Turning white at the base, am I bleaching?
- Thread starter ryleary
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ryleary
Active Member
Yes I do see polyps and it's at the base of an arm that has been steadily growing so it's confusing to me. Doesn't bleaching usually start at the top where it is closest to the light? My Params are good so I'm thinking it's either too much light or the bottom is starting to encrust?
Reefcrazed417
Community Member
It doesn't look like its encrusting that's for sure
afamousjohnson
Valuable Member
I would say more common on death. In pic looks like most of polyps at base are retracted and in a spot or 2 look gone? Could be more than bleaching. I have had pieces die off from bottom up and still had great polyps at top up until death spread all the way up. Keep an eye on it
Keepswiming
Well-Known Member
To me it looks like two things, too much light or ... Aefw...
Did you dip it? What's light are you using, led?
I would suggest using bayer to dip it and look in the cup after to see if there are any flat worms. This will eliminate that possibility... Then lower the coral to the sand or near the bottom and see how it progresses... Good luck !
Did you dip it? What's light are you using, led?
I would suggest using bayer to dip it and look in the cup after to see if there are any flat worms. This will eliminate that possibility... Then lower the coral to the sand or near the bottom and see how it progresses... Good luck !
Usually aefw affect the polyp extension. I don't think this is aefw. Personally I think it might be from starvation. Do you feed anything to your corals? What are your nitrates and phosphates?
TarHeelReefer22
Active Member
the purple and pink digis don't like really intense light and ime the purple digi should be in lower to mod light!
afamousjohnson
Valuable Member
Yup they get their deeper true purple color in lower IMO aswell. Doesn't look like aefw to me so I wouldn't panic 
yet.lol does look like stn to me tho and if it continues to move up the Coral your only option in the end could be fragging healthy parts off in efforts to save.
How bout some more tank details and maybe a FTS. I bet you could get to the bottom of your problem.
yet.lol does look like stn to me tho and if it continues to move up the Coral your only option in the end could be fragging healthy parts off in efforts to save.How bout some more tank details and maybe a FTS. I bet you could get to the bottom of your problem.
Oh snap. .. I was thinking it was Millepora, I just took a quick glance at it.
TarHeelReefer22
Active Member
Montipora digitata
ryleary
Active Member
Yup they get their deeper true purple color in lower IMO aswell. Doesn't look like aefw to me so I wouldn't panic
How bout some more tank details and maybe a FTS. I bet you could get to the bottom of your problem.
Tank is a 45g corner pentagon with a 20g sump.
The coral in the pic is sitting on the right side of the top rock. It's about 8 inches below the surface and the light is 10" above the water surface. If that's too close I can move it down, but I have seen decent growth with it being there for the last 3 months.
I'm using a 165w Chinese led that ramps up and down from 7am-10pm. I run whites at about 40% for 5 hours.
Parameters are good. Nothing outside of normal. Alk has been a steady 7 for awhile now. I know it's on the low side but I've been seeing growth with it being at 7 pretty consistently. Only other thing I can think is if nutrients being low, nitrates and phosphates close to 0, and the poop of just 2 clowns might be starving it. I was told that once you have fish, their waste is enough to feed sps. Should I try something like reef chili?
Thank you for all the responses!
Keepswiming
Well-Known Member
Recently had a couple frags with aefw and the polyps were out and it looked like this... I couldn't figured it out, then i dipped... the end! haha
Reefcrazed417
Community Member
I have never heard of someone having aefw and it being that simple ^^
Ib have never heard of aefw effecting montipora. Pretty sure it's not the problem here. Usually alk problems will start with the tips instead of the base. I'm still going to say starvation, especially since you have reported low nutrients. Try spot feeding and overfeeding the fish and see if it recovers
Keepswiming
Well-Known Member
I threw out the frag because it had eggs, not to say they are not still in the tank somewhere.
