Too much light for an ORA blue tort?

[shelburn61]

My blue tort has bleached from a midnight blue to white with blue tips over the past month since I got it. Where is your tort placed under what lighting?

Mine is ~12" under the surface directly under a 175w XM 10k SE at 6" above the water. Hard to believe that's enough to bleach it?

 

[vwluv10338]

My Oregon blue tort is about 10 inches under water which is about 8 inches under a 150w 10k hqi. Been in about two weeks and looks great.

Eric

 

[Znut Reefer]

I have my colony under the center brace about 14 inches from a 400 10k. It's been there since it was a frag. It has great dark purple coloring and growing fast. It is huge now after 2 yrs.

 

[sealife]

no way that was from your light mine are 8 in from the top of the water and they are right under a 400 10k xm

 

[john37]

mine is about 15" below w/250W 10K xm driven by hqi ballast. I dont think it's your lights.

 

[shelburn61]

I didn't think so either, but it was a very slow process rather than a sudden bleaching you might expect from other causes. I'm starting to wonder whether the bulb has gone bad.

 

[Emster]

Mine is about 16" below 250w 10k and looks great.

 

[jackson6745]

Mine is about 10" from a 250 10k. There is a pic in my gallery. IMO Water clarity, nutrient level, and photoperiod will determine how much light your tort can take before it lightens up on you.

 

[jjmcat]

mine is 5'' below a 5500k 175 and is growing like mad.

 

[soldier1911]

Mine is at the top about ten inches from the light and doing well.

 

[xcreonx]

Mine is about 4 inches under the water, + 4 inches to a 250w DE Aquaconnects 14k. It is growing like crazy. Branching out in all directions and keeping an intense blue/purple with green polyps.

 

[AQUA951]

Mine is on the SB and which is about 30 inch under 400w SE XM 20k. Looks great and have a excellent blue color!

 

[Sparkss]

ours is in a prop tank literally being blasted by a 250w 10k DE for hte last 3 months... just as dark blue as ever. Have you checked for pests ? more specifically LRBs ? the red bugs are known for causing corals to fade and bleach.

Either way, the best of luck to ya

 

[shelburn61]

No bugs. I treated w/ Interceptor a few months ago. I did change about 50g of water a month ago after the resulting cyano outbreak so maybe my system really is too nutrient-poor at the moment?

That's hard to believe though with 6 fish and a ssb? I may turn the skimmer off for a week or so or start feeding like crazy?

The halide is on for 8 hrs and vho on for 12.

 

[cwegescheide]

FWIW I recently got a nice tort frag.. Looked gorgeous for a few weeks. Then it RTN'd really quick. It was under 13K megachrome 250's about 12" below the water line. Honestly I think it was a combination of two things..

1) I had my Tunze pointed close to directly at it about 16" away (too much flow)

2) Too much light and too intense. My other frag did great a little lower with 20K bulbs.

I think I'll try it again lower in the tank and away from direct flow from the Tunze.

Chris

 

[shelburn61]

My frag seems extremely happy except for the severe lightening. It always has great PE and shows no signs of STN.