Bleaching Brain Coral
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: LPS
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions LPS corals.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=55816
Printed Date: November 11 2025 at 3:18am
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Topic: Bleaching Brain Coral
Posted By: SkylerS
Subject: Bleaching Brain Coral
Date Posted: April 17 2012 at 1:41pm
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Hey guys. I have a folded brain that has got me somewhat puzzled. I got it about 2 months ago and it was a beautiful vivid red and green. It has now bleached out to a light pink and the green is hardly visible. I feed it at least twice a week with a mixture of krill and mysis soaked in reef nutrition supplement. It takes it actively. My tank is 75 gallons with a 30 gallon sump. I recently upgraded to this tank, it was previously in 65 gallon tall, on the sand floor 36" below 36 3watt LED's. All my other coral are doing well, I have a clam growing under these LED's and anemone's, candy cane, frogspawn... Water parameters: SG 1.026 Ammonia:0 Nitrite:0 Nitrate: 5 ppm phosphate 1ppm calcium 500 Mag 1400ppm pH 8.2 I don't have an alk test kit at the moment but the stable pH and Calcium would indicate it is within desirable parameters. Nitrate and phos up a little bit from the move, (new sand bed new dry rock) but this coral started bleaching in the old tank with 0's across the board. It is now on the sand bed 20" below the led's. I'll try and post photos later. |
Replies:
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 17 2012 at 1:45pm
| On a side note a i have a maze brain 2' away that is doing very well, same light and flow requirements right.. so what to do? |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 17 2012 at 7:15pm
 This is the brain when I got it on January 30, 2012. And here it is today 4/17/201  |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 17 2012 at 7:51pm
| As you can tell the coral is inflated and the tissue is "healthy" minus the reduction in color. Any help guys? |
Posted By: kellerexpress
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 12:04am
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Do you ever spot feed? ------------- IM 30L Kessil A160we x2 |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 12:07am
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I had the same thing happen to one of mine, never figured it out. ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 12:19am
| 2-3 times a week krill and mysis. |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 12:25am
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bstuver wrote:Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 12:49am
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That one died:( I had another one that I had had for over a year that was just fine when this one did that. ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 4:29pm
| I found a really good article in a blog by Reef'd Up on the forum here. she has brought back many a coral from the dead and I'm going to implement her method. I'll keep this updated. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 5:26pm
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Hey! Sweet! Sorry I didn't get on here and post sooner. Your parameters look fine for that coral, and your feeding schedule looks good (keep it up since it's bleached.) It's extending tissue, which is a great sign. Zooxanthallae loss can be from multiple reasons (in fact, I was just reading not too long ago about the life cycle of zooxanthallae...and how some corals can lose practically all of it just b/c of that life cycle.) What's the feeding response of it like? How is the flow around it? Is that a bare spot in the sand to the right of it? If it is, the flow may be too high (especially since the side that's bleaching is the side near that bare spot.) What's your temp? ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 5:46pm
| Temperature is 77 degrees. And what do you mean by bare spot? All the tissue is intact. No tears or necrosis. The flow is enough to cause gentle swaying of the flesh but not actually fold it up. I'm gonna feed it twice a day with aquadine Marine pro dura flake. I'll post a pic in a week and see if there's any improvement. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 6:13pm
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I mean on the sandbed...looks like there's no sand behind the coral in the 2nd pic where there's a big black splotch (like the flow blew it away.) I haven't had much success with flake food and corals in trouble. Haven't tried that one though. ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 7:01pm
No, that black spot is actually a colony polyp rock. The photo was at an odd angle. And the duraflake isn't actually flake. It's like pelletized flake. I'll show you.   Does this look like it will help? Regular flake on the left, duraflake on the right. They sink like pellets and are hard. They soften quickly in the water. If you think I should switch to something else, I'm open to your suggestions. I'd hate to lose my brain. hehe |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 7:51pm
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Ahhhh, ok, I get it now! Thanks for the tank shot. Hm, that food is probably ok as long as the coral will take them. I'm not a big fan of that ingredient list (not very natural IMO), but it's probably fine. I find that if a coral is eating then nutritional value isn't terribly important. If a coral isn't eating, I try to find the best food that will stimulate a response. From looking at your tank shot, it looks like the bleached part is the part that is more in the shade. I hate telling people to move a coral to more light in an LED tank, but it looks like that might be part of the cause. Have you tried moving it to a higher light area? Zooxanthallae can leave a coral for any number of reasons, including too low of light. Have you had anyone test your PAR? I'd have that coral at about 150.
