White ric

[chessmanmark]

Why do rics turn white? I understand that the mushroom is dying, but why? I have a green ric and an orange ric that recently turned white. My tank is SPS dominant. They grow on the sandbed on the bottom of my 90 gallon tank. I have good lighting 2x250MH + 2x110 VHO. Adequate calcium, alk, and mag. Calc-400, Alk - 3.31 (9.3dkh), and 1290+ mag (last test before dosing mag). Is it too much competition from the SPS, general lifespan of the coral, or something I haven't thought of?

[b0bby1]

i have a rics that is solid white with a neon green skirt and a neon green mouth. it is not dying, its perfectly healthy. i've had it for 6 months.

[icy1155]

A ricordea turns white when it expells the symbiotic zooxanthelle that it uses for photosynthesis. They will do this generally because of large amounts of stress for one reason or another. While it doesnt have zooxanthelle it needs to get any nutrition it can from eating foods and can theoretically survive through this and recover, however in aquariums most of the time they die off. As a side note, there is no strain of zooxanthelle that produces a white pigment, so any coral which is predominatly white is severly stressed and probably starving.

[currentking]

what type of ricordea are you talking about? If it is a yuma, and turned white it was poorly acclimated and or getting too much light. Yumas need little light. As for a florida ricordea, they turn white and lose thier color if they are not getting enough light. this has happened to me emany times because wneh I first started reefing, I never acclimated anything and put yumas in direct M/H light. They lost thier color. Once I moved them to shade they would start gaining color back

[Azurel]

That's one of the issues with corals that have symbiotic zooxanthellae algae if they get to much light they will bleach and if they get to little light they will bleach. I agree with current king on the yumas as I believe they are gathered from deeper waters in the pacific then the Florida Ricordea in the caribbean and gulf coast. While it is possible for the Florida rics to bleach in both circumstances I think the fact that they come from areas with more intense light and can handle more intesnse light through my expiereance that Floridas can handle direct MH lighting and will "color up" under these conditions. So if it is a florida ric it my not be getting enough light and a yuma to much as Current king suggested.

[SAPseven]

either too much or too little light .. try moving it around your tank .. until you find a happy medium.