Acro bleached within 48 hours. New to sps.

[ChronicRage]

Please help. I would like to know if I did something wrong to avoid anything like this happening in the future.
Like the title says, I'm new to SPS corals and also have been out of the game for about 10 + years.
Just finished cycling. Only a xenia and some inverts resided in my tank before the SPS purchase.
I have had a pulsing xenia in my tank for 12 days now. Still going strong and I think it's growing. 2 days ago I got 2 frags. A Monti plate and an Acro. Monti looks beautiful. I love it. I've always wanted one. Today is day 3 and the Acro frag is ghost white. Monti, which was purchased on the same day, same height placement within the tank is still looking great. Please help me find out where I went wrong.
Tank is a 5 gallon Fluval Spec V. Running floss, CPE, and Purigen. Orbit Marine Pro light. Have the blues at 70%, whites at 25%. 11 hour days, 30 min ramp/dim, 3 hours of moonlight.
As soon as I noticed a loss of color I dimmed my lights, thinking it may help but have read that could cause bleaching as well so I turned them back up to where I originally had them.



I drip acclimated them for 2 hours. I dipped the corals before placing them in the tank as well.

My screenshot will show my parameters the day of purchase (24th) and the test result I just finished gathering now.

Something to note: this frag was not bought from a frag tank. He broke a piece off from his DT to sell me. Could that have something to do with it? Too much stress?

 

[Brew12]

That is a big drop in alk for 3 days in a tank without a heavy coral load. I don't think that is your direct cause but it may indicate a problem elsewhere.

 

[ChronicRage]

That is a big drop in alk for 3 days in a tank without a heavy coral load. I don't think that is your direct cause but it may indicate a problem elsewhere.

I honestly think I messed that one up. My alk hasn't changed since i started testing the tank. I was in a rush but I will double check it tomorrow to be 100% sure.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Light acclimation is most likely the culprit. A five gallon tank can't be more than 12" deep. How high up is your light fixture?

 

[ChronicRage]

Light acclimation is most likely the culprit. A five gallon tank can't be more than 12" deep. How high up is your light fixture?

10 1/2" off the top of the sand bed. About 1 1/2" off the surface of the water

 

[Rick.45cal]

Bleaching event. Contrary to what we thought we knew 15 years ago. 0 Nitrate is bad. In a high light environment corals require NO3 to support photosynthesis. If none is available they risk the symbiotic algae using up all of the corals resources so they expell their symbionts in an attempt to save the colony. It's ok, turn down your lights, feed heavy and build up some detectable NO3 and PO4. Having both of those at undetectable levels is a recipe for disaster, especially being new to SPS. Think of Nitrates and Phosphates as insurance against an event like this (or even worse a PO4 starvation event).

Get yourself a low range Phosphate test kit, and test your nitrate and phosphate frequently until your tank stabilizes and has some of both available. Keep track of your alkalinity daily! Keep everything as stable as possible and the bleached corals will come back.

If you are really desperate you can dose potassium nitrate and it will help the corals recover.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Lights are too close for that intensity!

 

[Flippers4pups]

After dipping, place new corals on the sand bed and reduce your light intensity. On your tank, I would reduce your intensity from 70-25 to half that for a week. Then each week after only 5% increase. You may be too intense at 70-25 anyway and may need to run them lower to avoid bleaching.

 

[bhavy]

I would have to agree with the light being way to close ...

 

[Flippers4pups]

Bleaching event. Contrary to what we thought we knew 15 years ago. 0 Nitrate is bad. In a high light environment corals require NO3 to support photosynthesis. If none is available they risk the symbiotic algae using up all of the corals resources so they expell their symbionts in an attempt to save the colony. It's ok, turn down your lights, feed heavy and build up some detectable NO3 and PO4. Having both of those at undetectable levels is a recipe for disaster, especially being new to SPS. Think of Nitrates and Phosphates as insurance against an event like this (or even worse a PO4 starvation event).

