Bubble coral looks to be bleaching

[Hunter90 HD]

Hi everyone,

I seem to be having a problem with my bubble coral.

I have had the coral for around about 2 months and has been doing okay, however the last few weeks it has started to what appears to be bleaching.

i am getting full polp extension and is around mid in the tank.

I have recently removed all gravel from my tank and gone bottomless and I have updated my tank media by removing sponges and adding in a filter sock, the water turned very brown when I done this and I got a fair bit of skin on my skimmer - looked like the old filter / sponges and gravel was causing a nitrate factory! It has now all been cleaned up and I now have a bottomless tank and my mechanical filter is a sock so I can easily remove detritus and prevent it from clogging up my filters.

I did notice that this coral was expelling some brown mucus when I was changing this and appears to be expelling algae as it is under stress by me disturbing a dirty filter / gravel.

I have a torch coral and touch wood he’s okay.

I have moved the bubble coral to the bottom of the tank as I believe he was getting too much light and should be on the bottom of the tank, however after doing this I am getting less polyp extension.

my parameters are:

salinity : 1.025
Mg:1320
Cal:440
Kh: 9dkh
Nitrite : 0.2
Nitrate: 34-40
Oh: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.72
PO4: 0
temp: 24 centigrade

my nitrates is through the roof and I am sure that the high nitrates and too much light is causing this coral to bleach but I am note 100% sure as this is the first time this has happened.

I have started to dose NOPOx to reduce my nitrates and I have added nitro bac to the tank to boost the filters.

I change 15% water weekly and my alkalinity is stable and mg.

I would say I accidentally dosed Calcium this week and I was up to 490 for my calcium at the start of this week but has come down to 440 now.

can someone please offer me some advise as I am really concerned I do not want to loose this coral.

I think by disturbing all the detritus from my filters and gravel has upset my bubble as it was expelling which I believe is algae which gives the coral it’s pigmentation.

touch wood the coral is not loosing tissue just colour.

Please help guys is there anything else I can do to stop this happening and stop it happening in the future?

thanks in advanced everyone

 

[PeterB113]

Hi everyone,

I seem to be having a problem with my bubble coral.

I have had the coral for around about 2 months and has been doing okay, however the last few weeks it has started to what appears to be bleaching.

i am getting full polp extension and is around mid in the tank.

I have recently removed all gravel from my tank and gone bottomless and I have updated my tank media by removing sponges and adding in a filter sock, the water turned very brown when I done this and I got a fair bit of skin on my skimmer - looked like the old filter / sponges and gravel was causing a nitrate factory! It has now all been cleaned up and I now have a bottomless tank and my mechanical filter is a sock so I can easily remove detritus and prevent it from clogging up my filters.

I did notice that this coral was expelling some brown mucus when I was changing this and appears to be expelling algae as it is under stress by me disturbing a dirty filter / gravel.

I have a torch coral and touch wood he’s okay.

I have moved the bubble coral to the bottom of the tank as I believe he was getting too much light and should be on the bottom of the tank, however after doing this I am getting less polyp extension.

my parameters are:

salinity : 1.025
Mg:1320
Cal:440
Kh: 9dkh
Nitrite : 0.2
Nitrate: 34-40
Oh: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.72
PO4: 0
temp: 24 centigrade

my nitrates is through the roof and I am sure that the high nitrates and too much light is causing this coral to bleach but I am note 100% sure as this is the first time this has happened.

I have started to dose NOPOx to reduce my nitrates and I have added nitro bac to the tank to boost the filters.

I change 15% water weekly and my alkalinity is stable and mg.

I would say I accidentally dosed Calcium this week and I was up to 490 for my calcium at the start of this week but has come down to 440 now.

can someone please offer me some advise as I am really concerned I do not want to loose this coral.

I think by disturbing all the detritus from my filters and gravel has upset my bubble as it was expelling which I believe is algae which gives the coral it’s pigmentation.

touch wood the coral is not loosing tissue just colour.

Please help guys is there anything else I can do to stop this happening and stop it happening in the future?

thanks in advanced everyone

Can you post pics? And I think nitrates definitely are playing a role if they spiked what lights are you using?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Can you post pics? And I think nitrates definitely are playing a role if they spiked what lights are you using?will grab a picture later

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Yeah sure will post a picture later, i am using a fluval nano sea halo.
Yeah I believe they was at 10ppm before I disturbed the detritus…

I am debating whether to move it back to where it was mid tank as the polyps was not fully extended last night on the bottom might give it today to see what it’s like today.

 

[fishguy242]

hi, po4 bottomed out 0 ?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

hi, po4 bottomed out 0 ?

Yeah I thought was really strange… I tested using Salifert phosphate test kit

 

[fishguy242]

yes i would retest, and post a pic,i'll see in morning..

