Orange montipora bleaching, help!

[Thierry05]

Hi,
recently my coral started to have white edges, which I thought was natural, now its has gone all the way up to one last bit and I dont think it will survive for long. I tried to turn the temperature down just in case the light was heating the water up too much and that didnt work, the other thing I thought would work was putting the alkaline back up, apparently, reef building organisims tend to use a lot of alkaline in the water. making the ph go down, which happened. I am going to do a big water change now. I hope that helps.

 

[Thierry05]

I also tried to add extra coral nutrients in.

 

[James983]

Check your Alk level

 

[bibarassa]

Check your Alk level

What level bleach montiporas? too high or too low

 

[Bill Nye]

I think recession from the bottom of a sps is low alk problems. I have a weird encrusting monti (i think?) and when my alk hit 5.5 it bleached around its rim. Now that alk is back up to 8 the center that survived is coloring up again and its regaining lost tissue.

 

[James983]

I find my Montis get upset when Alk gets too low.

 

[OllieDog]

low and high are equally bad, You need to keep alk and calcium in a specific range, and keep it stable. that is the main key. SPS tend to enjoy a bit stronger flow too. so if you have an area that has a high amount of flow. put it there.

 

[James983]

I usually see burnt tips with high Alk which is why I suggested it may be too low.

 

[Thierry05]

Thanks for the replies! I added a couple of extra drops of kh buffer, did a 10% water change and added some drops ofnanocode a coral supplement which ahs calcium, hopefully it will keep the corals happy!
I will also get some test kits. Question: if the coral pales all over before I get the test kits to level out the conditions properly (I sued my last strip a couple of days ago) will it's color come back later on if I stabilize it?

 

[toothman]

for what it is worth Aquarium pharm makes a reasonably priced test kit for kh and ca that work very well. For mg, K, nitrate salifert would be my choice. A dosing pump is really easier to use to keep sps healthy, Jaebo makes a nice inexpensive one for about $100.

 

[DSMpunk]

I never give up on a coral until it it becomes and algae farm.

 

[Thierry05]

an algae farm?

 

[DSMpunk]

Coral skeletons tend to grow algae really well for some reason. So if mine start to grow algae, I toss it.

 

[Thierry05]

I tested for calcium and it was ok. an also the ph is ok.

 

[kevin_e]

The tank looks like it has bad nutrient issues. How old is it?

 

[JammyBirch]

The tank looks like it has bad nutrient issues. How old is it?

I agree that's GHA, do you run GFO?