SPS Bleaching?

[JDuong916]

My sps have been turning lighter at the tips, but not white. They still maintain a light purplish color. I'm wondering if this is bleaching. I cant find any pictures of slightly bleached corals. I'm using LEDs that are mounted 8 inches above the water surface with the corals 6 inches below the water surface. Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

 

[justthewife]

I am following along on this thread too as I am new to Acro's and mine are getting lighter and lighter in color. I have a purple Acro that is now very light pink and I don't know if it is getting too much light or not enough. I am using LED's as well and the Acro is about 18- 20 inches from the lights. My params are Ca 440, Salinity is 1.025, ph ia 8.2, KH ia 9.3, Nitrates are 0.1, phosphate 0 with Hanna checker, mag is 1410. I have had the Acro about 2 months.

Hope someone answers:sad1:

 

[Bdial]

Do you know what your elements are? Iodine, potassium, iron? They play a major role in sps color.

 

[justthewife]

Do you know what your elements are? Iodine, potassium, iron? They play a major role in sps color.

I do not test for these elements as of yet. I have read that there are not reliable test results for these things. What do you suggest as far as the most reliable test kits for the elements? I was thinking there are enough elements in the water thus far with weekly water changes as the tank is only almost 2 years old. I also had some hair algea growth in the tank as well as some diatoms recently. Also Coraline Algae is growing in the tank.

 

[jay13]

If they are not "bone white" i would assume that it is growth. Show some pics so we get a better idea of what you are seeing. All my sps save one purple tort are lighter at the tips. It is all new growth.

 

[Bdial]

Pics would help. before my crash a few months back when I was testing periodically for the other elements and dosing accordingly my colors were really sharp and bright. Just food for thought. Post a pic so we can see.

 

[JDuong916]

These are horrible pictures, but the white you see is actually a light purple.

 

[Wills612]

Has the rest of the coral remained the same color? Has it been encrusting? Granted the pics aren't the best, to me it looks like growth.

 

[PaleHorse]

white top going down can be bleaching.

 

[dtum]

This looks like like growth to me

 

[jay13]

looks like growth, keep an eye on it though. pics are hard to see to be 100% sure

 

[PaleHorse]

we need better pics

 

[JDuong916]

I will post new ones shortly, my phone broke and i'm running with an old model.

 

[JDuong916]

okay this is the best I can do for now

 

[JDuong916]

There's a crab living in the top picture.

 

[JDuong916]

The bottom coral is starting to lighten from the bottom up as well

 

[theaquareef]

Top one looks like growth to me, bottom not so sure maybe someone had better eyes the me that can help with that one

 

[PaleHorse]

When I was running photon leds I had the fixture 12" from the water line and my first coral probably 8 inches from that the rest were lower and it was a 30" deep tank.

If I were you I would raise the fixture and shorten the cycle. Just to see if things get better.

 

[JDuong916]

PaleHorse, what intensity did you run your lights at. I was just thinking of raising my lights to 12 inches today since im getting a disco effect at 9".

 

[PaleHorse]

eventually you want to run them at or close to 100% the higher you go the more that area fans out. thats why you are able to go 100% higher from the tank. here was my biocube with a garbage kessil 350 over it.


this was my 93 gallon. had about 40 sps in there but i had a photon over it and the sps clearly needed MH lighting. they were "surviving" if that......