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Kellogg

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I recently took most of my live rock out to rearrange as well as a few of my corals. I have heard that letting corals sit out for an hour or so while being kept moist causes no damage, but a couple of my arcoporas expelled a good deal of their zooxanthellae from the tips of their branches. My question is how long should it take for the zooxanthellae to regrow? One colony is missing about 1" of it at the tips. I also am upgrading my PC lighting to a 400 watt MH system, which i just got. Should i wait untill all the zooxanthellae is regrown to set up the new lights even if I move all the corals to the bottom of the tank?
 

Super Len

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Zooxanthallae repopulation time depends on how severely your corals have bleached. It may range from 2 weeks to 6 months (rough figures to indicate variability). Generally, repopulation will be from within, regulated by the coral's metabolism. This is the faster of the two processes. The coral may seek to assimiliate new dinoflagellates from the water column, but this is unlikely, especially when your corals are not fully bleached.

In the future, please note that not all corals can tolerate being exposed to air. Even with those that can, it is not a healthy practice.

I'd recommend against switching to the new halides until the corals have recovered. When you're ready to do the conversion, make sure you perform proper lighting acclimation: 1. reduce the photoperiod. 2. raise the MH bulbs, and slowly lower them down to the permenant level over the course of a month or. 3. use "egg crate" light diffuser to deflect some intensity. You wouldn't want to bleach your sps again.
 

fraggintime

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I would clip the tips of the "dead" area and you should get new growth usually 2 branches or more
should start to come from the clipped(prunned)
area. This has been my experience. Sometimes waiting for new growth on bleached coral doesnt happen because of hair algae,coraline algae etc..

Just my 2 pennies
ken
icon_eek.gif
 

Super Len

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Bleaches does not mean dead, but absent of zooxanthallae. Filamentous, turf, and coralline algae will not grow over bleached areas. I would advise against clipping the coral. The last thing a bleached coral needs is more stress. My opinion is to let the coral recover on its on.
 

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