Dragon Soul Favia in distress?

[vonG]

I've had this piece for over 2 months.
It's been fine up until today.

For some reason it's bleaching at the top. The pic isn't great but you can see just the edges are starting to whiten.

Placement is at bottom of the tank.
29g cube
lighting is 4.5hrs day, and 12hrs of blue actinic. All with the modular LED's so lighting is top shelf.
Skimmer on full pin 24/7
calc 440
nitrates - 0
no changes in water as of late. no changes in salt/media/anything.

thoughts???

latest video of the tank:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dak78pTL-Ms

thanks in advance,

d.

[NanoSF]

I think still too intense light possibly. Especially since it seems to be the top edge with the most direct light that is bleaching. What is your lighting exactly?

[brotherluv]

Mine had the same problem until I moved it to a place with slightly less  light...same as you, started after 2 months never had a problem since.

[kole18]

Most lps an like brain corals ..favia doesn't really need much good intense of light . My favia where i place under my table acro seems its doing ok. I currently replaced  my light we're I used MH before to T5 now, & I haven't move this favia still doing fine . I'd notice your favia it's expose direct to your light you may wanna move this to where shaded area of your tank , it might help to stop from bleaching. If you look onto every single reef tank all brain corals where placed that area have not much intense of light. but colors still amazing, just a give you a tip to keep this favia not to loose the color:)

[Hookup]

Not sure. But suggest target feeding it to keep it happy until you figure it out. 

[kole18]

Ops here it come the super guru of sw hookup

[vonG]

update.....

not good

So since originally posting I did water testing.
everything is the same.
calc is 440
zero nitrates
zero nitrites
ph is 8.2
salinity is 1.026
zero ammonia

the other corals are doing well
coraline is fine
zoas open, candy canes are flourishing, GSP is going rampant, torch is massive, duncans are massive, a new small colony of flower corals are growing... so the tank seems to be doing well.

I reduced the light intensity substantially. Was running blue at 80% and White at 80%
now running blue at 65% and white at 50%

if you look at the left side of the Favia colony you will see one green mouth that's literally 50% faded.
The purple is discoloured all over. There is whitish tissue that fluctuates more and less throughout the day.

I've moved the Favia under some shade on top of reducing lighting exposure and intensity.

Can anyone else suggest something I'm missing to try and save this piece? He's the showpiece of the tank!

Thank you in advance

d.

[kole18]

try to feed it man, i feed my lps w/ pellets look at my tank 

http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/h461/Pete_1809/?action=view&current=008.jpg#!oZZ5QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs1111.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fh461%2FPete_1809%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3D007-1.jpg

[kole18]

I just feed a pellets 2x a week & look at the result.

http://s1111.photobucket.com/albums/h461/Pete_1809/?action=view&current=007-1.jpg

[vonG]

what pellets are you using guys?
(googling now for options)

also, what time of day to feed? at night when feeders are extended or during daylight?

cheers

[Hookup]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f11MnhiIG6Y

turn off flow

put pellets on each mouth

Watch (fend off fish if you can with a stick)


I have used FM LPS food.  It's the only one i know of designed for LPS and their nutritional needs.


on youtube there are few other vids of different corals also eating this stuff up... 

BTW, i have seen LPS eat fish food (pellets) as well so it might work..  but for the small cost, and the ULTRA-AWESOME-NESS that is your coral, why bother with anything else, at least until its back on its feet and happy...

[salvini55]

I bought a Kent sea squirt (glorified turkey baster) and bored out the hole to allow FM LPS pellets to slowly fall out of the sea squirt on to the polyps.

[kole18]

Darn all my shrimp every time I feed my lps always stealing those pellets so what I do I steal my mother glass bowl to cover whenever I feed my lps:)

[az]

I like the new era coral food better, fm coral food seems tobe too light and flies away(lot of waste), however they are made with similar stuff as corals like them both.

plz dont overfeed, if the head grows faster than the skeleton, they will eventually die. once a wk is best, max twice!

[kole18]

I feed my lps 2x a week az seems ok w/new era that I bought from you