Advice. 2 favias at same light level, one is bleaching

[DOJOLOACH]

Ive got a small favia frag mid level in the tank thats getting about 90 par of light, ive got another favia frag right next to it, purchased at the same time, acclimated the same way, and it has been slowly bleaching.

 

Any advice? Some parameters and history since i bought THESE corals a month ago.

-No3 10ppm ( started at 2ppm but softies werent happy) i quite carbon dosing is all

- po4 .07 ppm. Was .03 but quite carbon dosing.

Calcium 460-480ppm. Slowly allowing to drop as i switch to a salt that mixes at 430ppm

Alk. 9.5. Was at 12 but slowly allowing to drop over period of a month

Mag 1350

Salinity 35 ppt

Temp 76-80. Fluctuates with controller

Ph 8.1-8.3

 

In addition to the favia bleaching i have an acan receding that is in a shaded area around 60 par

[farkwar]

How close is 'right next to?

 

Are they fighting each other

 

Pics?

[DOJOLOACH]

22 minutes ago, farkwar said:

How close is 'right next to?

 

Are they fighting each other

 

Pics?

Like 3" apart. One on the left with the larger polyps is the one suffering. And honestly im not 100% sure the one on the right is a favia, but it was sold to me as one

[farkwar]

If it were mine

 

I would move it lower in the tank, I don't know what your lighting is like

 

Then feed it amino acids and liquid foods

 

If it responds with feeding behavior, I would feed it powdered and solid foods

 

I have never had favia pests so I can not help you there, other than other corals fighting them

[DOJOLOACH]

6 minutes ago, farkwar said:

If it were mine

 

I would move it lower in the tank, I don't know what your lighting is like

 

Then feed it amino acids and liquid foods

 

If it responds with feeding behavior, I would feed it powered and solid foods

 

I have never had favia pests so I can not help you there, other than other corals fighting them

Well ive got around 70 par on the sandbed. I thought to move it lower but i will now. Ill put it on the sand bed in the middle of the tank. Hopefully i see some improvement.

 

On another note, do you think an acan would recede from too low of light?

[Clown79]

Are they the same favia?

 

Not all favia like the same conditions. Some have longer sweepers than others and may sting their neighbour

 

My dragon soul doesn't like a lot if light, prefers shade whereas other prefer a bit more light.

[Tired]

Are you sure it's bleaching and not retracting? That looks like heavily exposed skeleton. If you touch it with something, is it hard? 

 

Move it as low in the tank as you can put it. 

 

That coral on the right looks more like a blasto colony to me, but this isn't a great photo. 

 

Acans recede from too much light, but wouldn't likely do it from too low. Irritation or being attacked by another coral is another potential problem. 

[DOJOLOACH]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

Are you sure it's bleaching and not retracting? That looks like heavily exposed skeleton. If you touch it with something, is it hard? 

 

Move it as low in the tank as you can put it. 

 

That coral on the right looks more like a blasto colony to me, but this isn't a great photo. 

 

Acans recede from too much light, but wouldn't likely do it from too low. Irritation or being attacked by another coral is another potential problem. 

After further investigation it is retracting. Ill have to look at blastos. 

[Tired]

That's a lot of retracting. It looks like many of the polyps are completely gone- you should be able to see flesh in all those holes, and I only see it in some. 

 

For future reference, bleaching is when the coral releases its photosynthetic algae in response to stress. It starts to lose color due to that, but will still be about the same shape, because the flesh is still there. If a coral is shrinking back from growing white areas, and those white areas are hard, that's the flesh retreating and exposing the skeleton.

 

You should move the blasto (or whatever that is) down as well. If the light is enough to kill back a favia like that, it's probably too much for blastos. Too little light will harm corals way more slowly than too much light, so it's better to err on the side of caution.

 

The problem that you can have with coral is, they're very slow animals. They don't necessarily react to bad conditions right away. Sometime they look like they're fine in bad conditions, because it takes awhile for the bad to catch up. Think of them as being two weeks behind in their reactions. They lag. Which means that they take awhile to react to good conditions as well. Once taken out of the bad conditions, they can continue to decline for awhile until they catch up to the conditions being better, and sometimes that decline kills them. 

In other words, don't expect it to immediately improve, even if the lower light is what it needs. It may take awhile. 

If it does appear to die, don't throw it out. Put it somewhere unobtrusive that gets a little light. LPS corals can sometimes regrow from what looks for all the world like a dead skeleton. Favias are pretty tough, this one should have a good chance, but it doesn't look good right now. 

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, Tired said:

That's a lot of retracting. It looks like many of the polyps are completely gone- you should be able to see flesh in all those holes, and I only see it in some. 

 

For future reference, bleaching is when the coral releases its photosynthetic algae in response to stress. It starts to lose color due to that, but will still be about the same shape, because the flesh is still there. If a coral is shrinking back from growing white areas, and those white areas are hard, that's the flesh retreating and exposing the skeleton.

 

You should move the blasto (or whatever that is) down as well. If the light is enough to kill back a favia like that, it's probably too much for blastos. Too little light will harm corals way more slowly than too much light, so it's better to err on the side of caution.

 

The problem that you can have with coral is, they're very slow animals. They don't necessarily react to bad conditions right away. Sometime they look like they're fine in bad conditions, because it takes awhile for the bad to catch up. Think of them as being two weeks behind in their reactions. They lag. Which means that they take awhile to react to good conditions as well. Once taken out of the bad conditions, they can continue to decline for awhile until they catch up to the conditions being better, and sometimes that decline kills them. 

In other words, don't expect it to immediately improve, even if the lower light is what it needs. It may take awhile. 

If it does appear to die, don't throw it out. Put it somewhere unobtrusive that gets a little light. LPS corals can sometimes regrow from what looks for all the world like a dead skeleton. Favias are pretty tough, this one should have a good chance, but it doesn't look good right now. 

Not all blasto's. I have blasto's on the sand under direct light that were quite happy yet my favia needed complete shade.

 

I have other blasto's that like low light and low flow.

 

Unfortunately from 1 coral to another even in the same family, the conditions they require are different.

 

I wouldn't move a coral that is happy and responding well to its placement. 

 

I would move the favia as it looks fried and it can be saved while there is still flesh on the skeleton.

 

Put it in a very low light, low to moderate flow area. When it starts looking better, feed it.

[DOJOLOACH]

7 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Not all blasto's. I have blasto's on the sand under direct light that were quite happy yet my favia needed complete shade.

 

I have other blasto's that like low light and low flow.

 

Unfortunately from 1 coral to another even in the same family, the conditions they require are different.

 

I wouldn't move a coral that is happy and responding well to its placement. 

 

I would move the favia as it looks fried and it can be saved while there is still flesh on the skeleton.

 

Put it in a very low light, low to moderate flow area. When it starts looking better, feed it.

Im starting to wonderif the coral frag on the right is a lepto. Does t look like a favia or blasto to me. Hard to tell though

[Clown79]

46 minutes ago, DOJOLOACH said:

Im starting to wonderif the coral frag on the right is a lepto. Does t look like a favia or blasto to me. Hard to tell though

I've recently been seeing a coral online here that looks like that,  labeled favia but without a close up, impossible to tell.