Tri color High Nitrates to Low bleaching

[WAfrican]

I recently purchased a Tri color acro from my LFS that was setup in their Display. The frag looked great, had good polyp extension but over time it has lost it color and is almost solid white with the exception of the polyps that remained a light green. I know that the display that I got it from had high nitrates ranging from 40-80ppm depending on water changes, where as mine stays below 10 always. I've listed the usual parameters below but my question is could this be from the drastic drop in nitrates and will it regain its color with time or is it doomed to be white forever? I have it under an OR t247 light running 8" above the water at 60B/30W in a 40 Breeder with the frag about 3/4 of the way up in the tank.

Temp 77-78
Ph 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Calcium 440
KH 9.5
Mag. N/A
Phos. N/A

I can post pics if needed

 

[WAfrican]

Bump... anyone?

 

[Icefire]

What was their light?

 

[biggles]

Drop the frag onto the bottom asap as it's most likely bleaching. Going from dirty water to your clean water would stress the acro and in that state the last thing it needs is high light. If you always place your new stuff on the bottom until you see good PE at least at night you can feel confident that the acro is acclimating to your water. Don't ever move a piece up until you are seeing good PE and you can feel much more confident that an increase in light won't adversely stress the piece.
Just my view but i hope you save the little guy :beer:

 

[WAfrican]

Sorry Icefire I have their current light listed and they were under radion pro 3rd gens from where i got them. I turned down the intensity to 50B/20W and idk if it is this or the transition to the bottom of the tank but its polyps are looking better. They come out during the day now. I have attached a photo to show how it currently looks. Do you think it will still make it or is it too far gone?

 

[WAfrican]

Anyone have any input? I will be switching to Red Sea Coral Pro soon and will also have the red sea foundation test kit.

 

[rehab]

Move that frag all the way down. It still has polyps showing so there is still hope. I would hold off on switching salt at the moment especially if everything else in your tank is doing fine. Changing salt could further stress the frag that is still trying to acclimate to your current tank condition. Think of it as adopt a foster kid and switching his house hold twice within short time. All new frags need time to settle.

 

[WAfrican]

So I found the issue. The lfs refractometer I was using was way off and using my own my salinity tested out to 1.020 and I have been bringing it back up steadily and its at 1.023 now. Now i did go ahead and changed the salt anyway but before I did this I tested my parameters and was baffled at what I found. My KH was 8.1, Calcium at 475, and Magnesium at 1420!!!! How is this possible? I don't dose anything except for aqua vitros calcification about once a month and at half the dose. I retested today and my KH was 9, CA was 490, and MG again 1420. Is this okay?

 

[eddiereefs]

Yea thats ok, just keep alk stable and salinity at 1.025

 

[vinhle00]

Yeah you should shoot to keep things stable, also make sure your test kits are still good. I wouldn't change anything till i have it tested a few times maybe from different sources.