Is this bleaching?

[Reedc200177]

Hello all,

I ordered gulf live rock back in early February and got a large piece of oculina robusta as an unplanned hitchhiker. I honestly didn't expect it to survive as my tank had just finished cycling, but 2 months later it's still going strong as far as I can tell.

I am starting to wonder if the tips of the branches are bleaching, however. This doesn't make sense to me though as I'm currently running the Fluval Evo 13.5 stock light which to my understanding is barely passable for SPS so I don't see how it could be due to excess light. I plan to upgrade eventually.

It still has great polyp extension and areas that were broken during shipping are being covered by new soft tissue and are growing polyps so I'm not sure what to make of this. (Or if there's even anything actually happening) it doesn't appear to be spreading or anything. It's mostly the parts exposed to most direct light that appear pale though.

I've been feeding it reef roids 2 or 3 weekly and adding Chem sea fuel weekly, here are params for reference

Alk 7.3 to 8, daily dosing with 2 part ionic
Ca 420 to 440 daily dosing with 2 part ionic
Both drop appreciably after 24hrs, so I dose back up.
Mag 1300
Nitrates 10
Phos 0.03

Unfortunately some of my values fluctuate during the day, I don't know how to stop this.

I've attached pictures, what do you guys think? For reference FIRST PIC is the day after it arrived. Others are 60d later.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

All things considered, I think it looks pretty good for a hitchhiker. If the first pic is the day it arrived, the white patches were already present. It almost looks like some kind of sponge.

For your parameter swings, a doing pump would solve that an keep things more stable. Your corals will reward you with better health and growth. When using 2 part especially, dosing pumps are really handy. The reason is that you can achieve really great stability using 2 part, but you lose that benefit if you hand dose. So if you can, look into a dosing pump.

 

[Duffer]

Could be burnt tips which is mostly caused by alk swings

 

[Reedc200177]

I wondered that too but isn't there tissue loss with burnt tips? All polyps still look perfectly happy including on paler parts

 

[vetteguy53081]

Check alk and calcium which work hand in hand) as well as any change in lighting
As mentioned, looks darn good for being a hitchhiker

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Because it is just the tips, and they seem to be getting better over time, it may just be damage from the shipping. Perhaps the tips were exposed more and dried out a bit, or were rubbed against the packaging.

Nonetheless, I think you are on the right track to nursing it back to perfect health.

 

[Reedc200177]

Hey guys, sorry to bump this again, but trying to figure out if there's a problem with this guy still.

The paleness seems worse at times and it does seem to be confined to areas that get more light, but I'm just struggling to understand how the stock evo light could be strong enough to bleach it, although this is a "wild" coral. Is there any way I could be overlighting it? I have a ten hour photoperiod due to work schedule but I have ordered a light that can be programmed to cut that down (if you guys think it's necessary)

Also trying to assess for burnt tips, I've decided to switch from dosing the 2 part ionic to twice a day instead of once, about a ml of the alk and Calc at each dosing so there isn't such a large swing. My understanding with burnt tips is that there is actual tissue loss and polyp damage and algae growth on the exposed skeleton which I don't think I'm seeing. The tissue just looks translucent. All polyps are still extended and the only algae is a small patch that is lingering on a broken branch from when it was first placed in the tank, but the coral itself seems to be covering this area with new polyps over time. It's possible I'm wrong about all this though, and or overthinking it.

Thanks!