Red cap Monti bleaching...

[NickNiz]

The red cap Monti I purchased a week ago has slowly grown to be lighter in color. It went from the usual red to a white/pink. This is my first SPS coral, and I'm not sure how the polyp extension should be, but it doesn't look very good... Here's some info.

Tank: 12 gallon LED Nano Cube with one strip of 4 blue LEDs added.
Filtration: Carbon, purigen, sponge, live rock rubble
Placement: half way between sand bed and waters surface.

Parameters:
Nitrate ~15 ppm
Calcium: 420
KH: 9dkh

What I dose:
1mL Red Sea Reef Energy per day
1mL Kent calcium per day

3-gallon WC per week, 5 if nitrates are above 30ppm

Pics don't really show accurate color, but here they are...

 

[Highgrade]

Most likely the lighting but Potassium could play a role as well. What type of lighting was the monti under prior to your tank?

 

[NickNiz]

I don't know exactly but it was under mostly blue LEDs. Possibly a Radeon fixture or something similar.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

put it on the bottom, or lower the intensity of your lights for a bit. Id say its a problem acclimating to the new light levels.
IMO is always a good Idea to start a new coral that way.

 

[NickNiz]

put it on the bottom, or lower the intensity of your lights for a bit. Id say its a problem acclimating to the new light levels.
IMO is always a good Idea to start a new coral that way.

Do you think it's good enough to turn the blue strip off? Or should I turn the stock LEDs off and keep the blue strip running for even lower intensity?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Do you think it's good enough to turn the blue strip off? Or should I turn the stock LEDs off and keep the blue strip running for even lower intensity?

no dimmer or program?
yea blues would work a bit.
Also Tape.

 

[NickNiz]

Alright. Thanks for the help! The blue strip has an adjustment dial and actually gets pretty bright, but the stock LEDs, unfortunately, are just on or off. I'll leave the stocks off for a while, but if I decide to turn them back on I'll use tape for a while.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Alright. Thanks for the help! The blue strip has an adjustment dial and actually gets pretty bright, but the stock LEDs, unfortunately, are just on or off. I'll leave the stocks off for a while, but if I decide to turn them back on I'll use tape for a while.

yup. sooner or later you will have to acclimate it. fwiw whites have more par.