Mai Tai Cyphastrea Bleaching

leighton.bingham · Oct 25, 2022

About a week ago I recieved my Mai Tai Cyphastrea and put it pretty low as in the bottom of my tank. With almost no light but decent flow. My water params are
Alk 8.4
Cal 430
Mag 1520
Salinty 1.025
Ph 8.0

I noticed this morning that the tip was a little bleached so I put it in a shaded spot. The only thing has changed is i added about 3lbs or so of dry rock to the display tank and my sklimmer started going crazy (like over flowing with bubbles) not skimming. I know the picture of the tank doesnt help ill get some picture of the coral later today.

Does anyone see anything wrong with my parameters? Is moving the Mai Tai Cyphastrea into the shade the right move?

Bucs20fan · Oct 25, 2022

Cyphastrea is not a beginner friendly coral, it appears your tank is fairly new. Its likes low light, but enough to survive, which is a very fine line. I Hope it recovers.

Dburr1014 · Oct 25, 2022

leighton.bingham said:
About a week ago I recieved my Mai Tai Cyphastrea and put it pretty low as in the bottom of my tank. With almost no light but decent flow. My water params are
Alk 8.4
Cal 430
Mag 1520
Salinty 1.025
Ph 8.0

I noticed this morning that the tip was a little bleached so I put it in a shaded spot. The only thing has changed is i added about 3lbs or so of dry rock to the display tank and my sklimmer started going crazy (like over flowing with bubbles) not skimming. I know the picture of the tank doesnt help ill get some picture of the coral later today.

Does anyone see anything wrong with my parameters? Is moving the Mai Tai Cyphastrea into the shade the right move?

It needs light, what par is it in and what par did it come from?
Give it more light, 150/200ish to start.
How did you acclimate? Did you dip it in a cleaner?

leighton.bingham · Oct 25, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
It needs light, what par is it in and what par did it come from?
Give it more light, 150/200ish to start.
How did you acclimate? Did you dip it in a cleaner?

I dipped it in dip x from Red Sea and then drip acclimated it.
Not sure on the par it came from but I have eco tech g4 xr15 for lighting. So you’re saying move it higher in the tank?

SillyReef · Oct 25, 2022

Some dips are very hard on corals, have to be careful which dip for coral types. I never used dip x.
I always found cyphastrea to be low light coral. Like 50-75 par LED.

leighton.bingham · Oct 25, 2022

This is the site it came from. https://www.tidalgardens.com/stock-mai-tai-cyphastrea.html looks like they like low light. So my question is should I move it up keep it lower? I know it tough to say without a par meter.

SillyReef · Oct 25, 2022

With leds your gonna need to test or your just guessing. I keep them in the shade or bottom of tank really depends on height of tank, number of fixtures, spacing of fixtures and setting. Post a few tank specs and light settings. Should be able to use some you tube testing videos to get it close or use WWC settings.
I would say lower is better for that coral. Also could be other things like numbers off, system being too clean or just needed to age rock. With sand tanks seem to settle quicker. Took a year for my bare bottom and still trying to dial it in.

Dburr1014 · Oct 25, 2022

leighton.bingham said:
I dipped it in dip x from Red Sea and then drip acclimated it.
Not sure on the par it came from but I have eco tech g4 xr15 for lighting. So you’re saying move it higher in the tank?

My mistake, sorry. 30 to 50 is extremely low. Never would have guessed that low.
My meteor shower is in about 150.
I would not put it in shade however.

Reefer Matt · Oct 25, 2022

I have the same coral from Tidal Gardens. Mine is in about 50 par and low flow. Nitrates at 20-30.

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Lavey29 · Oct 25, 2022

I recently added encrusting and branching cyphastrea. One is moderate light and flow, one low light, one partial shade and one full shade. There appears to be different recommendations for different sub species of cyphastrea and its hard to determine the best course. I'm trying all options to see what might work best. Only about 2 months in and little growth so far on the lighted ones. Shade seems dormant but not declining either.

leighton.bingham · Oct 25, 2022

Reefer Matt said:
I have the same coral from Tidal Gardens. Mine is in about 50 par and low flow. Nitrates at 20-30.

This helps a ton. So moving it into the shade was a good idea is what I'm getting. I really need to just rent a par meter and see.
This tank has the same lights and the same depth as my tank. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/radion-xr15-gen-4-pro-par-testing-results.721196/

vetteguy53081 · Oct 25, 2022

leighton.bingham said:
About a week ago I recieved my Mai Tai Cyphastrea and put it pretty low as in the bottom of my tank. With almost no light but decent flow. My water params are
Alk 8.4
Cal 430
Mag 1520
Salinty 1.025
Ph 8.0

I noticed this morning that the tip was a little bleached so I put it in a shaded spot. The only thing has changed is i added about 3lbs or so of dry rock to the display tank and my sklimmer started going crazy (like over flowing with bubbles) not skimming. I know the picture of the tank doesnt help ill get some picture of the coral later today.

Does anyone see anything wrong with my parameters? Is moving the Mai Tai Cyphastrea into the shade the right move?

Your mag is quite high (1300-1350 best range)
These coral need moderate light and medium water flow along with aminos and feeding 2-3x per week. I believe your issue may be lighting as they should be introduced at Very dim lighting along with INdirect flow

leighton.bingham · Oct 25, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Your mag is quite high (1300-1350 best range)
These coral need moderate light and medium water flow along with aminos and feeding 2-3x per week. I believe your issue may be lighting as they should be introduced at Very dim lighting along with INdirect flow

Thank you for the feedback. I have Phyto-Feast to feed it.