bleaching with frequency change

[triton7250]

I just changed my lighting from 20,000 K to 15,000 K and most of my top shelf sps corals bleached. Is this common and will they recover ? I saw what was happening and was able to move most of them down to a lower level, but the top parts that were facing the lights were pretty damaged. I didn't think that going from 20 to 15 k K would have been that much of a change to do much harm.

[CAreefer]

It really depends on the type of bulbs and ballasts used. Lets say you went from a SE XM 20k on M58 ballast to a SE XM15k on the same ballast you would actually lose ~20 PAR points. We would really need more info before a bleaching event could be confirmed. "Usually" if caught in time, bleaching can be reversed. Moderate flow and less light. Try raising your lights/canopy and slowly lowering them back down over the next couple weeks.

CAReefer