Get yourself a low range Phosphate test kit, and test your nitrate and phosphate frequently until your tank stabilizes and has some of both available. Keep track of your alkalinity daily! Keep everything as stable as possible and the bleached corals will come back.

If you are really desperate you can dose potassium nitrate and it will help the corals recover.

All true. Good advice! Agreed about the fixture being too close to the tank. If possible, raise it a good five inches of the tank.

 

[wkscott]

You mentioned that your tank just finished cycling. How old is it? May be a little young for acropora. Montis are a little more forgiving.

 

[ChronicRage]

Bleaching event. Contrary to what we thought we knew 15 years ago. 0 Nitrate is bad. In a high light environment corals require NO3 to support photosynthesis. If none is available they risk the symbiotic algae using up all of the corals resources so they expell their symbionts in an attempt to save the colony. It's ok, turn down your lights, feed heavy and build up some detectable NO3 and PO4. Having both of those at undetectable levels is a recipe for disaster, especially being new to SPS. Think of Nitrates and Phosphates as insurance against an event like this (or even worse a PO4 starvation event).

Get yourself a low range Phosphate test kit, and test your nitrate and phosphate frequently until your tank stabilizes and has some of both available. Keep track of your alkalinity daily! Keep everything as stable as possible and the bleached corals will come back.

If you are really desperate you can dose potassium nitrate and it will help the corals recover.

I don't have a need to feed anything. Should I get a small gobie or something to help? I'll keep an eye on all of that and do as you suggested. Thank you.

 

[ChronicRage]

After dipping, place new corals on the sand bed and reduce your light intensity. On your tank, I would reduce your intensity from 70-25 to half that for a week. Then each week after only 5% increase. You may be too intense at 70-25 anyway and may need to run them lower to avoid bleaching.

I'll turn them down immediately. Thank you.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I'll turn them down immediately. Thank you.

All good. As rick.45cal stated, having a too clean tank will starve your corals. They need some nitrate and just a hint of phosphate.

Marine? Thank you for your service! Army here. Gulf war vet 88-92.

 

[ChronicRage]

All good. As rick.45cal stated, having a too clean tank will starve your corals. They need some nitrate and just a hint of phosphate.

Marine? Thank you for your service! Army here. Gulf war vet 88-92.

So should I get an invert or fish that'll create more waste?

Yes sir. OEF 08-13

 

[Rick.45cal]

You need to feed the tank regardless of whether there is a fish in there or not.

Corals and their symbiotic algae require 3 distinct types of foods. An available source of dissolved nitrogen. (NH3, NO3 etc) a source of dissolved phosphate (PO4) and a prey item. Remember, we are dealing with both photosynthetic zoxanthellae that require dissolved NO3 and PO4 (fertilizer) and a predator that requires an external source of carbon to be able to build and form actual new cellular structure.

So long story short you need NO3 and PO4, but you also need to feed the animal part of the coral food, especially if you want it to grow (which we all do).
The coral can survive without prey items for a long time, but it will only just exist and eventually starve. If you want it to grow and flourish you have to provide all 3 neccisarry food items for that to happen! This stuff is equally important to Alk and Ca dosing!

 

[Rick.45cal]

So should I get an invert or fish that'll create more waste?

Yes sir. OEF 08-13

Yes both! Every little bit helps!!!

 

[Flippers4pups]

So should I get an invert or fish that'll create more waste?

Yes sir. OEF 08-13

I would take your purigen off line and just do water changes every other week. Get some coral food and feed them once a week, then start watching your no3 and po4. 5-10ppm is okay for no3 and just a trace of po4. Small fish and hermits or shrimp are good.

 

[CodyRVA]

Typically takes more than a few days for low nutrients to cause a bleaching issue like that; but agreed you can't have a stripped system, you need a nutrient source as well. Your tank is absolutely way too young to house those type of corals IMO, there's simply no way it's stable enough to expect success. Your lighting was probably the immediate factor, if that didn't do it, your chemistry would have caused the same end shortly there after.

 

[ChronicRage]

Appreciate all the input and help, everyone. Thank you.