------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 7:53pm
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Actually, I don't think I'd feed gobs of that food to the coral. It has copper sulfate in it. In small doses it probably won't do anything bad, but I would try to limit how much that coral takes in. I'd go back to the mysis. ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:05pm
| I will try moving it up. It's weird, because they are listed as low/moderate light. But I have a nice flat spot at which it will get better light and be easier to feed. Mysis it is. It just gets a little tough because the shrimp in the tank don't seem to care too much about feeding the coral pellets but the second mysis and krill hit the water they are like rabid wolves. I actually never read the ingredients on the food until I took that picture for you and I noticed the copper sulfate and went "hmmm" haha No, i have not had PAR tested, i wouldn't even know where to find someone to do it... But i figure if they clam and the anemone are making it, there should be adequate light right? |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:08pm
| And the entire coral is bleached, it's just the parts that were green seem to have bleached the most, the red had hung in there very well, but no where near as vibrant as it used to be. At night it still fluoresces well. I'll get that pic up. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:10pm
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Eh, it's just a suggestion to move it up. It's hard to tell what's causing the problem...nothing else stands out to me. I'd move it up a little bit (not a ton), and wait a week or two. If the bleaching continues, it's not the light, so move it back. If the bleaching goes away, keep doing whatever you're doing. I'm sure someone in the club has a PAR meter...now getting it to you may be another issue. Is the coral as shadowed as it looks in the photo? Are the clam/anemone that shadowed too? How long have they been there? Sometimes those "meaty" type corals appreciate more light than people think (they inflate their tissues to spread the zooxanthallae out over more surface area). In higher light, they tend to inflate less. ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:20pm
| This tank is only about a week old, moved it over from a 1 year old 65. The clam has been in the tank for over half a year and has grown 2 new chutes in it's shell since then. The anemone has been there almost the whole year and has split 2 times since then. The clam and anemone are about 10" down from the LED's with no optics. Previously they were down about 20ish inches from the led's with 60' optics. The brain started on the sand floor 36" down from the leds with 60' optics and is now 20" down from the led's with no optics. The spot I'm thinking I could move it to would be about the same height as the clam and anemone (they live on the same rock) about 10-12 inches down. I would like to get my PAR tested, just need to know someone. |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:24pm
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Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:24pm
 Notice the small plug of digitata behind the clam? I use that as my natural PAR meter. If it starts to bleach out when at a given location then I know light is wanting. It used to be a good 4 inches long but a rock fell and shattered it and all the little pieces ended up behind stuff in my old tank and died. sad. It's coming back though. =) |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:29pm
So it started bleaching in the 36" position and continues bleaching in the 20" position? Has bleaching accelerated? Maybe it's actually too much light.  ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:33pm
| It's been slow and constant. I'm unsure if it's too much light or too little myself. I never fed it for the first couple months so maybe that was it. I'm experimenting with more light/less light but I haven't been consistent in position and feeding so I will leave it here and feed it daily and compare in a week. If no improvement I will move it up and try again. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:35pm
You've got me stumped.  ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:36pm
| And notice the maze/favite on the far right of the tank? It should have the same light requirement as the trachy and it's doing great... |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:40pm
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When I had LED it didn't matter if two things that required the same light were in the same position I had a frogspawn completely bleach and a hammer do just fine. I also had the two welsos basically right next to each other the one was amazing and the other did what you are experiencing. ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:44pm
Suggestions? |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: April 20 2012 at 10:55am
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I have found that, just like people, each coral has it's own likes and dislikes. Any description of care and best conditions is only a generality. Where did it come from? LFS or other hobbyist? If hobbyist, what was that tank like? How close is this tank to a window? to direct or indirect sunlight? What is the Alk? May we see a full tank pic of the previous tank? I'm wondering how clean the sand was in that tank. Are there any visible organisms in the sand? Worms, bugs, snails? Please describe. Has this tank ever been fed phytoplankton? Has this coral been spot fed relatively the same since it was first introduced? Was it regularly spot fed prior to coming into your care? ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 20 2012 at 1:10pm
