How long before a completely bleached coral gets some color back?

[Chris009]

Hey guys,

I recently got a frag of red dragon. It is eithe completely bleached or dead. I swear I saw a single polyp last night. And I can see some of the lines that usually run in the area around the polyps. Anyways, has anyone ever had a completely bleached red dragon coke back to life?

[JohnnyHildo]

i got a frag that didn't ship well and it never made it back to good.

[eschulist]

If its just bleached put it low or in a shady spot and give it some time. It might take a month or more but as long as the water is good the coral will recover.

[jda]

They will all come back in time if they don't die. I have had some recover in weeks and some literally take more than a year. ...it just depends.

[o2manyfish]

I have recovered tons of browned out or bleached corals. Most acros I can put in my outside frag tank and in sunlight have color in less than a week and amazing colors in 3-4 weeks. The thin branch like red dragon, or bali deep waters you have to be slower with them. Start down low and let them slowly come around.

For me Red Dragon is my tease coral. I have 2 colonies. They grow aweome to baseball size and then slowly bleach, die, stn till there are two tiny pieces left and then they start growing like crazy again. 5 years with these 2 pieces and never bigger than a baseball

But I have other friends that it grows like a weed, and just grows and grows and grows.

With the thin branched acros, if you dip them for pests they almost always die. You have to be really careful with them. The thin branched corals usually have a lot less polyps then typical acros. -- My personal theory -- when you dip them they pull in all the bad stuff / insecticide into their tissue. But with more tissue and less polyps that can flush out the dips, they hold the dip too long and it kills them.

Dave B

[Chris009]

I did dip mine. That's probably what caused it to bleach.

[abhishek@1985]

May I ask what dip did you use ? I have had issues with CoralRx bring too harsh on my acros especially smooth skinned .
Hiwever,never had issues with bayer .

Regards,
Abhishek

[Chris009]

CoralRX

[Reef Bass]

Try Bayer dip instead. Much less harsh on the coral itself in my experience. Definitely rinse / soak the frag after dipping before returning to tank.

[o2manyfish]

With the thinned skinned corals any of the dips beyond Lugols is too much.

Sanjay Joshi and I are deepwater acro addicts (thin skinned) and we have shared lots of colonies over the years, and both tried everything with the deep water and the risk factor over reward is just not good enough.

I use a variety of dips depending on what I am going after.

I use Bayer for everything. For Acros I use Melafix. With the Bayer dip after 10mins of dip if you really got at the acros with the turkey baster you can blast the AEFW off.

After 5+ mins in Melafix you will see AEFW actually falling off the acros.

With Bayer you blow the AEFW off and then you watch them squirm on the bottom of your dip tray.

With Melafix, they fall off the acro or you blow them off and the AEFW on the bottom are dead.

I use a dip tray (rubbermaid busboy rubber tray) and a small rio pump with the the insecticide/dips for 15-20 mins depending what I am working on.

Then I go to a second tray of clean tank water and a different rio pump.

I want there to be good flow in the dip to circulate the insecticide all around the corals so they can pull it in through out the coral.

In the second tray of clean water - I like lots of circulation so that as the insecticide comes out of the coral its whisked away.

Second tray is 15-20 mins

Then I go to a 3rd tray of clean tank water. Depending on how rushed I am I like to add lugols at this point. The third tray I let sit for 30+ mins and every 10 mins circulate the water with a different (labelled) turkey bastor.

From tray 3 the corals go to the tanks. If they are new corals before I dip I cut off any bases and leave clean exposed coral skeleton. If new wild colonies, I cut off the exposed cut off point of the coral and then close the fresh skeleton with gel glue.

Having 2 different rinse trays i think is really important. If you don't give the corals time to expel all the insecticide, when you put them in your tank - guess where they release the insecticide.

If you have a small aquarium this can be bad. And even like me if you have lots of gallons and dip a couple of frag racks each with 300+ frags - and they leach out the bad stuff - you can have a big disaster.

Dave B

[Big E]

Dave,

What are your mix ratios on the Melafix and Bayer solutions?

[abhishek@1985]

So for deepwater smooth skinned , do you use only melafix ?

Regards,
Abhishek

[Wazzel]

It could take a few weeks to a few months, depending. I have brought some back in a month or so, but the Reef Raft peacock I got bleached is going on well over a year and not back to how it should look. It was white when I rescued it, now it is purple grey. I have an orange passion that is taking five-ever to get some color back to it.

[JamesFWB]

A friend gave me a small 3 inch piece of birds nest that had full polyp extension but totally bleached. It is now completely green and growing well after about 6 weeks. I placed it in the light higher up in my tank. it's not always lighting and sometimes just water params.

[Piper27]

With the thinned skinned corals any of the dips beyond Lugols is too much.

Sanjay Joshi and I are deepwater acro addicts (thin skinned) and we have shared lots of colonies over the years, and both tried everything with the deep water and the risk factor over reward is just not good enough.

I use a variety of dips depending on what I am going after.

I use Bayer for everything. For Acros I use Melafix. With the Bayer dip after 10mins of dip if you really got at the acros with the turkey baster you can blast the AEFW off.

After 5+ mins in Melafix you will see AEFW actually falling off the acros.

With Bayer you blow the AEFW off and then you watch them squirm on the bottom of your dip tray.

With Melafix, they fall off the acro or you blow them off and the AEFW on the bottom are dead.

I use a dip tray (rubbermaid busboy rubber tray) and a small rio pump with the the insecticide/dips for 15-20 mins depending what I am working on.

Then I go to a second tray of clean tank water and a different rio pump.

I want there to be good flow in the dip to circulate the insecticide all around the corals so they can pull it in through out the coral.

In the second tray of clean water - I like lots of circulation so that as the insecticide comes out of the coral its whisked away.

Second tray is 15-20 mins

Then I go to a 3rd tray of clean tank water. Depending on how rushed I am I like to add lugols at this point. The third tray I let sit for 30+ mins and every 10 mins circulate the water with a different (labelled) turkey bastor.

From tray 3 the corals go to the tanks. If they are new corals before I dip I cut off any bases and leave clean exposed coral skeleton. If new wild colonies, I cut off the exposed cut off point of the coral and then close the fresh skeleton with gel glue.

Having 2 different rinse trays i think is really important. If you don't give the corals time to expel all the insecticide, when you put them in your tank - guess where they release the insecticide.

If you have a small aquarium this can be bad. And even like me if you have lots of gallons and dip a couple of frag racks each with 300+ frags - and they leach out the bad stuff - you can have a big disaster.

Dave B

Great post! Melafix is the best dip for preventing or treating aefw. Very easy to see through the dip to the coral and the worms will fall off the coral very quickly. 2 min and they are dropping off, then you just baste a little and lightly and all of the worms are released. Very easy on the corals too, I don't know is a dip that's less harsh than melafix and is as effective.
The Lugol's iodine is great for a quick bath if you use a very small amount and is great for helping prevent bacterial issues on damaged coral or freshly cut corals.

To answer the op's question I would say that the genetics of the coral and also the reason it got bleached matter the most when your talking about how long it will take to recover. Along with perfect stable water and position in the tank. The coral should stay put in the same position for as long as it takes to get color back for the process to take the least amount of time. Less light like already suggested helps for sure if the bleaching was bad enough. Unless the corals slightly bleached because they were transhipped and did not do well or had a long cold ride. Then I like to get them as much light as I can after maybe a couple days of aclimation to the fixture.