SPS Browning and Bleaching

[terraincognita]

bleaching is the same as dying.

they can lose coloration and bleach while still retaining polyp tissue from

1. Temp swings (do you have a temp controller on the tank?)

2. suddenly too much light.

3. too little light.

what happens when they “bleach” is the zooxanthelle dies, while the coral remains alive. However the coral cannot live long without its zoo so then RTN sets in.

that’s a really basic and ****** explanation but so you understand what bleaching is.

 

[terraincognita]

Icp always a good idea but I doubt you params are too off.

you have a lot of other stuff in different areas of the tank doing just fine.

either bump intensity or drop your lights 4 inches.

 

[terraincognita]

Also are you carbon dosing?

the sps even in decent light still look pale.

 

[prcardinal91]

I have stainless steel hose clamps on my return pump. Submerged. Screws a bit rusty but not bad for being underwater for 3 years. Could these be causing an issue?

 

[prcardinal91]

I am not carbon dosing. Should I be?

 

[dmy535]

I have stainless steel hose clamps on my return pump. Submerged. Screws a bit rusty but not bad for being underwater for 3 years. Could these be causing an issue?

I’d get that out. Find plastic clamp, or a zip tie if needed. It will leach into the system

 

[prcardinal91]

Here is my plan moving forward to try and remedy this:

ICP test
Metal Clamps are removed
Ordered a temp controller - currently have 2 eheim 150ws running in tandem
Slowly Increase lighting intensity to 300 par at the top of the rock structures
Continue 15% weekly water changes and dosing AB+ daily

Anyone suggest carbon dosing?

 

[homer1475]

Why on earth would he want to start carbon dosing with 20 nitrate and 0.04 phosphate?

I would go with low par on the rack which starts the bleaching, then when moved to the rocks it exacerbated the issue as the coral was already stressed, hen you moved them back to the low par rack.

 

[homer1475]

Flexing??

That was just me getting off the couch
JK

How high are your lights mounted?

This is me warming up

All I see is a whole lot of green. Might want to brush up on how to keep SPS colored up(jk of course).

 

[ScottB]

Here is my plan moving forward to try and remedy this:

ICP test
Metal Clamps are removed
Ordered a temp controller - currently have 2 eheim 150ws running in tandem
Slowly Increase lighting intensity to 300 par at the top of the rock structures
Continue 15% weekly water changes and dosing AB+ daily

Anyone suggest carbon dosing?

Good plan. No need to carbon dose really. If the NO3 creeps much higher you could increase the WC amount to knock it back.

I think you wrote that your tests are all Red Sea. I would not trust RS for testing phosphates, only Hanna ULR. Unless you feed often and a lot, target range for PO4 .07 to .14 should be good.

Your ICP will likely come back very low on PO4; don't be too alarmed as the phosphate concentration declines during transit. But do get a Hanna ULR phosphate (or phosphorus) checker. A must have tool.

 

[sculpin01]

Maybe run some carbon (ROX 0.8 would be my choice) and cuprisorb. I absolutely would not carbon dose. Stainless steel comes in many different flavors but could be potentially leaching chromium (the primary reason it's "stainless") into the water. In ancient times when we first kept corals, we would bleach corals regularly with 400 watt halides and primitive techniques. They didn't slough tissue like yours are.

BTW, the treatment for bleaching was to put the coral in low light and it would recover its zooxanthellae nine times out of ten. I start almost all of my new frags at 100-150 PAR (supposedly too low for SPS) for a month to allow them to acclimate. Most are completely happy right there. After a month at 100-150 PAR, they generally tolerate being moved to wherever. Please don't change too many things at once in your tank. Doing so will cause havoc with the corals that are currently alive.

Also, don't worry about black box lights. They work just fine. I run two black boxes and three homemade LEDs on my 65 and it looks like this:

 

[prcardinal91]

Thanks for all your replies everyone