Help! Coral dying after no light for 5 days!

Formulator · 11/02/2017, 07:11 PM

My sps is bleaching in patches all over. My ballast went out while I was out of town and one side of my tank received no high output lighting, only 2 actinic t5 supplementals were still running. Normally there is a 250w MH on each side running for 7-8 hours/day. I ordered a ballast and have been manually switching the ballast from the other side of the tank to the bulb on the dying half for a few hours/day. Now it is to the point that I have algae filling in the bleached areas of my sps. I should receive the new ballast tomorrow to get lighting back to normal. Is there anything i can do to help facilitate the corals' recovery? Should I remove the algae from bleached areas or can the coral growth out-compete the algae? Thanks all for any help you can provide!

Danny_15 · 11/02/2017, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Formulator

My sps is bleaching in patches all over. My ballast went out while I was out of town and one side of my tank received no high output lighting, only 2 actinic t5 supplementals were still running. Normally there is a 250w MH on each side running for 7-8 hours/day. I ordered a ballast and have been manually switching the ballast from the other side of the tank to the bulb on the dying half for a few hours/day. Now it is to the point that I have algae filling in the bleached areas of my sps. I should receive the new ballast tomorrow to get lighting back to normal. Is there anything i can do to help facilitate the corals' recovery? Should I remove the algae from bleached areas or can the coral growth out-compete the algae? Thanks all for any help you can provide!

Yeah take the algae off the coral and just hope it grows back onto the dead spots

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joesig · 11/02/2017, 07:20 PM

Yeah on algae removal and start slow so things don’t get stressed from to much light

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ReefNomad · 11/03/2017, 05:30 AM

Absolutely remove the algae. Definitely start slowly with the light. Ensure that your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are within range.
If the basics are covered, most corals have more than enough stored energy to last them a week or more. Sometimes a transship order will take 6 or 7 days total to arrive, and the corals will pull through.
Based on my experience with shipping, most of the hard corals are more bothered by low temperatures than they are by days of darkness.

11/02/2017, 07:11 PM	#1
Formulator Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 72	Help! Coral dying after no light for 5 days! My sps is bleaching in patches all over. My ballast went out while I was out of town and one side of my tank received no high output lighting, only 2 actinic t5 supplementals were still running. Normally there is a 250w MH on each side running for 7-8 hours/day. I ordered a ballast and have been manually switching the ballast from the other side of the tank to the bulb on the dying half for a few hours/day. Now it is to the point that I have algae filling in the bleached areas of my sps. I should receive the new ballast tomorrow to get lighting back to normal. Is there anything i can do to help facilitate the corals' recovery? Should I remove the algae from bleached areas or can the coral growth out-compete the algae? Thanks all for any help you can provide!

11/02/2017, 07:20 PM	#3
joesig Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: lbc Posts: 917	Yeah on algae removal and start slow so things don’t get stressed from to much light Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk __________________ -Jose- -SCRK Member- Current Tank Info: 60G -6x54T5- 20g sump-swc 120

11/03/2017, 05:30 AM	#4
ReefNomad Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2017 Location: Grand Rapids, MI Posts: 130	Absolutely remove the algae. Definitely start slowly with the light. Ensure that your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are within range. If the basics are covered, most corals have more than enough stored energy to last them a week or more. Sometimes a transship order will take 6 or 7 days total to arrive, and the corals will pull through. Based on my experience with shipping, most of the hard corals are more bothered by low temperatures than they are by days of darkness.