brain coral is bleaching

Brain coral and my lettuce coral is bleaching since I added more light. I originally had 2 x 36" t5 HO tek II with individual reflectors. I have since added a 2 x 48" of the same retro kit. I had the lettuce coral before the light and I bought the brain after I already had both lights. I know that these two are sensitive to bright lights but are t5's powerful to bleach my coral like that?

tank is 24" deep with a 2-3" sand bed. retro kit sits about 1.5" off the top of the tank.

Brain coral before:


Brain coral after:


Lettuce before:


Lettuce After:


Also, I have a green hairy mushroom that bleached almost lost all of its green when i added the light but now it is almost back to its brilliance which led me to believe that it could be the new light. didn't acclimate the lighting very well =( I sorta just put them on the same cycle but now i have them on a dusk dawn cycle.

 

had the lights for about a month now. before was just the 36" for 5 or so months.

 

Yes they most definitely are, I have the same issue with LPS and softies. Try and get them in shaded areas.

 

so what I did was i pulled off one of the bulbs on the 48" and left the actinic on only. I'm going to run it like this until I see some improvement.

 

Worth a shot

 

For LPS I had to place my new TEK light 36" above the substrate AND my tri color Favia had to be placed about 10" off to the side. T5's give off light in all directions. Keep your brain shaded by a ledge or not directly under the light. It can take a while to fully recover. As long as it has a good feeding response, it's OK

 

Hand feed the thing. It will be hard cause your goby will steal food you leave on that brain.

 

also hard to keep the goby from burying anything on the ground. lol love the goby's personality but can't stand his habits. thanks for all the help!

 

Whenever you change bulbs, add light and such, you want to acclimate your livestock to the upgraded intensity slowly or you run the risk of bleaching taking place.
Dont' offer it food(target feeding) as the energy involved in consuming foods will only add to the problems. Give the corals time to reduce stress and adjust your lights so that the duration is less than normal.
Good luck!