bleaching or coloring up?

[StevenSeas]

So I picked up a browned out lantana montipora. supposed to look like so:


I have the nice purple polyps extending from the base, but it started out with a brown base. Now I am seeing that deep brown go away and yielding to yellow (I hope). But im not sure if this is the case or if it is just bleaching out. I got the coral a week and a half ago. How quickly would it start to go back to its proper color? or is there such a thing as slow bleaching?

I put the coral mid way up (BC 29 is powered by 24x 3w LEDs) and in fairly good flow right near the output of my MP10. When I tested on Sunday my nitrates were .5ppm (red sea coral pro test) and calcium was 435. I use only brightwells products/salt. only thing I currently add is microbacter7 and regular water changes. I have a caribbean pygmy angel and some peppermint shrimps and 1 hermit crab that is like 4 yrs old.

I will try to take a pic of it with accurate color rendition but doubtful that will happen w/ a camera phone.

[CoryDude]

Keep an eye on the polyps. I've had my sps lighten in color a few months ago. I was kind of amiss like you are. Then all my sps went from having great polyp extension to almost none. That's when I saw tissue erosion and lost a few frags. Once the polyps came back ,then the colors came back.

I think your lantana is adjusting to a low nutrient system. That's why it's shedding zooxanthellae and lightening in color. Just be careful with the lw nutrients. My sps always seem to go downhill when no3 gets below .2 ppm. The perfect balance for my systems seems to run between .5-2ppm no3.