Coral Bleaching?

[Spyderturbo007]

I seem to have my first issue with my tank. For some reason, my Stylophora and my Hammer coral have started bleaching. It happened very quickly. Probably within just a few days. The only thing that happened is that I started dosing Kalk to bring up my Alk and Calcium.

I also noticed that one of my 460/420 bulbs was burned out, so I swapped that out with a new one that I got from the manufacturer under warranty. It's a 4 x 54wall T5 HO fixture. I have no clue how long the bulb was actually out.

It has 2 x 460/420 bulbs, 1 x Purple and 1 x 10k.

The hammer coral has been in the tank and doing great since 8/8/12 so it was there before the bulb was burned out. It sits on the bottom of the tank.

The Stylophora was purchased 10/21 and sits about half way up in the tank. I acclimated it to the light (which I guess was only 3 bulbs) by running only two of the bulbs for 2 days and then turning the others on.

I started dosing Kalk on 10/19, so about 2 days before I got the Stylophora.

Here are my parameters over the last month. I know the Calcium is low, but it has always been low. I bought some CaCl2 to raise, but I'm afraid to do that until I address this issue.


Magnesium




Calcium




Alkalinity




Here are before and after pictures of the corals

[Tank Girl]

What is your PH, bioload and do you use carbon?

[Spyderturbo007]

The pH runs between 8.1 and 7.85 depending on the time of day. I have one cleaner shrimp, a few snails, and one Purple Firefish. I also hae a few polyps and a piece of Galaxy coral that seems unaffected. But I've also read that you can't kill Galaxy coral even if you try.

I use a combination of GAC and GFO in a BRS reactor since 8/7/12.

[Tank Girl]

Low nutrients perhaps? What is your NO3 and PO4 levels? Do you use any coral food?

[Spyderturbo007]

Nitrate and Phosphate are both a 0ppm, but have been for months. This all happened very quickly. Everything I've read says that low nutrient bleaching happens much, much slower.

I'm almost positive it came from either replacing the dead bulb, or the Kalk dosing that raised the alk.

I feed the hammer coral every once in awhile, but they are both photosynthetic so there is no need to feed either of them.

[sponger0]

You only had one major jump in alk....from your charts. That not bad. If your P04 is zero, then your starving your corals. Phosphates shouldnt be zero. They should be .04-.06. What are you using to feed your corals? What kind of phosphate test are you using?

[Spyderturbo007]

I'm using a Hanna Checker to test for Phosphate. I feed the Hammer Coral some shrimp from time to time but other than that, I don't feed.

So low phoshate would cause them to bleach all of a sudden and only effect some of the coral but not the Galaxy? It just doesn't make sense to me. I could see if it was a slow process of them bleaching. But not something that happens in a day or two.

[sponger0]

Yes. It means you have an ultra low nutrient system. They can starve believe it or not.

[Spyderturbo007]

Any idea how to fix the issue? I've never read of anyone having to try and raise their phosphates

[Spyderturbo007]

Any other thoughts on this? I really don't want to lose them.

[sponger0]

Throw some food in there. Cut back on using a reactor if you are using one. How often are you doing water changes? If it's weekly, maybe skip one week.

Fix you temp range. Fix your salinity.

You can feed with food designed with SPS in mind. Ive used Oyster Feast and a LFS should carry it. Or Coral Fenzy and there are a few others. But I more suspect the temp than anything. Do you know how long your temp has been running 75-79?

[Spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by sponger0

Throw some food in there. Cut back on using a reactor if you are using one. How often are you doing water changes? If it's weekly, maybe skip one week.

I pulled the GFO out of the reactor yesterday based on your advice and just have GAC in there now.

I do 10% water changes every other week, but don't mind skipping a cycle.

Originally Posted by sponger0

Fix you temp range. Fix your salinity.

I'm confused with this statement. My salinity has been rock solid at 1.025 since the tank was established. My Apex keeps the temperature between 79.5 and 80.5 degrees consistently.

I read through my previous posts and didn't see anything where I mentioned salinity or temperature.

Originally Posted by sponger0

You can feed with food designed with SPS in mind. Ive used Oyster Feast and a LFS should carry it. Or Coral Fenzy and there are a few others

I have some reef chili from BRS. Will that work? I also have Rogger's Reef food, Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef and KB Formula B that I can use.

On a side note, I've have two snowflake clowns in QT for 15 days that I could move to the DT to increase the bioload? I don't know if it would be a bad idea to pull them out early, but they look completely healthy and eat like pigs. I saw them every time I was in the LFS for about 2 months before I purchased them and they looked healthy each time I saw them.

[sponger0]

Sorry...Ooops. Lol. That was on another thread. Similar but different issue.

