Trouble with CAP corals!

[johnfluevogs]

I have a red/pink CAP that had begun fading on me a while back. I came to find out that I had a phosphate problem. Once I solved the phosphate problem the cap took off and grew like crazy.

All of a sudden my cap and my Hydno (green/fleshy coral) began dieing. I did at the time recently raise them in the aquarium and thought that they were getting too much light so I lowered them. The CAP seems to be steady although the majority of it is bleached and the hydno i would say is stable also. Its flesh no longer receding but signs of it hanging on for life.

So stupid me goes out and buys another cap (white/pearl with blue polyps). I have only owned it a few days now. Unfortunately the white color makes it difficult to tell if it is just growing of being to bleach.

I have checked my water parameters over and over and I cannot find a culprit. One thought is my halide bulb is going on 9 months old.


Any thoughts guys?!?!

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Len]

The bleaching sounds light-induced to me. Moving your corals back down was a good step, and your corals should recover with time. Note that some halides (for example, Sunburst bulbs) are notorious for bleaching SPS corals. I tried Sunburst one time, and several SPS colonies bleached within 48 hours. The point is it's not just about light intensity but also about light quality.

 

[johnfluevogs]

So, i am moving in the right direction....

I use a hamilton 1400k 175 w bulb.

Would you guess that the bulb being 9months old is affecting my light quality?

 

[Len]

I think you're on the right course. An aging bulb will shift spectrums for sure, but it's uncommon for these bulbs to cause bleaching (usually it's the other way around ... corals getting less colorful). Still, it's entirely possible. Change the bulbs and make sure your corals aren't over-exposed to the new, stronger lights. In other words, do proper light acclimation

 

[johnfluevogs]

By Proper Light acclimation...

decrease the halide cycle... then slowly increase it over the coarse of a few weeks?

Does that sound good.

That is what I did when I added the halide to my tank initially.

Thanks so much for you help!!

 

[Len]

Jeff, shortening the photoperiod is a good method. If you are able to raise the lights and slowly lower them down, that is even more effective. I've also used eggcrate to reduce/diffuse the lighting.

 

[smontanus]

I've used fiberglass screen between the halides and tank with gradual increased period. That seemed to work. You can get the screen at any hardware store.