Growing or Bleaching?

[notclear]

I have this Red Dragon for about 5 weeks now and recently its tips turn white. Is it growing or bleaching? I place it in mid level in my tank.

[Sweet Ride]

it's hard to tell with that picture.

is there still any polyp extension in those branches, if there is it might be positive sign of growth.

[deeznutz]

It is hard to see, but looks more like growth.

-dan

[BIGSHOW]

How recently did it start to turn white??

[notclear]

Only half of them have very tiny polyp and they turn white for about a week. I am afraid it is beaching as I have up a little bit on lighting in the past week. The reason I am not sure it is growing beacuse two of three of the branches just have too big a portion of whiteness.

So to be safe, I have just move it down a couple of inches and see.

Thanks.

[viesia]

Looks more like bleaching to me. Can't be sure but that's my thought.

[notclear]

I also incline to think that it is bleaching :(

[Darryl_V]

Well bleaching happens when the coral loses zoo-x and the whole body goes light...with out actual tissue recession, although it might follow.

What you might be seeing is tip burn/recession.....although it looks fine from the picture. One thing to check is if there is any polyp's in the white area...if there are then it is most likely just growth.

IF you think it is tip burn check your parameters. A lot of people say it is likey caused from unstable pH or alkalinity.

[liz]

It looks like an alkalinity issue to me -however would you not see the same burnt tips on other sps as well?

[notclear]

That's the only one that has this issue. I have another purple one turing brown , it was in mid level, so I have moved it up a couple of inches and let's see.

[smp]

Doesn't look like bleaching to me. Bleaching would be the whole coral. I'm not sure that it's burnt tips either. Moving stuff aroiund as a reaction doesn't solve a lot. If the coral gets better (or worse) you won't know if the change is due to the move or something else you did. If it was fine there for five weeks light isn't the problem. I've never known 'too much' light to kill a coral anyway.

[notclear]

Is my tank's alkalinity 6-7 dkh too low?

If a coral is bleached to all white as smp said, will it grow back to normal or it has to be threw away?