sps loosing color

[10gnano]

Recently a few of my SPS have began to loose color, I believe it began when I moved my tank. The odd thing is that one of my SPS is regaining color from it loss many months ago (left my roommate in charge of my tank, we can say she didn't do a good job). Other than color everything else seems to be fine, polyps are out and they seem to have grown. This leads me to believe that it isn't my water quality. Any suggestions? I'm stumped.

 

[NaTe R]

tough question to answer there's alot to getting true color in sps.
can you give a bit more information about your temperature swing, light cycle, what kind of lights, salinity level,
have you had an alk swing lately?

my first guess is that if you had good color before and everything was in check before the move, something happened with temperature, salinity, or alk swing.

 

[10gnano]

Temp is usually a constant 77.5, although recently it's been a little higher because of the weather. The last week or so it's been between 78-80. Although the loss of color occurred at the 77.5.

as for lighting I have 2 24" t5 bulbs (ati aquablue special and blue +). Bulbs are pushing 8 months, Loss of color started a few months ago so I can't imagine bulbs were the cause, but it might be why they are not coloring back up. I do have an AI sol blue coming in so i'm hoping this will help with the recovery, if it's light related.

salinity is usually around 1.025, may get a little higher during the day though (can't imagine that much). I'll try to take a reading before my ato kicks on. The ato kicks on once a day to make up for loss due to evaporation.

PH is usually around 8-8.1, a little low but is working for the tank. Alk is usually between 8-9. It has been down to 7 in the past and corals have been doing good.

If alk swing is the issue wouldn't the rest of the tank be showing sings of this. One of my sps that originally lost color is gaining it back while a couple of the others have been losing color. It don't get it, unless the corals that have kept color and the other one that is gaining color are more resilient to this type of situation.

 

[NaTe R]

so these corals were bright when you got them and lost color after they were introduced to your water?

 

[NaTe R]

Do you have acans?

 

[10gnano]

They remained the same color for months and recently after the move have started losing color. I moved my tank about three months ago, had slight color loss for a couple months. Now corals are totally bleached, besides color that is from polyps.

No acans. I have sps, zoas, and a lobo

 

[NaTe R]

Do you test salinity with refractometer? do you skimm? do you test for no3 and po4?

 

[crazyfish253]

I have an acro that gets white when it grows. Is it brown or white? Is it flow maybe?

 

[10gnano]

I have a hydrometer, i know not the best. I do skimm, I have a cpr bak-pak. It doesn't pull out a whole lot of skimmate though. I'm assuming this is because I have a large fuge in comparison to my tank size. Yes those are usually tested. no2, no3 and po4 are 0

 

[10gnano]

I have an acro that gets white when it grows. Is it brown or white? Is it flow maybe?

turning white, you can see faded original coloring under the white color. Is it the tips that turn white or the whole coral? I've read that new growth is sometimes white, but in my case it's the whole coral.

 

[crazyfish253]

Ya about an inch can be white. The whole coral Dosnt sound good. I'm thinking light if water is good and coral has not been stung by a more or touched by a more aggressive coral

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
The corals you posted pictures of are definitely bleached. That type of bleaching is most often associated with sudden or prolonged exposure to too high light intensity or high UV radiation. Typically when bulbs age the corals darken and/or turn brown so it is very unlikely that older bulbs are the cause. Is sunlight hitting the tank? Bleaching as pictured can also be caused by chemical warfare from other corals. You also may want to have your salinity checked by someone with a calibrated refractometer. The other parameters you listed are well within range for SPS corals. CA should be 370-425 PPM and Mag 1200-1400 PPM. Most SPS will not bleach until 85-86F. I set 82.9F as my limit to start taking action.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[10gnano]

Hello,
The corals you posted pictures of are definitely bleached. That type of bleaching is most often associated with sudden or prolonged exposure to too high light intensity or high UV radiation. Typically when bulbs age the corals darken and/or turn brown so it is very unlikely that older bulbs are the cause. Is sunlight hitting the tank? Bleaching as pictured can also be caused by chemical warfare from other corals. You also may want to have your salinity checked by someone with a calibrated refractometer. The other parameters you listed are well within range for SPS corals. CA should be 370-425 PPM and Mag 1200-1400 PPM. Most SPS will not bleach until 85-86F. I set 82.9F as my limit to start taking action.

Regards,
Kevin

I can't imagine the bleaching is from to high of light levels being they are under t5's (2 24w bulbs in aquaticlife fixture, nothing to special) and before under MH. I may be totally wrong on this though, do t5's have a tendency to bleach corals? I'm not really familiar with UV radiation, I will look into the causes/symptoms. The tank is not being hit by sunlight, I made sure of this when I was positioning it in my room. As for temps I have never seen my tank above 82.3.

 

[kevinpo]

do t5's have a tendency to bleach corals?

There have been many cases of this when switching from other light types but usually just in the first couple of weeks. They would not be fine for a few weeks or months then start to bleach because of lighting. One thing I would do is have the three main minerals (ca, mg, alk) tested with a different set of test kits just to be sure the ones used are accurate.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[NaTe R]

i would agree with kevin on the light thing, if they used to be good under MH and you switched them to T5's usually they would become brown but you may have as special case going on there.
2 T5's isnt going to make sps bright an beautiful.

I m not sure exactly what your issues are but if my sps did that i know exactly what it would be Alk Swing, or Temp spike.