BLEACHING CORAL.

[RICKY81]

so when corals start to bleach, better yet frags recently bought. and they started to bleach does that mean that they are dying or they are going through a phase being stressed out, and could possibly die. any help as to how to bring them out from bleaching or prevent it. does it help to have the lights on or off..... thanks.

[mama]

Hi Ricky,
I posted that problem with my frilly mushrooms about a month ago. I read that they are stressed from either movement into a new tank and/or the change in water qualities. My bleached mushrooms did not die...they have gotten even bigger, but are staying white instead of a pretty mauve color. Members here also stated that mushrooms are as hardy as heck and very hard to kill!! I don't know what kind of frag corals you are talking about. My mushrooms were very large and mature. Let's see what others have to say. I know they will ask what your water parameters are, so I would get that posted!!

[hobogato]

ricky, i am guessing that you are talking about sps frags.... sometimes they will bleach (expel all of their hosted algae). if this is what is happening/has happened, you should still be able to see polyps. try moving them low in the tank in an area with good flow. also, bc they are not getting food from hosted algae, you will need to feed them to try to keep them from starving to death.

[RICKY81]

yes they are sps frags,the weird thing about this is that i bought frags about 1 week apart eachother from 2 different people and only the setof frags from a certain person started to bleach and the others are doing just great.... also what would u guys recommend for feeding to sps coral. thanks for taking the time to read and comment, that info is a relief to know that they can still make it..

PARAMETERS
ph 8.4
alk 1.9
sal. 1.024
phosphate - haven't checked but know its ok.
ammo 0
NITRATE - 10 -- was having trouble for abou 4 weeks with wacked levels of nitrate above 20ppm more like in the 40ppm range but have done some water changes and nitrate removal and now going back down. this has been pretty much the only level going crazy.
nitrite .05

[hobogato]

alkalinity is a bit low, that can mess with the corals quite a bit.

[CoryDude]

PARAMETERS
ph 8.4
alk 1.9
sal. 1.024
phosphate - haven't checked but know its ok.
ammo 0


Did you transpose your alk #? Ace is right, that'd be enough to stress the frags, assuming the # is correct.

[hobogato]

im sure that is 1.9 meq/l and not 1.9 dKh. not drastically low, but a little low

[RICKY81]

i know i have trying to get that alkalinity level higher i know that i used to be like 1.5, but started to add KENT MARINE Pro Buffer dKH, that wasn't doing to fine so just changed to Reef builder about 3 days ago see what that does to my Alkalinity.

[CoryDude]

im sure that is 1.9 meq/l and not 1.9 dKh. not drastically low, but a little low

Yeah, you're right. I had dKH on the brain for some reason. Still, seen prob's w/stonies when total alk nears 2.0meq/L. Have you tested calcium? I'd be curious to see if your h2o chem is out of balance (norm ca) or if you need to use a 2-part buffer (low ca).