Turning white at the base, am I bleaching?

[ryleary]

I've had this guy for a few months now and have seen some decent growth. The past 2 weeks or so the base has been turning white. I noticed it turns whitish at the tips where there is new growth. The very top still has a bluish color, but I'm not sure if the base is growing or bleaching, thoughts?

 

[Pete polyp]

Hard to tell from the pics but it looks like bleaching. Are there polyps in the area where it's h turning white?

 

[ryleary]

Hard to tell from the pics but it looks like bleaching. Are there polyps in the area where it's h turning white?

Yes I do see polyps and it's at the base of an arm that has been steadily growing so it's confusing to me. Doesn't bleaching usually start at the top where it is closest to the light? My Params are good so I'm thinking it's either too much light or the bottom is starting to encrust?

 

[Reefcrazed417]

It doesn't look like its encrusting that's for sure

 

[ryleary]

I turned down my lighting intensity throughout the day to see it this helps, is it common for bleaching to start at the base?

 

[afamousjohnson]

I would say more common on death. In pic looks like most of polyps at base are retracted and in a spot or 2 look gone? Could be more than bleaching. I have had pieces die off from bottom up and still had great polyps at top up until death spread all the way up. Keep an eye on it

 

[Keepswiming]

To me it looks like two things, too much light or ... Aefw...

Did you dip it? What's light are you using, led?

I would suggest using bayer to dip it and look in the cup after to see if there are any flat worms. This will eliminate that possibility... Then lower the coral to the sand or near the bottom and see how it progresses... Good luck !

 

[blufin]

Looks like snt to me. Might try fragging and double check water parameters.

 

[Pete polyp]

To me it looks like two things, too much light or ... Aefw...

Did you dip it? What's light are you using, led?

I would suggest using bayer to dip it and look in the cup after to see if there are any flat worms. This will eliminate that possibility... Then lower the coral to the sand or near the bottom and see how it progresses... Good luck !

Usually aefw affect the polyp extension. I don't think this is aefw. Personally I think it might be from starvation. Do you feed anything to your corals? What are your nitrates and phosphates?

 

[TarHeelReefer22]

the purple and pink digis don't like really intense light and ime the purple digi should be in lower to mod light!

 

[afamousjohnson]

Yup they get their deeper true purple color in lower IMO aswell. Doesn't look like aefw to me so I wouldn't panic yet.lol does look like stn to me tho and if it continues to move up the Coral your only option in the end could be fragging healthy parts off in efforts to save.

How bout some more tank details and maybe a FTS. I bet you could get to the bottom of your problem.

 

[Pete polyp]

the purple and pink digis don't like really intense light and ime the purple digi should be in lower to mod light!

Oh snap. .. I was thinking it was Millepora, I just took a quick glance at it.

 

[TarHeelReefer22]

Montipora digitata

 

[darron863]

Monti good alk tattle tale imo might want to double check alk

 

[ryleary]

Yup they get their deeper true purple color in lower IMO aswell. Doesn't look like aefw to me so I wouldn't panic yet.lol does look like stn to me tho and if it continues to move up the Coral your only option in the end could be fragging healthy parts off in efforts to save.

How bout some more tank details and maybe a FTS. I bet you could get to the bottom of your problem.

Tank is a 45g corner pentagon with a 20g sump.

The coral in the pic is sitting on the right side of the top rock. It's about 8 inches below the surface and the light is 10" above the water surface. If that's too close I can move it down, but I have seen decent growth with it being there for the last 3 months.

I'm using a 165w Chinese led that ramps up and down from 7am-10pm. I run whites at about 40% for 5 hours.

Parameters are good. Nothing outside of normal. Alk has been a steady 7 for awhile now. I know it's on the low side but I've been seeing growth with it being at 7 pretty consistently. Only other thing I can think is if nutrients being low, nitrates and phosphates close to 0, and the poop of just 2 clowns might be starving it. I was told that once you have fish, their waste is enough to feed sps. Should I try something like reef chili?

Thank you for all the responses!

 

[Keepswiming]

Usually aefw affect the polyp extension. I don't think this is aefw. Personally I think it might be from starvation. Do you feed anything to your corals? What are your nitrates and phosphates?

Recently had a couple frags with aefw and the polyps were out and it looked like this... I couldn't figured it out, then i dipped... the end! haha

 

[Reefcrazed417]

I have never heard of someone having aefw and it being that simple ^^

 

[ifarmer]

check for alk fluctuation.

 

[Pete polyp]

Ib have never heard of aefw effecting montipora. Pretty sure it's not the problem here. Usually alk problems will start with the tips instead of the base. I'm still going to say starvation, especially since you have reported low nutrients. Try spot feeding and overfeeding the fish and see if it recovers

 

[Keepswiming]

I have never heard of someone having aefw and it being that simple ^^

I threw out the frag because it had eggs, not to say they are not still in the tank somewhere.