Please help I have bleached 2k worth of corals following the direction of my LFS

[Cubbymayne]

Hello please help I have wasted 2k on coral on my 60” long 18” wide 24” high 110 gallon tank listening to my Local fish store. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong everything except my leather bleached white. I have 2 vipar spectra 165 12”above my tank and both are placed with the center of the light a third in on my tank. I thought it was my .24 salinity but the other day after raising my salinity to .26 I put a couple of more frags in and one bleached within a hour and the others were colorless the next day when I turned on my lights. They told me to run my lights for 9-11 hours at 100% blue and 1% white but my lights only move in increments of 10% at a time so he told me to just use 100% blue and no white. I don’t wanna give up on coral after taking the loss but I don’t no what to do here if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it as I’m brand new to coral. Also what am I supposed to be monitoring other than nitrate nitrite and ammonia? Do I need to add any supplements other than my prime and beneficial bacteria? If anyone has any links to any testers or supplements I need I would appreciate it. Also the corals I have that are bleached are those goners or can I nurse them back to life? A few of the frags have a tiny bit of color if there’s anything I can do to nurse them please let me know. I’ll attach a few pics

 

[Cubbymayne]

 

[Cubbymayne]

 

[Cubbymayne]

 

[Cubbymayne]

 

[Cubbymayne]

This is what 100% blue and 10% white look like idk why there is a red and green light on but after running the 10% white on for a hour my fish started acting wierd and hiding I feel like the light is way to strong with the white on idk if I’m overreacting or what.

 

[BVF]

How long has the tank been running? Takes a few months for parameters to stabilize enough to support some coral, particularly SPS. Do you know your tank’s Kh, Ca, Mg, No3, Po4 Levels?

 

[Uncle99]

Hello please help I have wasted 2k on coral on my 60” long 18” wide 24” high 110 gallon tank listening to my Local fish store. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong everything except my leather bleached white. I have 2 vipar spectra 165 12”above my tank and both are placed with the center of the light a third in on my tank. I thought it was my .24 salinity but the other day after raising my salinity to .26 I put a couple of more frags in and one bleached within a hour and the others were colorless the next day when I turned on my lights. They told me to run my lights for 9-11 hours at 100% blue and 1% white but my lights only move in increments of 10% at a time so he told me to just use 100% blue and no white. I don’t wanna give up on coral after taking the loss but I don’t no what to do here if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it as I’m brand new to coral. Also what am I supposed to be monitoring other than nitrate nitrite and ammonia? Do I need to add any supplements other than my prime and beneficial bacteria? If anyone has any links to any testers or supplements I need I would appreciate it. Also the corals I have that are bleached are those goners or can I nurse them back to life? A few of the frags have a tiny bit of color if there’s anything I can do to nurse them please let me know. I’ll attach a few pics

There are a couple of upfront things to look at.
I use 3- Viparspectra 165W 12” over a 180g, and have not pushed them beyond 50% in two years now. A PAR measure of this light at 30% (blue only) resulted in top PAR of 300-350, middle 175-200, bottom at 24” at 80-125.
At 100% blue, your talking 600 PAR, way too much.
Try 30%-50% blues, and 1-10% white (depending only on what looks good to you) and never touch again.
Super powerful light those Visparspectra.

Secondly, can you speak to the amount of time, that your parameters have remained solid and unchanging?

 

[mrpontiac80]

I’m no expert either but am starting my 3rd year, however…. Without knowing details, my guess is that the tank may be too new, parameters are unknown, and the LFS may have been in the wrong to sell you that much money’s worth of new livestock for a beginner.

you will need to use good test kits. Hannah is awesome because you do not have to look at colors to determine the value. It shows the numbers on a screen. I also use RedSea tests. A lot of people like Salifert.
corals are divided into basic groups.
- Softies are often the easiest to grow because they are less demanding of quality water. These are Gsp, zoas, leathers and etc.
- lps is next and needs better water and light care
-sps. Are much more difficult for most because if you look at the tank wrong you can loose some such acros. Seriously some are very intolerant of change.

