Red caps turning white help!

[Drft626]

I bought some green/red cap frags a couple of weeks ago turning white now, they seemed to be doing fine. The green cap started turning white faster then the red but it still has green and I would like some advice on how to bring them back to life. Also there is a tube worm growing on the middle of one of the caps is this normal?. I havent been able to do water changes for a couple of weeks since my clowns start freaking out when I start the siphon. Its a 12G nano with 48Watts any advice would be appreciated Thanks. I also tested the calcium with an older test kit I found and it was around 500PPm I also put liquid calcium in the tank but not daily.

 

[Avi]

When coral turns "white" quickly, it is most often because the lighting' s too strong for it. Try putting it in a spot that's a little less directly lit. Most of the time, coral will come back from the bleaching that results from lighting that's too bright for it. I doubt that there's any connection to the elevated calcium level of your water.

 

[Sinful Aquatics]

When coral turns "white" quickly, it is most often because the lighting' s too strong for it. Try putting it in a spot that's a little less directly lit. Most of the time, coral will come back from the bleaching that results from lighting that's too bright for it. I doubt that there's any connection to the elevated calcium level of your water.

+1 on lighting however there is another possibilty but I don't know it...

 

[Drft626]

Thats weird I always thought caps would do better with Mh more intense lighting. I wonder why they would turn white under PC being too strong. I'll try it and let you guys know.

 

[BeanMachine]

Check your alkalinity. My guess is you are on the high side.

The tube worm (might be a vermatid snail)... that's normal.

 

[Drft626]

Not sure where my test kit is but Im not sure if it comes with an alk test. Even then how would I go about lowering it. Thanks for the response

 

[socalmiket]

Are these the caps you got from me?

If so I doubt it's the light. All those green and orange caps were grown directly under 250w of MH (not to mention the 108 watts of T5 blue plus).

My bet is that it is your Alk/Calcium balance. Or other water quality issue.

You should really be testing for Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium (although you can skip the Magnesium for now if your Alk and Ca levels are good, but if they are not good, you should test Magnesium as it can make it hard to control Calcium if Mag is also low.

Do you have any other SPS/LPS in the tank, if so how are they doing?

- MikeT

 

[laverda]

There is no way that is too much light. I suspect your ALK also. If you have not been doing your water changes I would start by doing that and get a good ALK test kit. Salifert is my recommendation. ALK is much more important to check then CA levels as it changes much faster then CA.

 

[nava405]

sounds more liks Alky problem than lighting..

 

[Drft626]

Are these the caps you got from me?

If so I doubt it's the light. All those green and orange caps were grown directly under 250w of MH (not to mention the 108 watts of T5 blue plus).

My bet is that it is your Alk/Calcium balance. Or other water quality issue.

You should really be testing for Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium (although you can skip the Magnesium for now if your Alk and Ca levels are good, but if they are not good, you should test Magnesium as it can make it hard to control Calcium if Mag is also low.

Do you have any other SPS/LPS in the tank, if so how are they doing?

- MikeT

I have some frogspawn thats doing great. Also a couple heads of the candy cane coral which isnt doing as good as it was before. What do I do to lower or raise the alk levels?. After I buy the test kit.

 

[socalmiket]

The cheapest way to raise Alk is with Baking Soda (plain arm and hammer is fine). Here is a cool calculator:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

Make sure to heed the warnings in that calculator. Do not raise Alk quickly, go slow... Same goes for Magnesium. Calcium can be raised fairly quick with no bad results.

But before doing anything test the Alk level.

- MikeT

 

[wtfisthisfob]

+1 on testing Alk, API makes a good cheap kit.

 

[frogiii]

45 watt light is too strong?? I was planning to keep monti caps as well... OMG thank good news I didn't buy Viper K2 150Watt from Cody. Thank you for the heads up!!!

 

[socalmiket]

45 watt light is too strong?? I was planning to keep monti caps as well... OMG thank good news I didn't buy Viper K2 150Watt from Cody. Thank you for the heads up!!!

No, it isn't the light causing his caps to go white. It's either water quality issues or alk (hasn't been tested).

Monti Caps are SPS, they love the light. The brighter the light the better they grow (for me anyways).

Monti Caps love MH light, I have had my 7 types of caps under 250w MH + T5 and they grow fast and are very colorful!

You can see it here (this is about 14 inches below a 250w Phoenix 14k bulb:

- MikeT

 

[shapermike]

Check your alkalinity. My guess is you are on the high side.

The tube worm (might be a vermatid snail)... that's normal.

+1 on this. I have a lot of caps and having alk spikes can cause this and Lighting has never been an issue in my tank. I have some under a 400 w MH in only 8" of water

 

[slick6669]

No, it isn't the light causing his caps to go white. It's either water quality issues or alk (hasn't been tested).

Monti Caps are SPS, they love the light. The brighter the light the better they grow (for me anyways).

Monti Caps love MH light, I have had my 7 types of caps under 250w MH + T5 and they grow fast and are very colorful!

You can see it here (this is about 14 inches below a 250w Phoenix 14k bulb:

- MikeT

+1 I have two 250 watt mh and my cap loves it! And that's that my tank is only a 46 bowfront everything else is towards the sides and bottom do a water change when I missed a water change by 3 days it takes a toll on my tank zoas and candy canes don't look happy at all! I did my first wc with my new clowns there just curious and peck on the hose or hide( but I found my firegobys turned into fish jerky and went tile surfing)

 

[slick6669]

Oh and to add to that I noticed when the tips of the monti look whiter then usual almost like there bleaching mine are actually growing...but maybe the lack of water changes can meen somthing different

 

[socalmiket]

Oh and to add to that I noticed when the tips of the monti look whiter then usual almost like there bleaching mine are actually growing...but maybe the lack of water changes can meen somthing different

Yea, the growing edges can be white, very white.

- MikeT

 

[Gisho]

I bought some green/red cap frags a couple of weeks ago turning white now, they seemed to be doing fine. The green cap started turning white faster then the red but it still has green and I would like some advice on how to bring them back to life. Also there is a tube worm growing on the middle of one of the caps is this normal?. I havent been able to do water changes for a couple of weeks since my clowns start freaking out when I start the siphon. Its a 12G nano with 48Watts any advice would be appreciated Thanks. I also tested the calcium with an older test kit I found and it was around 500PPm I also put liquid calcium in the tank but not daily.

Any drastic temperature changes, especially towards the warmer? I know in a nano maintaining stable temperature is harder to mitigate.

I had some of my red monti caps bleach when my fans failed to turn on during a hot day this past summer and my tank got into the high '80's....

Just a thought...

 

[BeanMachine]

So did you get that alkalinity test kit? Or did you drop your wad on that mandarin?