Bleached Pink ****** colony.

Chameleon · Jun 1, 2013

Hey yall,
I mostly work on sps in my tank, but of course love to do some others stuff as well in my mixed reef. Well about a month ago I went on a business trip and while I was away my skimmer started to overflow. My loving wife was quick to call and tell me what was up, unfortunately when I was trying to guide her which plug to pull she had gotten through all the lights before finding the skimmer plug. I told her to leave them unplugged so I could make sure they go into the right ports on the aquacontroller when I got home in 3 days.
Well 3 days with lights out hit my pink ******* colony hard. I came back to a completely bleached colony. I figured give it time it will come around. Well its been about a month or more now and it is still completely bleached looking. Tissue is all there but it has the worst color ever. I am not very knowledgeable on coloring up LPS as for me they have always not changed color much in the past. Any thoughts on what I can do. In this pic you can see the former glory of the colony.

Ill try to get an updated bleached pic soon.

Diesel · Jun 1, 2013

Bring it down to the sand bed and leave it. Had the same problem took about a 2 months but looking good now.

Chameleon · Jun 1, 2013

Thanks mate!
Hope that frag is growing well!

KoleTang · Jun 1, 2013

Label your power cords. ;)

The white plastic things that come on bread and potato bags work great.

mike007 · Jun 1, 2013

If the skimmer overflowed did it get into tank? Have you tested water? Also bleaching can be caused by lack of nutrients.

Chameleon · Jun 1, 2013

mike007 said:
If the skimmer overflowed did it get into tank? Have you tested water? Also bleaching can be caused by lack of nutrients.

Its not nutrients...I dont think. None of the acros or other sps took a hit and I think they would be the first to show it from high nutrients. But yes tested water 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. I guess it could be low nutrients but I have always run this tank low nutrients and the chalice has done fine. Maybe its preventing recovery though?