red people eaters color faded???

[ms123]

Hello all. I have had a large colony of red people eaters that I grew out from 4 polyps about a year ago. I have hundreds of mixed color zoas throughout my tank. For some reason about 2 weeks ago the rpe's faded to a lighter shade of red, all of them. No other zoas have changed. Any thoughts on what could have caused this?

Current tank is a 90 gallon with (2) 250 14k hqi's with (2) 54w t5's (ati blue plus). Water changed every other week(5 gallons) Drip kalk every night.
Besides the zoas, I have many sps pieces (frags to colony size). Nothing else has had any changes and all params have been stable.

Any ideas would help. Thanks.

 

[aquaph8]

You may want to post your exact params

 

[RR37]

Recently change the bulbs ?

 

[ms123]

alk: 8.5
ca: 420
mg: 1400
temp: 80-82
(2) 250w hqi mh bulbs, not changed recently
(2) 54w t5's changed to new ati blue plus bulbs. Faded colors happened prior to change.
all other livestock is fine. no changes to any sps, lps, or other zoas.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Hello ms123, wow just found this, hate to hear this happened.

While there are many reasons for bleaching, from what you've stated thus far, if your bulbs have reached their life span, that alone can cause bleaching. If you're still around, can you give an update?

Also, check out the link below for some helpful info. Good luck.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1385699&highlight=mucho+bleaching

Mucho Reef

 

[tate1]

I've had the same issue with some of my zoas and other corals. When I changed the bulbs, they improved a lot. Recently, I purchased new ballast and the color improvement was wonderful. Some zoas had to be moved because it was too much light. Anyway, just my 4 cents.

 

[Dave VG]

How old are the MH bulbs?

 

[ms123]

The mh bulbs are going on 10 months now. I just got two new 14k pheonix bulbs and am going to replace them this weekend. Its odd that they lost their color but it does seem to be coming back slowly. Hopefully the bulb change will bring them back fully. Thanks for the input and link.

 

[Dave VG]

keep us posted.

 

[ryanrid]

mine recently lost colour as they got stung by anenome but after a few weeks got the colour back.