LPS Corals Slowly Bleaching

johnstires · #1 09/09/2007, 09:51 PM

So for the past couple months my LPS have all been slowly, slowly bleaching. It's become a total epidemic. I have 4 huge frogspawns that this is happening to. They have thrived in this tank for over a year, and for years in another one of my tanks.

My tank water parameters are fine, my lights (t5s) are recently changed (3 months ago), and everthing else that could be considered more delicate in my tank, clam, montipora, staghorn, are thriving.

I really have no clue what the issue might be. I've narrowed it down to a couple of things:

1. Disease - My tank temp (until 3 days ago when i added a chiller) usually ran on the high side (fluctuating from 80-85) I've kept tanks like this for years and my fish, and corals have always done really well. The chiller now keeps things at a constant 79, but the disease may be established already. Does anyone know how to either identify or combat a disease like this?

2. Chemical Warfare - On one side of my tank i let softies run rampant, especially kenya trees, which proliferate like crazy. Since they are so established is it possible that they could be chemically attacking my LPS corals? Anyway of checking for this?

My tank is a 33G long, with good flow, clean water, and a skimmer. It's been an ideal tank for over a year and recently my lps corals have just started to slowly recede away. I really have no clue what to do. Should I just frag them out and hope that the colony continues in other reefers tanks? Or is there any hope to turn them around?

The first frogspawn shows a few heads bleaching (circled). The none circled heads are still healthy:

This is one of my other frogspawns, all of the heads are affected:

Here's what my tank looked like about 8 months ago. The softies are on one side and the lps are on the other.

culinarydreamz · #2 09/09/2007, 10:06 PM

I'm not an expert or anything but if your temps were in the 80-85 range, then u might have suffered the bleaching. that occurs when corals are exposed to water temps at 83.7 degrees or higher.
A SLOW gradual increas to that temp may not cause damage but when a home tank goes from 79 at night to 84 or higher during the day every day, then they are at risk of bleaching. the loss of zooantheala *SP might be able to be regained, I'm not sure, just maintain your proper temp, 77-79, watch your parameters and make sure your ALK isn't too high causing the bleaching as well.
Good luck.

johnstires · #3 09/10/2007, 08:44 PM

Yeah I'm hoping that the heat was the problem. I still see alot of zooxanthellae left so I think they can rebound. I'm just afraid it's too late or it is something else. It seems to be spreading like a disease as it looks like it jumps from head to head. I would think if it was a heat issue it would be a little more consistent across the tank. Rather it seems to slowly affect head to head. The top pick above shows 2 heads that are healthy and 3 heads that aren't.

Anyone else have any experience with something like this?

Mental1 · #4 09/11/2007, 09:10 PM

Didn't you say that the tank temp was kept for a long time in the 80-85 range and everything was fine? How quickly did you drop to 79 and was that from the 85? If there was a sudden shift like that -- they might be unhappy. Also, there's always stuff about mixing softies with anything because of what they do give off. Perhaps ask in the softies forum ...

143gadgets · #5 09/12/2007, 07:26 AM

I see that u switched lighting recently. Were u using T5s before? If not, thatmay ne your problem. T5s put oug a lot of light and if the corsls have not been acclimated correctly they will bleach. Hope this helps.

theop · #6 09/12/2007, 08:17 AM

My guess would be the sudden increase in light. I saw this happen when I upgraded my tank from 37g (1 x 150W HQI) to 70g (2 x 150W HQI).

The corals (branching hammer, frogspawn, candy canes) that were higher in the tank or more directly under the lights started bleaching, even though the tank size doubled at the same time as the light. I moved them lower or where they get less direct light and they darkened back up over the next month.

LPSkeeper · #7 09/12/2007, 12:52 PM

i have always noticed bleaching has to do with the lights. the microbacteria that turns the light into sugar for the corals will actually get use to a certin kind of light then when the lights are changed those bacteria die off. usually they will regain there color after they get use to the new lighting. maybe that is what happened.

coastalaqu · #8 09/12/2007, 08:06 PM

Ive seen change in lights do this. A friend had a grren scoly and upgraded lights, the scoly turned white.

cmc5dc · #9 09/12/2007, 11:15 PM

Mine did the same thing when I switched to T5, they will color back but might take awhile.

Mental1 · #10 09/13/2007, 08:14 AM

I am taking months and months to increase my lights as I changed from PC to T5's. I have actinics on for 9 hours and full lights for 4 hours and they are 6 inches above the tank. I am going very slowly ... I also have an elegance coral so slowly is the onyl way.

johnstires · #11 09/19/2007, 10:28 PM

wow thanks for all the replies. But i didnt upgrade the lights I just changed the bulbs (which i think are the exact same). I had T5s for a year before and never saw any bleaching. Maybe my new bulbs are just much more powerful, even though they are exactly the same bulb. My tank is a 33G long so i don't have much depth.

I did put a couple of frogspawn frags on the bottom of the tank and those seem a little better. Well maybe it's time for some tank reconstruction. My clowns are gonna be mad...

worth trying

theop · #12 09/20/2007, 07:58 AM

How old were the bulbs that you changed out? I don't know the exact numbers for T5, but florescent bulbs can drop a significant part of their light output over time. It's quite possible that you increased light output by 50%+ when you changed your bulbs.

johnstires · #13 09/20/2007, 07:36 PM

The bulbs were probably 1 year and 3 months old tops.

grisha · #14 09/20/2007, 07:41 PM

john
i remember your tank on 72 st i feel like your aquactinics are too close to the surface and it is just a 33g tank
greg
i got h2o from you a year ago

kurplunk · #15 09/20/2007, 08:54 PM

I read an article once about photosynthesis of stony corals. It stated that the symbiotic algae of stony corals can only use a certain amount of light for photosynthesis. If the available light crosses a certain point it can cause a bleaching effect in such corals as echinophillyia and euphiyllia.

pusanpa · #16 10/03/2007, 12:56 AM

salinity measure malfunction?
My coral looked like this by false hydrometer reading.

fierceseaman · #17 10/03/2007, 10:18 AM

If your bulbs were that old, I'd say it was the increase in light output by the new bulbs.

vessxpress1 · #18 10/03/2007, 07:23 PM

FWIW, when I switched from PCs to T-5s, I just left stuff in place and acclimated using a series of over-lapping screens over a few days. Took one off ever day until there were none. Acclimated over 4 days and I didn't have any bleaching problems from the light.

We were on vacation for a couple weeks recently and I came home to my tank having Ca levels that were sky high and alk was down to 6.7 dKH. I've never had anything wrong with my wall hammer before. I knew something was wrong as soon as I looked at it when I got back. The tips were kind of shriveled and the edge was turning white. Mg was high, Ca high, alk way too low. I'd really keep an eye on your alk over time. Get a few different tests to verify because it is pretty important and will cause stuff to bleach. Two weeks later, the white edge is still recovering but the rest of it looks great again.

I'd also 2nd the possiblity of high temps or vast temp swings causing problems too. Mine goes from 78 to 80 over a day. Be sure to check with redundant thermometers to make sure of the temp you're at. Never trust cheap digital thermometers long term. The probes go bad.