I have a Hammer and a Frogspawn that both seem to be having issues. They are of the branching type and both colonies have 2 heads each about 1.5 to 2 inches across at their widest point. Both have been getting very white in color. We all know that the hammer typically has a green color but it's nearly white right now and the Frogspawn was a pink/brown color and it's also getting very "bleached" I have 2 40w 48" actinic and 2 175w 10K mh's. The tank is 80 gal's and all of my parameters seem to be in check Nitrates and nitrites are around 0 consistently, Ammonia has never registered over 0. Phosphates are 0, PH is 8.2 and alk is 2.3. I dose with B-inoic. Feed Phyto every other day. My Bubble coral is growing out of ctrl and my leathers, shroom's, green star polyps and zooths are growing out of ctrl. These 2 have slowly but surely expanded less and less. They booth seem to look their best when the actinic are on but the MH's are not. Are they getting too much light? Now the hammer looks like it's starting to get hit by some small tuffs of hair algae around the crown of the coral. I really want to try to save these 2 but I can't figure out the problem.
Need help on 2 sick LPS
- Thread starter AzSnake
- Start date
How long have you had them in there? If they were under lower light levels, they could be suffering from bleaching due to the quick increase in light levels. How far under the halides are they and when is the last time you changed the lamps? They're bleaching for some reason, since everything else in the tank is rockin' it's probably a light acclimation issue.
Ok in here's the answers to the last 2 posters questions on my situation.
Both Corals are about 24' below the MH's. They are on the bottom of the tank.
They have been in the tank since early and also mid summer (the hammer first the frogspawn 2nd). They looked good but very slowly started to go white and open less. They are about 6" from each other and only a Pagoda is close to the frogspawn. This morning I moved the frogspawn to a slightly shaded hole in the rockwork and today it actually looks to be more opened. I put up a tent over my hammer with some mesh screening to assist in some light reduction. It also looks to be reacting somewhat favorably to the reduction of light. Now I need to the color back. If need be I will buy some nice shelf rock to make some better-shaded overhangs. I think it's a light issue. My LFS said it was because my temp was too high (My tank is 80 to 82F). I’m not sure that's it. I have dove all over the world and seen both these corals in their natural habitat and those waters were in the 80's for sure. I even went back and checked my dive logs. I target feed both corals mysis shrimp today and both took the food greedily. Hope that may prompt some color regeneration. Let me know if I left something out.
Both Corals are about 24' below the MH's. They are on the bottom of the tank.
They have been in the tank since early and also mid summer (the hammer first the frogspawn 2nd). They looked good but very slowly started to go white and open less. They are about 6" from each other and only a Pagoda is close to the frogspawn. This morning I moved the frogspawn to a slightly shaded hole in the rockwork and today it actually looks to be more opened. I put up a tent over my hammer with some mesh screening to assist in some light reduction. It also looks to be reacting somewhat favorably to the reduction of light. Now I need to the color back. If need be I will buy some nice shelf rock to make some better-shaded overhangs. I think it's a light issue. My LFS said it was because my temp was too high (My tank is 80 to 82F). I’m not sure that's it. I have dove all over the world and seen both these corals in their natural habitat and those waters were in the 80's for sure. I even went back and checked my dive logs. I target feed both corals mysis shrimp today and both took the food greedily. Hope that may prompt some color regeneration. Let me know if I left something out.
How is your water flow around the frogspawn etc? Do you have some kind of wavemaker? I know that if my LPS don't get adequate water flow they don't open as much... they like to sway to and fro alot but not too much. I have my frogspawn under a similar lighting scheme (2 175 watt 10 K mh / 75 gal) and have never had a problem with bleaching. the only time I had a branch that became lighter was when it was being totally shaded by another and then it was time to frag.
HTH
Erica
AKA LilBugger
HTH
Erica
AKA LilBugger
LilBugger225
I have 2 Hagen 801 powerheads and 2 Hagen 201 power heads. I have them on an X10 system running my powerheads and lighting. One 801 goes on for 4 min on one side of the tank then the other goes on for 4. Then the smaller powerhead goes on for 4 min and then other smaller goes on for 4 min. Each are in 1 corner of the tank. I could crank up my 801's a bit. It's just that my bubble throws a fit when I do it. It's a fine tuning effort. I did have a devils hand die in the tank and I’m starting to think it whacked them a bit. I have done 2 water changes since but they may be trying to recover at this point. I’m going to move them to a corner of the tank and increase flow to that corner to see if I can see a change in color and a change in how much they open up.
I have 2 Hagen 801 powerheads and 2 Hagen 201 power heads. I have them on an X10 system running my powerheads and lighting. One 801 goes on for 4 min on one side of the tank then the other goes on for 4. Then the smaller powerhead goes on for 4 min and then other smaller goes on for 4 min. Each are in 1 corner of the tank. I could crank up my 801's a bit. It's just that my bubble throws a fit when I do it. It's a fine tuning effort. I did have a devils hand die in the tank and I’m starting to think it whacked them a bit. I have done 2 water changes since but they may be trying to recover at this point. I’m going to move them to a corner of the tank and increase flow to that corner to see if I can see a change in color and a change in how much they open up.
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