 

[Tcook]

When was last time you checked PO4? What size tank is this? How much "gravel" (sand?) did you remove? How long has this tank been running with the gravel?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

When was last time you checked PO4? What size tank is this? How much "gravel" (sand?) did you remove? How long has this tank been running with the gravel?

I checked it yesterday using the Salifert Phosphate test kit. I removed all the gravel from the tank so I now have a bare bottom tank. Been running with gravel for around 7 months now.

prior to this change I matured some new filter media - Brightwell Xport bio cubes which I left maturing for 4 weeks and used a bacteria booster after I changed the media - In theory as this has great surface area this would cover the removal of gravel and old sponges.

I started to dose NOPOx to aid in reducing nitrates I have a skimmer running 24/7

 

[Tcook]

I checked it yesterday using the Salifert Phosphate test kit. I removed all the gravel from the tank so I now have a bare bottom tank. Been running with gravel for around 7 months now.

prior to this change I matured some new filter media - Brightwell Xport bio cubes which I left maturing for 4 weeks and used a bacteria booster after I changed the media - In theory as this has great surface area this would cover the removal of gravel and old sponges.

I started to dose NOPOx to aid in reducing nitrates I have a skimmer running 24/7

What was the PO4 yesterday?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

What was the PO4 yesterday?

0 according to Salifert test kit, didn’t seem right with the nitrates being so high

 

[Tcook]

0 according to Salifert test kit, didn’t seem right with the nitrates being so high

How long has it been zero? Months?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

How long has it been zero? Months?

I’ve only just started testing for Phosphate should of tested before…

I was running around 10 for nitrates until I upgraded my filters and removed the gravel which literally turnt my water brown so much detritus which is now removed via protein skimmer / water changes.

I noticed when this happened the bubble coral was expelling what looked like algae which it never has done before, I am suspected by the water turning brown for a few hours this had bad effects on the coral stressing it out, and nitrates spiking.

I am thinking of moving it back from bottom to mid as it was very happy there fully extended, did not bleach it’s only since touching my filters it has done this…

would you recommend moving it back up or leaving it on the bottom? Only thing is it did not fully open its polpys yesterday when on the bottom

 

[fishguy242]

hi,i would leave on bottom,get us pics,as may not have fully opened due to moving ,retest po4..

 

[Tcook]

Agree. Leave alone at bottom. Stability of water is more important. Still not sure the bubble is bleached. Is this a green bubble that turned white? Need pictures. Though this is likely due to recent events, PO4 at zero is not good for your corals. I suspect it has been zero for some time now.

 

[Hunter90 HD]

hi,i would leave on bottom,get us pics,as may not have fully opened due to moving ,retest po4..

Agree. Leave alone at bottom. Stability of water is more important. Still not sure the bubble is bleached. Is this a green bubble that turned white? Need pictures. Though this is likely due to recent events, PO4 at zero is not good for your corals. I suspect it has been zero for some time now.

Hi guys so here is a picture of my purple bubble coral:

you can just make out the purple / white colour… extended more this afternoon.

will leave at the bottom thank you for the advice and I will retest my PO4 shortly.

 

[Tcook]

That bubble looks fine. Just reacted to recent insult. Keep parameters stable. Correct the zero PO4 issue.

 

[fishguy242]

Hi guys so here is a picture of my purple bubble coral:

you can just make out the purple / white colour… extended more this afternoon.

will leave at the bottom thank you for the advice and I will retest my PO4 shortly.

looks good ,if possible a pic after an hour of lights off ,would like to see that also...

That bubble looks fine. Just reacted to recent insult. Keep parameters stable. Correct the zero PO4 issue.

agree 100%...

 

[Hunter90 HD]

That bubble looks fine. Just reacted to recent insult. Keep parameters stable. Correct the zero PO4 issue.

Thanks Tcook - I have retested PO4 and i certainly have 0 PO4 - Will correct and rectify high Nitrates with NoPox and filter boosters - Will get some NitroBac.

Thanks for all your help guys, great community on Reef2Reef!

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Agree. Leave alone at bottom. Stability of water is more important. Still not sure the bubble is bleached. Is this a green bubble that turned white? Need pictures. Though this is likely due to recent events, PO4 at zero is not good for your corals. I suspect it has been zero for some time now.

looks good ,if possible a pic after an hour of lights off ,would like to see that also...

agree 100%...

I

That bubble looks fine. Just reacted to recent insult. Keep parameters stable. Correct the zero PO4 issue.

Just realized i use Sili-Out 2 (Amazon product) - I have had this as part of my Silicate remover solution when I had Diatoms a few months back but they have long gone - It also removes PO4 which i reckon is why my PO4 reading is 0! I will remove this media and monitor PO4 over the next few weeks.