SPS Coral Bleaching

[fixedpoint]

My reef tank is about 6 months old. I have had great success with zooanthids, SPS coral, ricordea and others, but have struggled with my first SPS coral. I placed my first SPS coral frag a few weeks ago on top of my LR. Recently, it began bleaching from the bottom and soon after had entirely bleached. I have five other SPS frags that are growing out on the tank bottom that seem to be doing fine as well as the other non SPS corals. When I placed the coral on the rock, I removed it from the frag plug and used super glue to affix to a rock and then placed some epoxy around the base. I worry that maybe I put some epoxy too high and it was above the base of the frag.

I have Ecotech Radions on my 30 gallon tank running at 50%. It is about 12 inches above the tank. I acclimated the coral to my lights over a 2 week period. The PAR at the spot where the coral is placed is 280 at the brightest time of day. I run a Syncra Silent 3.5 return pump which drives two returns and my reactor with 660 gph. Also, I run two MP10s at 40% during the day.

My parameters have been pretty consistent and improving, however, my auto auto off malfunctioned and didn't fill up and water evaporated until I heard the return pump sucking air in the return chamber and then I added RO water.

Parameters: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, Phosphate 0, Salinity 1.025 SG, PH 8.0, Alkalinity 9.576 dKH, Calcium 380 ppm, Magnesium 1400 ppm

Ideas?

 

[raybyrne67]

SPS require lots of flow bleaching or receding from the base can be a flow issue.

 

[mattgumaer]

What kind of sps coral? I run 3 radion pros over a 180 (about 9 1/2 inches from the top of a 24" deep tank) and I think it is very easy too give corals too much light with these fixtures, particularly if the coral is placed high in the tank directly under one of the light 'pucks'. My max is 55%/14k color temp (UV, Royal Blue and Blue at 100% and white, green and hyper red at 45%) and I have one acropora I can't bring up off the sand without bleaching. How many and which type of Radions are you running and when you say, your max is 50%, what color temp are you running at that max?

Also, your calcium seems relatively low compared to your alkalinity. Are you dosing anything? I just tested my calcium (450), alkalinity (8.0) and Magnesium (1410) today. Anything below 400 for calcium starts to make me nervous.

I'm a relative noob myself but if you have a bunch of sps in the sand that are doing fine and you moved one up on some distance on your rock and it bleached, that suggests its likely an excessive light issue. I don't know much about specific PAR numbers but how does your par at the sand bed compare to the PAR you placed the frag that bleached? If there is a big jump, the coral placement might be too high or maybe too much of a jump in light. Although I will say for excessive light issues, I think you'd typically see bleaching at the tips first rather than the base.

Matt

 

[fixedpoint]

Great comments, thanks.

I run one radian pro gen 3. It is running 50% at 20k (100% UV, 100% Royal Blue, 100%, 100% Blue, 55% White, 0 Red, 0 Green). The PAR rating at the bottom of the tank where they seem to be doing better is 200.

I have only been dosing a marine buffer once a week. I was dosing kalkwasser but I haven't for a few weeks.

 

[DDon]

If it is happening from the base up it sounds more like STN/RTN instead of bleaching from too much light. What coral did this happen to and was it just 1 or multiples. Do you dip new corals and if so what do you use?
Stability is important with SPS; instead of dosing once a week you might try dividing that up and dosing daily. Determine your demand with testing to see how much you need to add. CA is a little low so I would bump that up a little.

Where in Bay Area are you?

 

[cloak]

If it is happening from the base up it sounds more like STN/RTN instead of bleaching from too much light.

Stability is important with SPS.

+1

Sometimes this is brought on by a fluctuation in alkalinity.

 

[fixedpoint]

Just one SPS coral seems to have the problem. It is an ultra blue tenuis. I'll dose the marine buffer more gradually and bump the CA gradually as well.

I live in Los Altos.

 

[tmz]

I removed it from the frag plug and used super glue to affix to a rock and then placed some epoxy around the base. I worry that maybe I put some epoxy too high and it was above the base of the frag.

Could be; the epoxy curing reaction is exothermic ; the heat from it may have been an issue.

Ideas



Also

Steady parameters particularly alk is important for sps ,IME.

that frag may have had some parasitic activity.