Corals Bleaching ?'s

[jgraz]

Im having a hard time telling if I am seeing a bleaching of the coral. I have seen some favorable changes such as a montipora ture undata changing from all brown to a green body with a purple rim and ridges, and some green slimer frags go from browned with no extension to bright green with some extension. because of the above changes im not sure if these two corals are going through the same thing.

1st is claimed to be a purple bonsia purchased from AO. when I got it it seemed mostly browned with yellowish polyps now it appears to be pale purpleish especially at the encrusted base.

2nd is an unknown acro that when purchased was mostly brown with white polyps now the upper side facing light appears to be much paler and the underside is still brown.

The lighting is a Apollo LED fixture. 55 leds running at 2 watts each for a total of 110 watts. 40 blue/15 white(20K), light is approx. 1.5' off the water and blues run from 9a-9p and white are on from 11a-8p with 4 30min periods during that streach with no whites on.
Tank is a 20g High. All coral is placed about midway up in the tank. Also would like to add that I also have many other corals both SPS and LPS in the same areas with no decernable changes in color. Only these four. Thanks in advance for everything
John

 

[TanksNStuff]

John, it's possible that it could be bleaching. I know that's a powerful LED since I've been researching them. Can you try lowering the frags for a week or so to see if that helps any? If you can't lower the frag, maybe try raising the fixture a few inches?

I know a lot of corals will start showing "white" colored tips when they are growing. Could this be what you have or is the entire frag fading? It's hard to tell from the pics.

 

[jgraz]

I got everything as high or low as it can be at this time. As for the fading its hard to tell, in the case of the bonsia it has turned from a brown or a dark tan color to what you see. The other acro has somwhat faded evenly on the light facing side but the tips do seem to be a slightly different color.
As I said these are the only two that I cant figure out. The other corals in the tank are all doing well. I have chalices at the same level as those acros that look awesome. And all the monti's I have, have undergone there proper changes or have even gotten more intense. These two were reitivly cheap frags so I may just stick it out and see what happens.
As I stated in another thread I intend to put this light above a 20H nano, so Im hoping its good. we'll see

 

[NikkiT]

Can you post larger photos? I can't see the corals clearly enough.
My purple bonsai is from AO, it is currently about 6" from the bottom of our 57g, we have it under LEDs from AI. This coral does best for us under high light. It is straight down from our LED fixture, flooded with light.
Mike tells me (he is sitting next to me) that this coral gets more purple under high light.
If you think it could be bleaching, you could put it in a more shaded spot in your tank. How long have you had the frag for? What did you do to acclimate it to yor light? Purple bonsai can brown out if it doesn't have enough light.

 

[jgraz]

At your request, bigger pics. These pics were taken about 2 weeks apart. Sorry but my skills are lacking in the picture taking department.
Purple bonsia

2 weeks later

Unk acro

2 weeks later

They are both about 4" up in a 20G high. When they were purchased they were completely brown so much so that they were not even sure it was in fact a purple bonsia. All of my frags went into this tank at the same time. During acclimation I had the blues on from 9a-9p, and the whites on 1 hr then off 1 hr over a 8 hr period. I increased the whites on by 30min, every 3-4 days. even now the whites are not on for a full 8hrs yet. I unfortunatly have the light as high as it can go as the tank sits on to of an entertainment center and the light is hanging from a relativly low ceiling in my basement.
I also have several chalice frags that have undergone the same conditions and look great and they are only 3-4' lower in the tank. This pic is of my undata which was also kept under the same conditions and incredible change. This is in the same location as the above frags. Before being place in this tank it was completly brown like, well you know. Now This.

I hope this all helps. I am personally not sure because before I got this light all my coral was kept in my DT where my t5's were under powered. for that tank. So I never had to deal with bleaching and therefore not really sure what to look for. Anyway thanks again
John