Tierra De Fuego looking terrible bleached and brown

[javisaman]

It's bleached on the left side and brown on the other. From my understanding too much light/little nutrients leads to bleaching, and too light light/too much nutrients lead to browning. How does it happen on the same coral. So I don't know what to make of it. However all of the polyps are out and open and it has grown a little bit but without changing any color.

I did remove my sandbed a month ago and I assumed it was just shocked initially, so I just waited.

My parameters are as follows using Salifert test kits

Alk: 7.0
Calcium: 400
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0

The other corals look okay (not perfect).
I run biopellets (1/4 dosage), skimmer, carbon/gfo in a filter bag. I feed my fish daily and do water changes weekly. For lighting I run DIY LED of CREE XPs. 20 RB and 10 NW with no optics. Both at a peak of 50 percent. The RBs are on for 10 hrs and the NW are on for 5 hrs. They are ramp up/down in intensity like a gaussian distribution. The coral is places at the very top and center.

 

[Craig Borowski]

I would take a very close look for flatworms.

 

[javisaman]

Thanks for the reply. I know it's hard to see from the picture, but I don't have any tissue missing from this coral or any of my other acros.

 

[Reefer1225]

Alk could be a little low. Is it STN/RTN'ing?

It looks like the side that's shaded is brown, while the side that getting the most light is bleaching.

 

[javisaman]

No there is no tissue necrosis. You are right that the lighted side is bleached while the shaded side is brown. Alk is low, does it affect color?

 

[Reefer1225]

Not sure if it affects color, but when my alk goes low or there is a dramatic swing, my SPS STNs or just looks unhealthy, pale colors and nO polyp extension. Yours has polyp extension and you said it continues to grow, so could just be bleaching on one side, dunno why the otherside is brown though? High nutrients? Good luck. Fuegos are awesome. Hope it works out.

 

[javisaman]

Maybe high nutrients, or that the shadowing with LEDs is really that dramatic. I turned down the lights and even shaded it to see if the colors would come back.