clam turning white

[weemanpow3]

My clam is loosing its color and turning white. I have had this same clam for over 4 years and it has never turned white before. My second clam has turned white only once a couple years ago then returned its color, but now its starting to discolor also. I was on vacation for 4 days and my tank was feed by my brother. All my corals were looking discolored when I got back but they seam like they are slowly recovering. Can the heat be doing this to the tank or is it something else? I usually leave the air conditioner on when it gets hot, but it wasn't on when I was on vacation. Thanks

Normally both clams have a much brighter color and full expansion.

Note: Clam #1 looks way whiter if you were looking at my tank than the picture.

Clam #1

Clam #2

 

[Jimbo7]

I would guess the temp swings had something to do with it. How old are your bulbs and were they on a timer while you were gone?

 

[weemanpow3]

The bulb im using is 250 watt 14k HQI. Its a little over 1.5 years old. I don't know how long they last, but I have a 3 month used extra one as a backup. And yes, always been on a timer. Lights on at 10:30am, off at 9:30pm. Im leaning more towards the high temperature swing while I was on vacation. All my pulsing xenia died when I got back.Im not worried about the xenia because it was cheap and grew way to fast. My clams on the other hand are too expensive to loose.

 

[Kristall-99]

Well if its anything like a mogul based bulb, then that needs a change soon. The longest mogul bulb ive seen to keep its color output in our range is 9 or so months. but i wouldnt consider it to make that big of a problem that fast in such a short time period

 

[weemanpow3]

Well if its anything like a mogul based bulb, then that needs a change soon.

Its not a mogul bulb. Im using the double ended HQI bulb and I think its either a Hamilton or Coralife brand.

 

[Jimbo7]

Change the bulb and do a big water change. When xenia dies it leaves the water really polluted and nasty.

MH bulbs should be replaced every year at minimum. Probably 8 months since you are running them more then 10 hours a day.

 

[cmor1701d]

+1 for the 1 year on the DE MH bulbs. But, I beleive the problem is the heat. I had the same issue when I was out of the country for a month and had a friiend stoppin gin once every 3 days to check and feed the tank.

Tank temp got into the upper 80's. Lost all my sps to bleaching, the clam was faded like yours, but made a complete comeback.

 

[Jimbo7]

Also, if its a coralife or hamilton bulb, I wouldn't get those again. They are pretty low quality as far as MH bulbs go. Ushio, Icecap, and Radiums are what I most often see.