acropora turning white?

[reg828]

What is happening to my acropora? some branches are bleaching and the base too? what is the cause of this?

[XeniaMania]

Albinoism..:lol: j/k
How about posting your water parameters and giving us some insight to your setup and husbandry practices first?

[reg828]

water par. is

sg 1.021
ph 8.0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
ammonia 0

[XeniaMania]

SG could be a tad bit higher, most reef tanks are at 1.023. How about temperature? Calcium? Alk? What type of lighting do you have? How long is it before your corals start bleaching? Have you checked for parasites?

[reg828]

my temp is usually around 82 but its been a week its around 84, having probs keeping at 82 deg. my lighting is one 250 watts in the middle xm 10k and two vho 110 watt flo. the acro is in center 6 inches from water surface. metal halide bulb is about 6 inches from the surface. i just notice my corals bleached today but seem like its coming from the base, i estimate its been week. as for parasites, i dont see any parasites and i dont know what they look like. calcium and alk, i still have to check that. but i drip kalk in a 5 gallon bucket, also add some kent marine liquid calcium. Alk, not sure, still have to check that

[GatorReefman]

I would use fans, even cheap walmart ones( $6). There are three for my 55 gallon reef and I still struggle to keep temps down. I think 84 degrees is on high side because our aquariums are not like the ocean. Strive to keep in mid 70's- low 80's( I keep mine from 76-81.

[JmLee]

looks like you have some testing to do! good luck

[reg828]

bump

[reg828]

is this bleaching going to eventually kill my acro or what? what should i do?

[MiddletonMark]

Yes, it could kill the Acropora. I've nursed a pale and slightly bleached colony back - and it takes time, patience, and good water conditions. Best is to figure out what is stressing the coral [light, chemistry, temp, etc] and to fix that ASAP ... then to slowly get it to gain color, move it up in the tank, slowly recover.

I would drop the temperature, and test Alkalinity.

How did you acclimate it to your light?

[DJ88©]

[moved]

[Phyl]

How long have you had these colonies? Wild caught or captive bred? What W, K & distance in the previous setup? If these are new to your system it may be too much light too fast for them.

Moving them down in the Aquarium may give them time to color back up again. Do you still have polyp extension?

[reg828]

I have this acropora coral for about 10 months, i move this coral very close to the metal halide 250 watts about 6 inches. i havent seen any polyps extension for maybe two months now. pls. help. what should i do. is this coral already dead and just the algae is left.

[reg828]

what should i do? do i have to cut the ones that are not bleaching so that it would not spread or is it assumed dead already and just the algae in it is left.l pls. help

[reg828]

today i adjusted the salinity to 1.025 and the temp is now 78

[reg828]

i dont see any polyp at all

[reg828]

anyone?

[XeniaMania]

I understand your urgency, but raising a reef also requires patience. I don't know if jumping your salinity from 1.021 to 1.025 within a day is such a good idea. It's something that should be done over a period of days. There are numerous factors that attribute to the bleaching of this coral, and you yourself is the best person to learn and know why it happened. My suggestion is to do some research on what conditions SPS corals need, and to see through testing if your tank meet those conditions. It's not as simple as putting on strong lighting and keeping temperatures at where they're suppose to be. Keeping SPS corals to me, is one of the most advanced types of pets to keep. It's like what middletonmark says, it takes time and patience.

[MiddletonMark]

For the meantime:

Keep things stable. Pic a temperature, stick to it. IMO, varying conditions are acceptable to corals - but require energy to respond to.

Water change. IMO, never seems to hurt. Maybe there's a chemical imbalance somewhere - and that's the only change I'd allow the tank.

How long have you been running these bulbs? More info on light-change would be important.

What have you added in the last 3-4 months to the tank [livestock/rock/coral-wise]?

What's your calcium + alkalinity read?