Help! My Purple Stag is bleaching on one side.

[Brad Wilkins]

Yesterday i was dealing with a suspect single Aiptasia growing on the bottom of my green Monti and i noticed my Stag had started bleaching on one side. I check my corals every day so it would have happened in no more than 6 to 12 hrs. My parameters are all in the acceptable range and all other sps are looking really good.
No3 16.8ppm
Po4 0.11ppm
Mag 1580ppm
Cal 422ppm
Alk 8.5 dkh
Ph 8.3
My stag has been in direct flow from my 40w UV for the last 5 months and has been looking good.
Due to the coral being under a glass brace so Lighting is around 210 par at peak but lower on the underside of the coral where the bleaching is. This may be a coincidence du to it is all so being were the flow front is hitting. The shaded side of the rest of the stag is still looking good.

The only other anomaly is that the Temp rose from 25.3°c in the morning to 27.5°c late arvo over 8 hrs for the first time this year but that all seams within the range of acceptance for SPS .

Could the water from the UV be heated up more than the 27.5°c? and not being dispersed fast enough du to the 10 second lull in the flow of my Gyer's ?

 

[fishguy242]

Dip it, hopefully nothing comes off, looks like RTN, Alk ? but not a factor here.

 

[bobnicaragua]

That’s pretty wide spread. I won’t speculate on the cause, but I doubt you’ll be able to save that acro.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

Dip it, hopefully nothing comes off, looks like RTN, Alk ? but not a factor here.

Sorry forgot that one Alk is at 8.5 dkh

 

[fishguy242]

if nothing come of in dip, frag it , cut into healthy tissue only

 

[Brad Wilkins]

if nothing come of in dip, frag it , cut into healthy tissue only

Yep just did that! I suspect it was du to the light level as when i pulled it out it was evident that all the shaded parts of the coral were light in colour while all the exposed parts were great. I cut three frags with good all round tissue and colour and moved the remainder to better lit area. They have all gone from 210par to 235/260par. Pity, it looked good as a bigger colony but fingers crossed it will recover.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

I guess when dealing with larger colones and placing them into your tank conditions, if the light requirements in regards to orientation is not exact you are asking for trouble. A smaller frag has time to grow twist and turn to the light so that nearly every part of the coral has adequate lighting. In my case my stag under the brace had just enough light for an hour a day ( ramp up time to 210par) to the exposed areas to keep it going for as long as it did, but the shaded parts didn't have a chance from the start and have now declined over 5 months to the point of death. I note as well it never extended its polyps like all the other coral did.
Well thats my conclusion. I have another SPS under my other brace but unlike the Stag it is powering away. I note that that one is shorter and more compact than the Stag, so the branches are not shading itself like the stag was.

 

[Dburr1014]

IME, shading does have a loss of color effect but not like your experiencing.

I would suspect that type of loss as a complete blockage of light to that area.

Or something completly else as in direct flow from a powerhead.

I do hope it recovers for you.

How are you measuring par?

 

[Brad Wilkins]

IME, shading does have a loss of color effect but not like your experiencing.

I would suspect that type of loss as a complete blockage of light to that area.

Or something completly else as in direct flow from a powerhead.

I do hope it recovers for you.

How are you measuring par?

PAR is measured by my PARwise ITC. When i pulled the Stag out all the shaded areas were lighter in colour and it was those areas that had bleached. The areas that had exposure to light had full colour and unaffected.

 

[bobnicaragua]

I guess when dealing with larger colones and placing them into your tank conditions, if the light requirements in regards to orientation is not exact you are asking for trouble. A smaller frag has time to grow twist and turn to the light so that nearly every part of the coral has adequate lighting. In my case my stag under the brace had just enough light for an hour a day ( ramp up time to 210par) to the exposed areas to keep it going for as long as it did, but the shaded parts didn't have a chance from the start and have now declined over 5 months to the point of death. I note as well it never extended its polyps like all the other coral did.
Well thats my conclusion. I have another SPS under my other brace but unlike the Stag it is powering away. I note that that one is shorter and more compact than the Stag, so the branches are not shading itself like the stag was.

Sorry about your acro, losing them can be pretty disheartening.

This sounds like a coverage issue. That acro wasn’t big enough to shade itself.

I’ve got 2 braces and no shadowing underneath them because my canopy is stuffed with lights.

 

[Dburr1014]

PAR is measured by my PARwise ITC. When i pulled the Stag out all the shaded areas were lighter in colour and it was those areas that had bleached. The areas that had exposure to light had full colour and unaffected.

Note: multiply your readings by 1.26
This would be closer to actual par.


Thread 'PARwise vs Hopocolor vs Apogee' https://humble.fish/community/threads/parwise-vs-hopocolor-vs-apogee.15947/

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yesterday i was dealing with a suspect single Aiptasia growing on the bottom of my green Monti and i noticed my Stag had started bleaching on one side. I check my corals every day so it would have happened in no more than 6 to 12 hrs. My parameters are all in the acceptable range and all other sps are looking really good.
No3 16.8ppm
Po4 0.11ppm
Mag 1580ppm
Cal 422ppm
Alk 8.5 dkh
Ph 8.3
My stag has been in direct flow from my 40w UV for the last 5 months and has been looking good.
Due to the coral being under a glass brace so Lighting is around 210 par at peak but lower on the underside of the coral where the bleaching is. This may be a coincidence du to it is all so being were the flow front is hitting. The shaded side of the rest of the stag is still looking good.

The only other anomaly is that the Temp rose from 25.3°c in the morning to 27.5°c late arvo over 8 hrs for the first time this year but that all seams within the range of acceptance for SPS .

Could the water from the UV be heated up more than the 27.5°c? and not being dispersed fast enough du to the 10 second lull in the flow of my Gyer's ?

Common with this type of coral where light and even flow is blocked or hidden from section of coral. Other would be need for trace elements and declining calcium

 

[Brad Wilkins]

Common with this type of coral where light and even flow is blocked or hidden from section of coral. Other would be need for trace elements and declining calcium

No problems with flow, calcium and trace. Did some reading on Stags last night and your right, light can can be a problem for them. Sometimes when you test light levels that peak for a couple of hours at the minimal required level for Stags , means some of that coral is getting un acceptable levels. I should count myself lucky, 5 month in first time reefer and i've only had hassle with 1 out of 9 SPS. The rest are looking Fab and i'm sure the stag frags will recover in their new position.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

Think i've found the source of the die back. I noticed that when i moved my Stag the Millepora behind it started to loos polyps and tissue and was starting to go down the same track as the Stag in the same place. I remember about a month earlier adjusting flow direction of my UV steriliser as it was pulling air from the surface and making a slurping noise. The flow out of the UV was 5602.41L/hr 1480gallons/hr and directed at the stag situated around 25cm/ 9.84inches away. Since i've moved the Stag there has been no further decline but the Millepora is now in that target and loosing tissue in places directly impacted by the flow area so i've readjusted the direction and will see if i can re establish polyp extension on my millie.