Lights are possibly too strong. Do you have good flow? Tell us more details about your tank and I’m sure everyone can help

 

[death-by-reef]

that rly stinks!! need parameters, could be to high light

 

[ckuhny3]

I’m no expert but bleaching most likely means the lights are too much? Shame on your LFS for selling you so much money worth of coral when you still have much to learn my friend. A simple $10 frag would have been all you needed to feel the excitement of adding coral and now instead they have burned a bridge and possibly ruined the hobby for someone. I hope you can get them back to health. Turn the lights down. Make sure there’s good flow. And test for ALK ,CALCIUM ,MAG, NITRATES AND PHOSPHATES . Hanna checkers are all I use .

 

[Troylee]

Lights are way to high powered to start.. turn them down to 30% and slowly bring them up to higher intensities… as for testing you need to test “calcium, alkalinity, mag, phosphates, and nitrates” and keep them as stable as possible before throwing corals in there.

 

[billyocean]

Lights are on waaaay too strong. 100% blues is too much for 9-11 hours. The whites on vipars are way overkill (wish they would fix it). On a 125 @ 14" above the water I run blues only at 76% and its 375 at the top of my rock and 180 at the sand...which is 34" down from the light. I only run 1% white for about an hour during the day. I know the new vipars only adjust in 10% Increments which sucks..but kick those down to 50% as mentioned above. Grab some salifert test kits if hanna is too much cost right now. Steady alk, mag, calcium is the starting block. Then you need to monitor phosphate and nitrate and make sure they dont bottom out. For now start with knowing your parameters and lowering the light intensity.

Edit...at least down to 50%..you can always gradually go up.

 

[mrpontiac80]

And don’t misunderstand that a bleached coral is not a dead coral.
whennthey bleach, they are stressed and expelling the organisms that give them color. A bleached coral can recover. But it takes much longer to recover than it did to bleach

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Lights are way to high powered to start.. turn them down to 30% and slowly bring them up to higher intensities… as for testing you need to test “calcium, alkalinity, mag, phosphates, and nitrates” and keep them as stable as possible before throwing corals in there.

Just to add to this - the only other things you should probably know are your salinity and water temperature. With that said, here’s a couple of tables that show the recommended range for each parameter - basically just get your numbers in that range and keep them as steady as possible:

Table 1. Parameters critical to control in reef aquaria.

Table 2. Other parameters in reef aquaria that aquarists may want to control.

 

[Willhersh34]

As others have said………turn those lights down. 30% - 50% blue and 10% white. The white keep low but adjust to your visual preference. Also testing and getting a solid read on your parameters. I’m a tech guy so I use an app to track my parameters. Graphs things out so I can see things over time and monitor stability. Stable params and lower light and you can likely save some of the corals but it will take time so be patient. Bleaching is generally due to too intense light. Low light will stunt growth but is far less impactful than burning the corals up.

 

[Tamberav]

You said you are using prime. Are you also using tap water?

 

[Tamberav]

By the way guys.. I know he said bleached but most new hobbiest don’t know the difference between bleached and dead. The pics are very blue but it looks like some of those corals are just skeleton and have algae on them.

I agree that light is too high, also sounds like maybe tap water? And I don’t see any tests posted so not sure they own test kits.

I also would be curious as what is being used to test salinity and if it has been calibrated? Like a cheap refractometer should be calibrated frequently and such.

Potentially multiple problems going on here.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Corals dont just fall down in an hour as it is related to water obviously but some questions I have and also pics need under white lighting as Blue does not show much.
What is age of tank ?
Are you acclimating the corals to the tank and How and for how long ?
Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet?
What test kits are you using ?

Large swings in key readings like salinity, phosphate, alkalinity and pH are likely way off.

 

[anthonygf]

Hello, so sorry for your loss. All the mentions on your lighting is right on. I also had a Vipar 300 over my 46 gallon bowfront for a year or two and never went over 50%, powerful lights. I would like to know the LFS that you went to. Do you live in Nevada or New Mexico? I can help you with water testing today or tomorrow if you like and show you all the testing I do. I have been reefing for 7 years now and had fresh for over 40, I am still learning.

Send me a personal message if you would like my help. We need all your stats here for others to help you, like age of tank, type of water testing you are doing. I don't have too much faith in LFS anymore, I also have been burned by some but not any LFS's in Las Vegas. Most of them here are great, the only problem one was Petco and that is another story.