How do you care for a bleached meat coral? Help me with recovery tips.

[Daniel@R2R]

I've got an acanthophyllia that has bleached quite a bit. He's not in direct light, so it doesn't seem like it's likely to be a high lighting issue. Everything else in the tank seems to be doing fine and has great colors.

This seems to have occurred when our AC broke for a few days and it got HOT in here (over 90 degrees in the house at times). I think the hottest the tank got was 83.5, but still I've read that this can also cause these guys to bleach.

From what I'm reading it may also bleach from a lack of food. How often should I target feed?

What care recommendations to bring this guy back?

 

[HuduVudu]

I've got an acanthophyllia that has bleached quite a bit. He's not in direct light, so it doesn't seem like it's likely to be a high lighting issue. Everything else in the tank seems to be doing fine and has great colors.

This seems to have occurred when our AC broke for a few days and it got HOT in here (over 90 degrees in the house at times). I think the hottest the tank got was 83.5, but still I've read that this can also cause these guys to bleach.

From what I'm reading it may also bleach from a lack of food. How often should I target feed?

What care recommendations to bring this guy back?

I would target feed after lights out every day for about a week this should do the trick. If the coral was healthy before then you should be good.

If you tank hasn't seen that temp then IMO it doesn't have the right zooxanthelle and will repopulate with what it thinks is important. Hopefully you have some biome breadth and it will find what it wants. The feedings should help bridge that gap. Once again my opinion, this is what nature designed them for and to deal with this exact problem.

Good luck, hopefully everything works out.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I would target feed after lights out every day for about a week this should do the trick. If the coral was healthy before then you should be good.

If you tank hasn't seen that temp then IMO it doesn't have the right zooxanthelle and will repopulate with what it thinks is important. Hopefully you have some biome breadth and it will find what it wants. The feedings should help bridge that gap. Once again my opinion, this is what nature designed them for and to deal with this exact problem.

Good luck, hopefully everything works out.

Thanks!! I'll do that. I'm thinking of feeding with some large Reef Nutrition TDO pellets. Think that'll do the trick?

 

[HuduVudu]

Thanks!! I'll do that. I'm thinking of feeding with some large Reef Nutrition TDO pellets. Think that'll do the trick?

I would do a paste type food, but if the coral accepts the food I don't think it is really an issue.

Just make sure when you are feeding that nothing else grabs the food. Bristle worms are notorius for pulling the food out of the mouths for the own benefit. My wife will gaurd the food from mauraders until the coral can get it's mouth all the way around the food. Depending on the health of the coral this may take sometime.

I currently use this:

Hikari Coralific Delight is a dual-purpose food option | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

The new Hikari Coralific Delight is a dual-purpose food that lets you use it a targeted gel food or use for more of a traditional “squirting” type of target food. The targeted gel feeding is made…

reefbuilders.com

But will be switching to this when I use the other up:

Reef Candy Coral Food 40g

Feed Your Reef™ with Reef Chasers Reef Candy™, a dry powder food for everything in your Reef! Anemones, Corals, Marine Fish, and other inverts will all benefit from this all-in-one reef super food! Successful reef biomes benefit from great nutrition and this all-purpose formula is a great...

reefchasers.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

Feeding and lighting are the big essentials followed by water flow and nitrate-salinity-ph