Open Brian Dieing?

[ShootMe]

I have had an open brain coral in my 12 gallon aquapod for the past 10 months. 2 months ago I upgraded the lighting to an 80watt Orbit and since then the brain has slowly been turning white losing all his tissue. I finally talked to the LFS and they said the new lighting had a different spectrum of lighting then the old lights and I had taken away the light he needed to survive. All the other corals are fine and opening up, Fox coral, Finger leather coral, and Mushrooms. I think he’s already gone but what could have caused this so I do not repeat it in the future.

 

[acroporas]

Well for starters don't go back to the store that told you that it is dieing because you new lights lack the proper specturm.

The mosly likely culpret is "Light Shock." Your suddent increase the amount of light caused the coral to bleach(spit out it's zooxanthelle).

When you upgrade lighting ( or when you replace old bulbs ) you need to slowly increase the light level. The best way to do this is lift the lights up a foot or two and then over the course of about 2 weeks slowly lower them to where you want them.

Trachyphyllia (aka open bran or Welsophyllia), especially the Red ones, tend to be one of the more susecptable to light shock than average.