Bleaching coral - please help

[goldrimtang]

Hello,

I have a 125g setup since June. There are 5 fish doing well. 3 weeks ago, I introduced a coral and looked like doing well, but now it is clearly bleaching (see pictures). The lighting is T5, the position of the coral is on a medium / low flow area.

These water parameters were taken last Sunday:

salinity 33
calcium 500+
magnesium 1290
alkalinity 8.9
no3 0
no2 0
ammonia 0.25
phosphate 0
temperature is steady at 25(c) / 77(f)

Any suggestions or help will be appreciated. I just don't know what else to do to keep healthy corals :(

Thanks!

[uncleL]

Depending on what type coral???
Salinity 1.023-1.026
Temp 78-80
Ammonia 0

[thegrun]

If the ammonia reading is correct (I suspect a faulty API test kit reading) that certainly would be a major problem. Has anything died recently? How many and what type of T-5 bulbs are you using? While bleaching usually indicates too much light, in this case the coral (frogspawn) looks like it is not getting enough light. You may also want to spot feed it mysis shrimp.

[goldrimtang]

Thank you for your reply!

Yes, 0.25 ammonia is strange, considering the age of the tank and the other readings. I will test again today. Nothing has died recently.

I have 8 T-5 bulbs. 2 are blue, 1 is daylight, the other 5 I'm not sure (the guy in the store made his recommendation on what combination to use).

I do have glass lids on the tank. I keep them clean, but there is some loss of light because of splashing and the like. Maybe removing them would make a difference?

I'll try doing the mysis shrimp trick.

Thanks!

[thegrun]

With 8 T-5s you have plenty of light, if the coral is near the surface perhaps too much light. I would try to spot feed it 2 times a week and see if that helps. They usually like a medium level of waterflow, so you might try redirecting your powerheads to give it a little more flow if it seems low.

[goldrimtang]

I measure ammonia again and it was zero, I'm thinking something went wrong with the 0.25 reading I took over the weekend.

I moved the coral lower in the tank, let's see if it likes less light. I will also get into the spot feeding and see how it goes.

Thanks, I'll keep you updated here.

[Bpb]

Definitely try to start all corals off on the sandbed. And lower light stuff preferably on the outer edges. Move them higher once they look happy

[Mark9]

Definitely try to start all corals off on the sandbed. And lower light stuff preferably on the outer edges. Move them higher once they look happy

+1
Start them low, move them up after a few days, or a couple weeks.
Also, get your salinity down to around 1.025-1.026.
Are your lights old?
They may need to be replaced.
And, what kind of T5's do you have?
I noticed a big difference when I changed to ATI bulbs, way happier corals.

[NWoods]

Definitely try to start all corals off on the sandbed. And lower light stuff preferably on the outer edges. Move them higher once they look happy
+1
It looks like a torch coral you have? I had mine in the sand bed to start and moved it to a rock about 6" high. My understanding that torch corals do not need huge amounts of light and do better lower in the tank.

[goldrimtang]

Bpd, thanks for simple yet great advice. I moved the frogspawn lower to a shadier spot and in one day is looking better. Today I did some spot feeding of mysis shrimp... those tentacles were hungry :)

The lights are T5 bought in June, so pretty new. The fixture is ATI. The bulbs are giesemann. I was about to buy the giesemann fixture but just at that time they stopped selling 8 bulb... makes me think that maybe 8 is too much. I'm thinking they might be too bright for the 'beginner' corals that I've been getting.

Thank you!!

[goldrimtang]

Once moved to the bottom, the frogspawn is doing well. Here is a picture.