But yes cut back GFO and feed a little. Reef chili should work. Ive heard people have luck with it. I havent used it personally.

[GPB]

I have similar problem. My tank measures 0 nitrate and phosphate. I have some "fuzzy" stuff growing on some of my live rock. I think it is feeding on phosphate contained in the rock itself. I only need to clean inside glass once a week.

I have a couple of monti's that look bleached. I have three fish in the 37G tank also. The bleached monti cap is growing fairly rapidly. It's just has very pale color. I feed a variety of foods. I feed the fish formula one, NRS , and cyclopeeze. I also target feed my Duncan, and my favia RE Mysis of which the fish steal a good portion.

Is reef chile, and Oyster feast smaller than cyclopeeze? I think the polyps on the Monti's are still too small to trap cyclopeeze.

[Spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by sponger0

Sorry...Ooops. Lol. That was on another thread. Similar but different issue.

No problem. That's what I figured, but wanted to be sure.

Originally Posted by sponger0

But yes cut back GFO and feed a little. Reef chili should work. Ive heard people have luck with it. I havent used it personally.

Should I move the clowns up to the DT early to increase the bioload?

I really want to save these guys. That hammer coral was my first tank inhabitant, besides the snails, and I really don't want to lose it.

Thanks a bunch sponger0 for your help.

[Spyderturbo007]

Any other thoughts on this issue? I've went 3 week without a water change, I leave my filter socks in for about a week as opposed to 2 days and I've been feeding a lot more than normal. Nitrates and phosphates are still at 0ppm and things seem to be getting worse.

The hammer is still bleached and the Stylophora is turning white. The odd thing is that they Stylophora is only turning white on the top where it's exposed to the light. The underside of the "branches" still have some color.

I'm assuming this isn't a result of a ULN system and a light issue? I don't understand how I can be bleaching coral with 4 x 54w T5's though.

[Spyderturbo007]

I tried dropping the photo period about a week ago and still no change. No one has ever had this problem before?

[Kyle918]

Well, if I had to take a guess, it would be your low Calcium. Try to keep this at the 420 ppm range.

Adding that second coral is putting a strain on the calcium intake. Holding back on water changes isn't going to help keep those calcium levels up either.

One critical sentence from that website below.

"As the calcium level drops below 360 ppm, it becomes progressively more difficult for the corals to collect enough calcium, thus stunting their growth"

More info for you

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Also...what app is that??

[Spyderturbo007]

I guess I forgot to include that I did bring up the Calcium from 360 to 405ppm.

11/4/12 - 360ppm
11/5/12 - 380ppm
11/7/12 - 405ppm
11/15/12 - 405ppm
11/24/12 - 400ppm

I do dose Kalk in my ATO so my Alk and Calcium has been stable since I brought it up.

It's called AquaPlanner Pro. I think it was $2.99 in the app store.

[Kyle918]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

I guess I forgot to include that I did bring up the Calcium from 360 to 405ppm.

11/4/12 - 360ppm
11/5/12 - 380ppm
11/7/12 - 405ppm
11/15/12 - 405ppm
11/24/12 - 400ppm

I do dose Kalk in my ATO so my Alk and Calcium has been stable since I brought it up.

It's called AquaPlanner Pro. I think it was $2.99 in the app store.

How are those corals looking now then?? I would try to get that a tad higher. Also, corals like stability. Consistently stable water parameters will go far in regards to your coral health and coloring.

Thanks, I'll have to try that app out!

[Jackg962]

Aqua Planner is an awesome app for keeping a history of what you have done and water testing

[Spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by Kyle918

How are those corals looking now then?? I would try to get that a tad higher. Also, corals like stability. Consistently stable water parameters will go far in regards to your coral health and coloring.

Thanks, I'll have to try that app out!

Still bleached. The Stylophora looks like it's bleaching on the top only. The underside where it doesn't get the same light seems to have more color than the top.

The Hammer still looks like crap too. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. My parameters are perfect.

[Kyle918]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

Still bleached. The Stylophora looks like it's bleaching on the top only. The underside where it doesn't get the same light seems to have more color than the top.

The Hammer still looks like crap too. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. My parameters are perfect.

What is the temperature of the tank and ph??

[markalot]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

Still bleached. The Stylophora looks like it's bleaching on the top only. The underside where it doesn't get the same light seems to have more color than the top.

The Hammer still looks like crap too. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. My parameters are perfect.

White tips of Stylophora are normal when they start to grow. Can you take an updated picture?

[Kyle918]

Originally Posted by markalot

White tips of Stylophora are normal when they start to grow. Can you take an updated picture?

That was my thought but from the oringal pictures it doesn't seem like it is because of it growing but I could be wrong. New pictures would be great.