Corals Bleaching from base?

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acallen

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 2, 2011
Messages
7
:fish2:I have a saltwater tank that I bought off of a friend of mine who propagated the coral himself. I've had it for about a year now, with no problems. No changes in chemistries or temperatures, coral healthy, and fish happy. I am starting to see however, the coral is bleaching at the base. What could be causing this? Again, no changes in temp, chems, etc.

1. Type & how long you have had it: Saltwater Reef, 1 year
2. Current lighting & Bulb Age: New
3. Nitrate: 0
4. Calcium: 350
5. Phosphate:
6. Alkalinity:
7. pH: 8
8. Salinity:
9. Temperature: 80
 
Sorry I didn't ask what size tank? that doesn't seem like enough light to bleach out corals unless the tank is small and/or the corals are placed too high up.

How many corals and what kind are they? Do you have a picture of your tank?

:-D
 
Corals in question are:

Green birdsnest
Green Acropora
Montipora Digitata
Orang Digitata

They are spaced throughout the tank, in different areas, so I dont think it is a water-flow issue. My tank is a 65-gal saltwater (RedSea).

I can definitely take a photo...
 
Ahhh SPS corals. I see what you mean now. I have a bushy arcopora that happened to. It turned white coming from the base up to the tip. Eventually the entire tip died. :-( It's still on my coral now, and the rest of it is fine. This happened to mine a few months ago. I was glad it didn't spread to the other arms...
 
All i can attain is its a bacterial thing... vibrio, maybe?
 
My lighting should be adequate, right?
234 total watts in a 65 gallon tank.
 
Yeah I can't see why it isn't enough light, they've been fine for over a year, up until now.
 
4. Calcium: 350
5. Phosphate:
6. Alkalinity:
7. pH: 8
8. Salinity:

I'm not sure if this is related to your problem or not, but calcium and pH could be higher (e.g., calcium 400-450ppm, pH 8.2-8.4). What's are your alkalinity, phospahate and salinity levels?
 
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