what causes certain sps to bleach?

[mhills16]

I have been noticing that the base of my green acro colony is bleaching...but all my other acro and sps are growing rapidly...I just 3 weeks ago got several fresh cut frags from a fellow member and glues them to my live rock and they have grown half an inch already and have encrusted over where i glues them....They were all blue and purple acros..a turbo snail slightly moved my green acro colony and the base gets more light now...as it grows does the base bleach sometimes due to getting no light, is that normal? let me know, thnks, Mike

 

[commonstranger]

Mike yes this does happen. A coral can fade or bleach from too much light which means its stressing the coral. The coral can also fade or have a (dead) look at the base when its not getting enough light. You may want to move the coral so its not quiet as close to the light. If a coral starts to show signs that it is dieing sometimes the best thing to do is frag it and throw the base away and start over with what you have. One more thing I would point out is that pay attention to what lights are on someones tank when you buy corals from them. If they are running lights that arent as bright and you are running MH then you might want to start the coral down low then move it up slowly. Hope this helps some.

 

[sedor]

Sometimes tissue recession at the base can also be because the coral isn't getting enough flow around the base. This is generally because the colony is large enough to block the flow. There's really not much you can do about it besides trying a different spot in the tank and seeing if it reacts different.

 

[mhills16]

yes it does, the only ones i am having any problem with is the green acro colony i got from pet palace...i think i might just let the base bleach..I dont want to frag it too much as it has an acro crab hosting it. It's just wierd that all other sps are doing so well, especially wit hthe growth within just 3 weeks..

 

[mhills16]

also, i liked your flow idea, so i got the cement out and moved the colony, it is now directly in the flow of the koralia, should do the job, thanks!