"Slow bleaching" of Dragon Soul torch? Advice needed, unknown issue

[cdw79]

Hi all,

I've had a dragon soul torch in my tank for about 2 months, no issues, it and all the other coral have been doing well.

I purchased an Indo Gold torch as a Christmas present for myself about a month ago, and the seller recommended light intensity on the higher side to keep the color vibrant. I run my Hydra 32's (two on my Reefer 300XL) at about 80 or so percent intensity, so I'd been increasing the intensity by about 5% every 10 days or so.

Over the past 2 weeks or so, I noticed my dragon soul torch starting to change color, taking on this lightish green-blue color (see pics below in blue and white lighting, not especially representative but I tried my best lol). I got anxious today when I took a closer look and saw this lightning seeming to progress down the tentacles from the tips, which screamed some sort of bleaching. The weird thing, though, is that it's progressed very slowly (whereas bleaching tends to be intense and quick for the most part, as I understand) and still technically seems to retain some color.

I reached out to the seller, a very reputable local reefer who seems on here too with great success, and he said he'd never seen this before. All my other coral, including newly introduced SPS, is as happy as ever, and both the Indo Gold at the same heigh on the other side of the tank, as well as a few hammer frags maybe 2 inches away from the dragon soul, look great.

I am going out of town tomorrow evening and will be gone until Monday, and I'm debating whether it makes sense to drop the torches to the sandbed or so to try and limit further damage if this is, in fact, some form of bleaching. I'm kind of at a loss, so any recommendations would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance

 

[Shirak]

Why not just put the lights back the way they were? I try to never mess with my lights. New corals go in a lower light area then I move them to where I think they will be happy. Everything else that is established and acclimated for a long time stays happy. Messing with the lights means everything in the tank has to reacclimate.

Tested nutrients lately?

 

[vetteguy53081]

It is no doubt the lighting which creates zooxanthellae for both color and growth. Reduce the white which may be too bright or restore previous light schedule.

 

[cdw79]

I didn't realized I left this out- I dropped the lighting levels back to where they were before about a week ago or so, hoping that will help. I tend to only run blues, the white pic was there to help show the color change

Calcium is currently 460, Alkalinity is 9.36, and MG is 1349. I'm fresh out of nitrate and phosphate kits and have some on order, but my levels have rarely fluctuated so I wasn't particularly worried about that, especially as the SPS are doing well

I'm ultimately just confused because the light intensity isn't even that high with standard Hydra 32's, and when I've seen bleaching in the past it's a pretty quick and distinct process. This has been very slow and doesn't seem like bleaching to me, though I could definitely be wrong. I'm just not quite sure what to do at this point, if anything

 

[cdw79]

Bump, if anyone had any thoughts!

 

[Dannyboy402]

I had the same issue with mine but it was because the PAR was too low. I have hydra 32HD's and I was registering 50 par midway up my tank. I bumped it up to about 150 PAR where my torch is and the color came back. Have you tested your par lately? Also you say that the nitrates and phosphates are pretty stable so what are they usually at?

 

[Lavey29]

Sounds like you are taking proper steps. I know they say torches from different regions are ok to touch but I've heard some instances where this did not work out. Do you have it touching other torches? I'm leaning more towards light or nutrients issue though.

 

[cdw79]

Interesting in your experience the par was too low. I've not actually ever been able to test my PAR, with Covid it's been hard to rent a par meter since I set my tank up, but I know the guy who kept them before me had them under T5's, LEDs, and others at high intensity, so that's added to my confusion as to why my Hydra's would somehow be too much for it, especially at the part of the tank it's at.

I haven't tested in awhile admittedly, but my nitrates have usually been between 5 and 10 (8 at lat check) and phosphate has been hovering around .1 (.08 at last check). I have had some green film algae on rocks for awhile but it doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary

It is touching another torch technically, though this is recent as I was moving some coral around (maybe a week or so). But it seems that ppl agree the coloring is not normal?

 

[cdw79]

Realized I never followed up with parameters:

Phosphate .06 (Hanna)
Nitrate ~8 ppm (Salifert, looked slightly less than the pink for 10 ppm)
Calcium 455 (Apex)
Magnesium 1320 (Apex)
Alkalinity 9.45 (Apex)
Temp approx 77-78 degrees (Apex)

I have since moved the torch to a spot that's essentially under a ledge. It doesn't seem to have gotten worse per se, but definitely not better either. I know the parameters above aren't technically perfect, but as far as I'm aware they're all in at least acceptable range. Still haven't been able to test PAR, annoyingly. Any ideas?

 

[Dannyboy402]

Your parameters look fine to me? Maybe try another test kit to confirm the apex results. Then after that i'd rent a par meter and check that as well.

 

[SVC_117]

Lower par, give it an amino bath three times a week, get a po4 and no3 test kit stat and if they're low dose nitrates and phosphates - if it worsens step in with antibiotics

 

[Elitecorals]

Lower par, give it an amino bath three times a week, get a po4 and no3 test kit stat and if they're low dose nitrates and phosphates - if it worsens step in with antibiotics

What antibiotics do you use?

 

[SVC_117]

What antibiotics do you use?

Cipro is the way to go - if you dont have access bc typically a prescription is required you can use two scoops of chemiclean or a pack or furan 2 per gallon in an external container

 

[Elitecorals]

Cipro is the way to go - if you dont have access bc typically a prescription is required you can use two scoops of chemiclean or a pack or furan 2 per gallon in an external container

Care to show how you treat torches with Cipro? dose in tank or dip?

 

[bruno3047]

You changed the lighting on a coral that was already established and comfortable. As you increase the lighting the coral will have to adjust it’s zooxanthellae to the higher lighting. Which means it will be expelling some brown colored zooxanthellae and replacing it with lighter, gold colored zooxanthellae That’s probably what’s happening. In my experience that’s what I would say. Of course, everything is conjecture at this point since none of us are marine biologists. At least I don’t think any of us are.