? If so i'd say bleached for sure.....

 

[PSam]

I see a faint pink in the pic, but I have to agree with pk1... does not look promising...

 

[Naperville Reef]

the base is very white and the polyps have lightened in color as well. it was pinkish when i started the thread about 4 days ago and it seems to lose a little color each day. but if you look closely at the picture you can still see decent polyp extension.

what is the best thing to do for a bleaching coral?

 

[pk1]

I don't think there is much you can do...leave it be as best you can (don't move it, unless it is in a problem spot-too much flow, light etc). You can try to get it more food, there is evidence to suggest stony corals can meet most of their needs from feeding when bleached until they regain there zooxanthellae. In my limited experience with monti's-they tend to recover from bleaching better than Acropora. If not, I have some orange digi you can have .

 

[Naperville Reef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8687114#post8687114 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pk1
I don't think there is much you can do...leave it be as best you can (don't move it, unless it is in a problem spot-too much flow, light etc). You can try to get it more food, there is evidence to suggest stony corals can meet most of their needs from feeding when bleached until they regain there zooxanthellae. In my limited experience with monti's-they tend to recover from bleaching better than Acropora. If not, I have some orange digi you can have .

damn..... i have never had a SPS bleach for no apparent reason, actually i have never had a SPS bleach before. very frustrating.

thanks for all the advice, i really do appreciate it.

if it doesn't make it then i just may stop over to buy a frag

thanks

 

[pk1]

Buy?? No need my friend, it's a fast grower. Your welcome over anytime!