Bleached corals, can they recover?

[daer119]

Hey everyone, I recently got my first torch, which is one of my favorite corals that I have. The other night I noticed the tentacles receded and it expelled black poop from the center of it..... at least what at first research had led me to believe was poop! As you know it was expelling zooxanthellae, which if continued can lead to bleaching, that all correct? My questions are: should I lower my torch in my tank or just wait a few weeks and let it get used to its new home? what are the starting signs I should watch out for that it’s getting to much light and heading towards being bleached? Last question, if it does go so far as to become bleached can it recover its color and become healthy again? I have it positioned the same height as from the guy I bought It from, dumb me didn’t think we could have different settings and lights and all that. After it’s expelling the other night I haven’t seen it do it again, and it’s opened back up and sees to be happy.
thanks for any input and happy reefing!
I have an 25g Waterbox and AI prime which is on for about 9 hours at 45 uv 50 v 86ry 71b 15cw and on the rest of the time at 3b as a night light. Parameters pretty stable and are in range especially with calcium and alkalinity

 

[Dcloser12]

Yes partially bleached coral can and do recover. If it expells all its zooxanthellae its likely to starve and die. With a torch it could be to much or to little light. It could be stress. It could be flow. I have torches and hammers and they don't all like the same placement. Some higher some lower. You have to make minor adjustments and give the coral time to respond. Lower the lighting and watch it over a week. Take pictures and compare them to the one taken after a week and you'll see changes good or bad. Nothing happens over night and constantly changing things are the worst thing you can do at this point.

 

[vtecintegra]

I've bleached several from too much par. In my case, 75% did not recover.

 

[Spare time]

Corals can expel zooxanthellae without bleaching. Is it getting very white/translucent?

 

[vtecintegra]

Expelling zooxanthellae is the definition of bleaching. No zooxanthellae = no color.

 

[daer119]

Yes partially bleached coral can and do recover. If it expells all its zooxanthellae its likely to starve and die. With a torch it could be to much or to little light. It could be stress. It could be flow. I have torches and hammers and they don't all like the same placement. Some higher some lower. You have to make minor adjustments and give the coral time to respond. Lower the lighting and watch it over a week. Take pictures and compare them to the one taken after a week and you'll see changes good or bad. Nothing happens over night and constantly changing things are the worst thing you can do at this point.

Thanks for the response. Yea I’m trying not to over react and start moving things all over constantly, hard not to do. I’ll try to lower the light a little and see how that goes over the week.

 

[daer119]

Corals can expel zooxanthellae without bleaching. Is it getting very white/translucent?

It doesn’t appear to be getting white or translucent. Not yet anyway.

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

I had a completely bleached palythoa grandis and i just feed reef roids to it and it recover to full health.

 

[Uncle99]

Torches hate to be moved.
I’d just leave him and let him settle.

 

[daer119]

Torches hate to be moved.
I’d just leave him and let him settle.

Thanks for the info, are hammers similar in that regard? Because I got one and it just didn’t look happy and my dumb butt kept moving it thinking to myself “this time it’ll be happy” Pretty sure it’s still recovering, hopefully recovering, from my actions.