What a difference 2 months makes (Bleached Coral Recovery Pics)

[RMc]

This seriatopora bleached due to zero nitrate, high light, and high alkilinity. I lowered the alkilinity to 8 (from 12), increased the nitrates to 5-10ppm (for the last 4 weeks), and moved it lower in the tank. What a difference. The first pic is about 2 months ago, butnt I made the chemistry / placeme changes about 1 month ago.

2 months ago:

Last week:

 

[Coalminer]

Looks beautiful. How do you balance keeping nitrates high enough to keep your SPS happy without starting an algae bloom?

 

[RMc]

Hi Coal, I keep my phosphates very low through vinegar dosing. To drop phosphates I actually dose nitrates. This prevents the consumption of phosphates by the bacteria from being nitrate limited. I like this approach a lot more than GFO as I've always had GFO negatively impact my coral...I've tried different types, different amounts, but I'm done with that stuff. I do have a little algae, but no more than when I was at 0/0...it's just a lot greener now.

(Also, I run a relatively short photo-period of 8 hours. Longer photo periods run a higher risk of algae growth as coral photosynthesis likely tops out between 5-8 hours while algae can be turned on around the clock)

Once the ratio is in check I keep the nitrates elevated through the addition of amino acids and home made coral food: recipe here - http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums...home-brew-coral-food-10-frozen-bag&highlight=

Right now I'm dosing 15ml of white vinegar daily (30 gal display) in addition to the carbon source bound up in the amino acids. For food I'm feeding one frozen cube of mysis or brine and about 1/2 a frozen cube of the home brew daily.

Here's a shot from 3 weeks ago when the color started coming back:

 

[this is me]

Glad to see you correctly diagnosed the issue and corrected it promptly to save this piece. Often, they RTN way too quickly for the tank keeper to do anything.
I melted away 3 good size colony within a couple days.
-Green Pocilopora
-Rainbow birdsnest
-Ponepe birdsnest(was able to save a small frag and it's growing again)

I have no idea what the issue was. The only similar species that wasn't affected is a bird of paradise.

 

[Chlorinated]

Awesome recovery. Took me over a year to get the color back in my wellso afer bleaching it with my LED's.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[ironwood]

This seriatopora bleached due to zero nitrate, high light, and high alkilinity. I lowered the alkilinity to 8 (from 12), increased the nitrates to 5-10ppm (for the last 4 weeks), and moved it lower in the tank. What a difference. The first pic is about 2 months ago, butnt I made the chemistry / placeme changes about 1 month ago.

2 months ago:

Last week:

Good Job! What are you using for lights? You mention that your photo period is 8 hours. Does that mean that they are totally off or ramping down?

 

[RMc]

I'm using a modified Arctic t247. Have a thread about it in diy if interested. Total period is 8 hrs - actinic 8 hrs, whites 5hrs, vero 18 high noon 3 hrs. The tank also gets a bit of light in the morning outside of the photoperiod unfortunately.

 

[G.T]

Awesome recovery. Took me over a year to get the color back in my wellso afer bleaching it with my LED's.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Awesome recovery, with your corals.

Without going off topic. What happened with your corals bleaching? LED to High? photo period to long?

 

[RMc]

Hi G.T. I believe it was a combination of high light, bottomed out nutrients (0 nitrate / 0 phosphate), and high alkilinity. I've since learned that high alk in very low nutrient tanks can be bad. I've also learned that 0 nitrate can be bad. Since the coral have begun to recover I have actually increased the light level in my tank. That said, in low nutrient environments coral seem to be more sensitive to high light levels.