HELP. Moon Coral white

I Need some advice. My moon coral which I just bought from a LFS about 2 weeks ago is turning white? Does anyone have any idea?

 

If it's turning white, it's either bleaching or suffering from some sort of tissue necrosis. A picture would be helpful in determining which your coral is doing.

 

About 3 days ago it expelled brown stringy stuff? I think its bleaching itself. What would recommend I do? I havent move it to a higher light source.

 

back to the top. Can anyone else help shed some light on my situation? Thanks.

 

A picture of the corals and some info on your tank would help us figure out what's wrong with it and how to fix the problem. How old is the tank? What lighting have you got the coral under and how does your water test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate?

 

Ya Way more information required
Tank size
How long has it been set up
Lighting
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, Temp readings

Thanks
J

 

My tank is 65 gallons and has been set up for over 4 years. 2 54watt T5 lights at 48inches. My tank is 18 inches deep. Water readings are fine but the nitrates are above normal. Temp is 79. Salinity is at 21. What do you think?

 

Without a picture, it's impossible for us to tell if it's bleaching or losing its tissue. Are the polyps of the coral intact or are they gone? If they are there but are white, then the coral has bleached and it can recover. If the coral is sitting high up in the tank, try moving it down a bit. If the polyps are gone, then the coral has suffered a type of necrosis and it will not grow back. If there's any flesh left on the coral at all, I would try to save it by doing an iodine dip and placing it lower in the tank while it recovers.

 

Brown stringy stuff is typically a zooxanthellae expulsion. However, sometimes the coral is just going #2. Having the coral go white immediately following leads me to believe bleaching but there's no way to tell without a pic.

A lot of fish-only tanks are run at 1.021~1.022. Hyposalinity doesn't harm them at all (in fact it helps them a little) because they are osmoregulators and they can control the amount of salt in their tissues (i.e. they regulate osmotic pressure).

Most inverts on the other hand are osmoconformers and their internal cells are forced to equalize with whatever the surrounding waters are. 1.021 is unhealthy for most inverts (corals, shrimp, stars, worms, etc.) You should SLOWLY start raising up your SG until you get to the 1.025~1.026 range. I suspect salinity shock and not lighting issues for the problem with your coral.

 

The tissue is definatley intact and the green color is still in the middle of each polyp. Its just all around the green is all white. Its about in the middle of the tank. Should I place it on the sand? Also my salinity is 21. Should I increase it?