Lobophyllia bleaching

J

johnpirnat

New member
Had a bit of problem with phosphates and am addressing with GFO reactor. Have had it running for a few months but levels are still .06+ think it is leaching from rocks. Tank had 3+years for it to build up so that might take some time.

Now that the GHA has slowed, I lowered the light intensity for a week back up to full (to try and kill off algae) and suddenly my purple Lobophyllia has one bleached and one partially bleached head. Other corals seem unaffected other than a frogspawn not opening up fully.

dkh 9.8 ca 420 mg 1420

Anyone know if this adjustment to light cycle could have caused the bleaching?

Also, my first post. Thanks
 
Welcome John!

What is the placement in the tank for the lobo, light type (and PAR if you have it), and have your params been stable?

Also do you have a nitrite reading?


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cant detect any nitrates, parameters have been very stable.
the coral is located pretty much dead center in tank 2/3ds down from water level. I use two AI Primes that ramp up and down for a 12 hour period. At maximum (for 2hrs) the par is 125ish at coral. It had been higher but after bleaching I took levels down to about 65% of max and am acclimating over a 2 month period... but now it tops off at 125par or thereabouts.
 
Just an update for those who may have experienced bleaching with Lobo. Flesh had not retracted although I would sometimes see spines sticking above flesh. I directly fed twice a week and covered for about an hour with a perforated plastic container to keep scavengers away. After keeping lighting very consistent I am pleased to say that the coral has recovered its color and actually enhanced throughout. Target feeding helped but changing the lighting drastically (in attempt to kill hair algae) certainly was the culprit. Lesson learned here is address your phosphates first rather than try to fix the algae problem with a hammer. Blue Life Phosphate RX worked well for me in this process. Just 5 - 10 drops per day (much less than maximum recommended) until they finally stayed down. Did not try to filter precipitate but did add to my sump and not main tank. Had no ill effects on my other corals from what I observed.
 
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