Whitening of SPS????? -- Pics Included

[Dadany]

This what the frag looks like today. When I got it 5 days ago it had no whiting. The LFS recommended that I place it at the highest point in the tank. I placed it as suggested only about 1 inch low the water level. Two days later the frag started to whiten. I then thought to move it to a lower area in the tank and the whitening subsided. It seems to have stopped whitening any further as of 2 days.

The question is, will it survive? If it des survive should I frag off the portion at the tip of the whitened branch? What other measures should I take to prevent further whitening?

The following frags seem to be doing just fine. There has been no whitening at all. The first of the two next frags was purchased from the small LFS at the same time as the above. The 3rd frag was purchased from a different LFS and again it has suffered no whitening. It should be noted that these 2 frags where never placed close to the lights and have been withing 5 inches from water surface.

Another note: then mushrooms where purchased some weeks ago and have never quite acclimated to the tank. They were fully extended and fully covering the rock they are attached to when I purchased them from the LFS. I have moved them weekly to differnt locations within the tank. First higher towards the tank, but they only receeded more. Then to a lower shaded current free location. Will they extend? Is there any insight that can be offered?

Finally, this is the arrangement I have of my tank. It has very little coraline gowth as of yet, only up for 2.5 months.

 

[reefland]

White area looks like tissue loss. If you can confirm that no polyps exist, then I would suggest you break up the coral into a few more parts and try to save it that way. If you leave it alone I would expect the tissure loss to kill the entire coral.

 

[Palmetto]

Do you have a strong Metal Halide on that tank?? Was the tank it was in at the LFS underlit in comparison? Sometimes a huge swing in lighting can be too much, and you have to start them off on the bottom until they become accustomed to the increase.

You have severe tissue loss, and your best bet IMHO is to break off the healthy tip and mount it on some rubble that you start off lower in the tank.

If that is a strong MH bulb, that may explain why the shrooms seem uncomfortable and you don't have much coralline growth. Coralline actually grows better under softer lighting, especially Actinic. Most mushrooms don't like super intense light, except Ricordeas and a few others that actually seem to thrive under strong lighting.

Also, 2.5 months is a little new to add SPS corals that are particularly finicky about water parameters. You may want to proceed slowly.

 

[Gatortailale1]

Tank water specs. needed (PH; ALK; salinity; ammonia; lighting)

Most advice I have read in books and on this board is to wait until you have quarter sized circles of coralline algae growing on glass before you introduce SPS coral. Why - your tank will stabilize over time and all the nasty algae blooms will run their course.

How long are you acclimating your coral animals when you introduce them.

Also, mushrooms don't need much light - at least all the books and recommendations I ever heard. They love the bottom area.

I think a good amount of patience is needed before you add more animals and let your tank mature more. A beautiful reef takes lots of time to grow. No such thing as instant reef if you want it to survive in long run.

Tissue loss - could be from your fingers if you handled the frag by that branch a lot. Oils from human skin not very good for corals.

HTH

 

[Dadany]

Do you have a strong Metal Halide on that tank??

Yes, 250watt MH

Was the tank it was in at the LFS underlit in comparison?

Very low lighting. I think vho or very very old MH bulbs. It was in the sellout tank. They just them in that day so I thought, after the fact, that i should not have acclimated it more slowly.

Sometimes a huge swing in lighting can be too much, and you have to start them off on the bottom until they become accustomed to the increase.

I was also thinking the same thing myself. I will frag the whitened tip off and mount it somewhere lower in the tank. The whitening has no continued since moving it lower in tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that water quality tests are in order.

Another reason the shrooms might not be open is too much water movement. Are they right in front of a PH?

Check your pH, alk, Ca, NH4, NO2, NO3, and PO4 levels. Oh yeah, temp and spec gravity too.

 

[Dadany]

pH - 8.4 on one test kit / 8.3 on another test kit
alk - no test
Ca - test is inaccurate
NH4 - 0ppm mg/l
NO2 - 0ppm mg/l
NO3 - 0ppm mg/l

 

[Mike02]

my montipora colony (5" x 4") started to turn white about 3 days after i first put it in the tank. about 4/5's of it turned white, but a week later it started recovering and a week after that, it returned to "normal". there is still some whitish area at the very bottom of it where its not getting light but its in good shape with zillions of polyps and good color. it has grown slowly but has definitely grown and covered some bare skeleton (where it was bare when i first bought it in January2002). mine was a "wild collected" speciman.
anyway, the reason i wrote this, is to say yours might recover. that white area doesnt look "dead"

 

[Palmetto]

I think that at times you can see it re-encrust a "dead" area, much the same as it can encrust the rock it is mounted on.

 

[Mike02]

my montipora colony didnt recrust, the polyps simply re-appeared after a week or two. This might happen in this case since the white area doesnt look "dead" to me. on mine, when i first got it, there were 2 spots on the coral (tips of branches)that were clearly dead but those areas got re-crusted.

 

[r6_rider]

2.5 months is a little quick. patience is a virtue in this hobby.

 

[Ben1]

Seems to me like Mike is talking about bleaching not tissue loss. In bleaching the coral expels its zooanthallea resulting in color loss but the live tissue is still evident. Seems to me Dadany has tissue loss, meaning his sps would have to reencrust the dead parts. Bleaching does not indicate tissue loss, and is a different condition then one that includes tissue loss like RTN.

Dadany, what do you use for current in your tank anyhow?

 

[Mustang]

pH - 8.4 on one test kit / 8.3 on another test kit
alk - no test<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Ca - test is inaccurate<<<<<<<<<<<<<
NH4 - 0ppm mg/l
NO2 - 0ppm mg/l
NO3 - 0ppm mg/l

2 of the most important thing for Stonies and you don't know what they are?
Are you dosing any thing for Calcium/Alk?
You need to get a couple of test kits and check them
_________________
Automag

 

[Dadany]

No further whitening is noted. The areas that are white are not bleached. The tissue has died completely. The Coral has stabalized and seems to be doing fine now.

Further note: I do dose Kalk with Ro replacement water.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd get an alk test kit if I were you.
Alkalinity is pretty dang important.
You could pump in a ton of calcium, and without sufficient alk, you'd see no growth.

 

[golfish]

Is the SPS tank raised or wild?

 

[esmithiii]

This might happen in this case since the white area doesnt look "dead" to me

The tissue looks dead to me. If the tissue loss has stopped, I suggest that you do not frag it. Tissue will eventually encrust the areas where it has died.
The coral looks like a montipora, and Mine did the same thing (damage in shipping) but recovered fully. Here are some pics:

Before

After

 

[esmithiii]

Note that my color lightened greatly under my 400W 6500K iwasakis to a nice bright green/yellow.

The before photo was in December of last year, the after in July of this year.

Ernie

 

[Dadany]

esmithiii, thank you for the info. I now have hope that my specimen will recover. I also believe that my specimen is a montipora rather than a acropora as sold to me.

It is amazing how your frag looked almost exactly like mine looks now. How long did u take to move it to a higher light exposure.

Should I wait until it re-encrusts prior to moving it up in the tank or should i keep it where it is. I am leaning towards keeping it where it is even after re-encrusting.

 

[Dadany]

esmithiii, thank you for the info. I now have hope that my specimen will recover. I also believe that my specimen is a montipora rather than a acropora as sold to me.

It is amazing how your frag looked almost exactly like mine looks now. How long did u take to move it to a higher light exposure.

Should I wait until it re-encrusts prior to moving it up in the tank or should i keep it where it is. I am leaning towards keeping it where it is even after re-encrusting.