View Full Version : Sps Turning White
My SPS are turning white, literally over night. What should I be looking for? could anybody give me some help..
whats the latest test results....especiall kh and calcium?
get as much info in as you can for us to help.
simon garratt
03-11-05, 17:56
1st check your temperature (is the heater stuck on) , and then do a full set of tests and put the results up.
Regards
Si.
The test results are as follows...
Ca 500
Mg 1350
KH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 60ppm (15pmm last week)
Phosphate 0.25
PH 8
Temp 27-28 degreesC
My partner also noticed that when she got up this morning the temp was at 25degree's C
Any help welcome
NitrAtes are high, this may be the problem
nirates and phosphates are very high for sps.
check your lights, photo period etc. Sounds like they have bleached
I have just mixed a 60 Litre for a water change (most I can do in one go). I will mix another 60 liters tomorrow. As for Phosphate I am running some Phosban at the mo, I will change this for some fresh.
As for bleaching. The one that looks the worst, I moved it on Sunday to a higher position app ox 4 inch up the tank. it is now 12" from the top. The light pattern has not changed...
what wattage are your lights mate? P04 would turn your corals brown it wouldnt bleach them nor would nitrates. When you say white do you mean pale but still live flesh or white as in down to the skeleton dead?
Just the colour has gone white. It looks the same as before but white, if that makes sense.
they are under 1 250 watt and a 150 watt.
NOTE: My other two sps look fine
also carefully check that your halides havent cracked. This happened on a friends tank a while ago, bleached the lot and gave me a nasty case of arc eye too. So please be careful not to look directly at the filament. Im convinced its your lights.
hth
Juppy
The lights look OK. They are re both under different halides as they are at opposite ends of the tank.
Is there anything I can do to help them recover?
:thanx:
if they have bleached they will usually recover but takes a long time to get the colour back. This has happened to me when my lights got stuck on for 2 days because a timer failed.
can you get a half decent photo to give us more of an idea?
Juppy
IMO you should monitor your temperature closely.
25C in the morning and 28C in the evening is a huge diff. which would cause a lot of stress to the corals if it happens everyday.
That's not "turning white" nor bleaching, that's tissue loss. Either something is eating the coral and stripping it or it's a case of RTN.
Is the tissue peeling off by itself?
No Ive not seen it peeling. i thought it might be bleaching as where it has gone white, was where it was against a rock before I moved it.
If it is RTN is there anything I can do?
a lot of people get really mixed up with bleaching and actual dead.
with bleaching the coral is still alive but has lost colour, ie you can still see the tiny polyps on the coral.
if the said polyps are totally missing and its white and to the skeleton (no tissue) then that part of the coral is dead, why has it gone like this could be lots of reasons (unfortunately corals cant talk and we have to make a judgement call as to why its happening)
if this happens (losing tissue) it could be a number of reasons but more than not you wouldnt be able to nail it. best thing you can do is frag a healthy part so the receeding tissue doesnt wipe out the whole colony, even doing this might not save it.
these things happen and people have lost colonies for no apparent reason with acceptable and even perfect conditions, it could be an infection on the coral it could be this it could be that..........
hth and you can save a piece.
FWIW and IME i have very rarely come across an acro that just bleaches, most i see with lack of colour are those that have come in on import to the LFS and even that is not that much recently.
craig
As said, that is not bleaching, it is diseased. Would second the advice of fragging the healthy bits.
hth
Juppy
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