Unfortunately mark, I have little information to provide you. The coral was purchased from an lfs 5 days after it came in. It was kept under metal halide at the lfs and generally speaking coral do better in my tank than the lfs at which I get them. A Duncan purchased at the same store same provider bought at the same time is already beginning to grow 2 new heads. Alkalinity in my tank is unknown, I'll try and get a test done this weekend and plan to buy a kit soon. Alk kits are expensive on their own! But based on all other coral health and growth it's likely safe to assume it is within desired parameters. When it came in to my old 65 the sand bed on which it was placed was old and established. About three years old. Full of bristle worms and thread worms, and nassarius vibex and Copepoda were plentiful. I washed the old sand was washed and set outside in a bucket with freshwater and I've noticed a large collection of some I identified transparent worms about 2 inches in length. I never noted and worms or parasites bothering this coral. It slowly declined in my 65, slow steady bleaching. This was 36" below my LEDs with 60' optics. It's been about 2 weeks now in the new system with an entirely new sand bed+1 quart of old sand. The sand I used was caribSea ocean direct live sand. The tank receives almost no sunlight. There is a blinded window to the parallel to the right of the tank and the brain is in the middle of the tank. The window was perpendicular to the left of the old tank and some indirect light made it's way to the tank, this was apparent by a large amount of green algae that grew on the right wall of the tank. The brain was position in the left 1/3 of this tank. In my old tank feeding was irregular and I never fed it until I noticed it began bleaching. As for phytoplankton I use MarineSnow. On Tuesday I'll post a comparison photo from last week to see if we have any improvement from the daily feeding. Thanks! Here's the old tank shortly before the addition of the brain. I placed it about 5" in front of the polyp rock left center back. |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 20 2012 at 1:23pm
 Here's the brain in the old tank about a month after adding it and I began to notice bleaching.  Notice the color on this favite/maze brain in the old tank.  Vs 2 weeks in the new tank. I would also like to note that about the time I got the brain I developed a bryopsis outbreak which I annihilated by raising my Mag to 1700ppm with kent tech M. I noted no immediate negative effects to any inhabitants minus the bryopsis and no long term effects. Relfecting on it, however, I wonder if the elevated mag may have sparked this. Only one out of likely infinite variables... |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 27 2012 at 1:13am
 Here's my the brain tonight immediately following a feeding. I moved it further in to the shade as I've been doing a lot of research and find that a lot of people have great success with their brains at about 50PAR. Though I don't have a PAR meter, I'm making a semi-educated guess that 50 PAR us relatively low. I've also read that red species of these brains are collected in deep water, which runs concurrent with the low PAR requirement. I'm starting to see the green coming back in the really bleached out section. It's starting to fluoresce again under actinic. Daily feedings and less light seem to be doing the trick. Crazy how it seems that coral need light light light, and this one was saying NNNOOOOOO!!! It's too much. If i'm crazy and it looks worse than it did last week, let me know. Thanks! |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: April 27 2012 at 1:55pm
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Seems to be much more inflated and happy. Glad to see it looking up:) ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: April 27 2012 at 2:38pm
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The four most important parameters a hobbyist should know about their tank are Temp, Salinity, Alk, and Ca. You wouldn't try to save money by using less salt would you? So why choose to skimp and not buy Alkalinity and Calcium test kits? When you turn your back on it, low alkalinity will bite you in the butt.  I love CaribSea sand and I personally know the owner. An entire bag of AragAlive sand has less bacteria in it than 2 cups of your old LS. LS is much, much better because it not only has the bacteria but the live worms and bugs too. All the worms and bugs in the old sand were a great benefit to the tank, but it helps to have a storm come around every once in a while to stir and refresh the sand. Coral and all kinds of invertebrates love the live detritus that gets stirred up into the water for them to eat. The worms and bugs that grow in the sand are part of the biofiltration. Without that our tanks are like new and cannot support much of the life we would like to see. Please read what I wrote today in this thread: http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56037" rel="nofollow - http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56037 Phytoplankton is algae plankton. I guess that Marine snow could be considered plankton but because it's not alive it's technically not zooplankton or phytoplankton. Algae Paste is the best and most economical way to feed phyto to the entire tank. Phyto is the bottom of the food chain. It supports everything on the chain above it. A great place to get phytoplankton in Utah is http://brineshrimpdirect.com" rel="nofollow - http://brineshrimpdirect.com  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 27 2012 at 7:22pm
| I replaced the old sand, with a quart of the old sand added, based upon your recommendation when switching the tank over. I know how important alkalinity is, I had a test, it ran out a month or so ago and I just haven't replaced it. It's hard to justify to the wife $30 for the alkalinity test kit, she doesn't understand the importance of such things. haha. I'm buying an alkalinity kit on May 7. A little odd time I know, but that's the day. I don't anticipate anything amiss in alkalinity, but who knows. And as for phyto, I thought brain's were zooplanktivores. But I suppose adding some phyto to the tank here and there won't do any harm. I'll do another update in a week. |
Posted By: SkylerS
Date Posted: April 27 2012 at 7:29pm
| Do you guys think I should change from feeding Sally's Frozen Plankton to either Silversides or Krill? In respect to feeding coral and anemone's alone. Krill is too large from any of my fish to eat, but plenty of my coral and anemone eat up the krill in the plankton pretty well. The krill and silversides have protein and fat content at least twice as high as the plankton. |