So basically, bleached corals have lost their zooxanthellae, which are the little bits that give the coral it’s color which is why bleached corals are white/pale/translucent. The reason corals have zooxanthillae is because it allows them to perform photosynthesis to make food for themselves from light. Since bleached corals don’t have zooxanthellae anymore, they can’t do photosynthesis anymore, so they can’t make food for themselves anymore. This means that a bleached coral will starve to death unless it is fed by you. If fed correctly and for long enough, the zooxanthellae will make a come back and the coral will regain its original color. Please make sure that before beginning a feeding regime, the lighting is not too intense (I usually move mine to the floor) because that is the most common reason corals bleach in the first place
Reefroids seem to boost my bleached hammers (I buy them that way sometimes cause I get a better price) also if you feed frozen food, throwing a little their way also helps.
The best thing you can do is feed the tank heavy once or twice a day and do reefroids 2-3x a week. Please bump up your cuc before feeding heavy or your algae problem will be enormous. I feed heavy every day and I have 15 hermits, a fire shrimp, 10 snails, and well over a few dozen stomatella snails that came in as hitchhikers and have been very successful at reproduction. Keep in mind that I am only running a 20 gallon tank so this is a very high number of cuc members. Feed the tank about double what your fish can actually eat so the corals get some nutrition in the water.
Reefroids should be target fed, preferably with a syringe, very gently so it doesn’t scare the coral. If the tentacles retract quickly, you scared it (bumped it, squirted reefroids too fast, etc) and it will not eat cause it’s in defense mode. Like if you were trapped in a room with a tiger, I guarantee you wouldn’t feed like eating a sandwich even if it was given to you.
Anyway, best of luck to you and your corals, I hope they pull through. I hope that this little write up was informative enough to you, but I will happily answer any additional questions you may have. Have a good day!
