Heated, bleached and recovery.

[Timfish]

Thought I'd pass on this experience I had with a system getting hot last summer. It was a screwy case of a tank heating because the AC thermostat wan't changed, no fans failed, timers for the lights were not changed and there was not a heater in this system. When the owners went on vacation the tank went from it's normal 80 - 82 to around 90. The tank is physically located under the main ac vent between the kitchen and family room. When the family is home they are very active and somebody is always coming or going causing the AC to be frequently cycling. So the theory is since no one was home the AC was not cycling and cooling off the tank. Fortunately no animals were lost and most did not show any adverse affects from the heat except the brown BTAs. There are 7 clones all from one added about 2 1/2 years ago. All of them bleached out pretty quickly and shrank down to about 2" across give or take. It took about two months but 4 of the 7 started to color back up. From when the first one started to color back up untill the fourth one was completely colored back up was about 4-5 months. The two of the three that have not colored up, look kinda ok and do inflate and deflate but have not grown. The third has shrunk down to less than 1" diameter and I keep waiting for it to let go and dies but it's still holding on to the rock pretty tight. The attached picture was taken 10 months after the overheating and has one of the 4 that recovered next to one of the two that haven't changed.

[bige]

Good info.

[subsea]

My outside growout system has started heating up fast. Yesterday, after I went inside at 4PM, the temperature heated up to 90 degrees in one part of the system. Without a doubt, I have to put at least 50% shade cloth with a greenhouse frame. Because the inhabitants are a hardy stock: mollies, two blue/yellow tail damels, and many different macros I have not seen any apparant damage.

With respect to the Sinularia bleached due to elevated temperatures in Pala, these corals are on the comeback from that event 15 years ago.

Patrick

[Timfish]

That's good news, last I heard there still was not any widespread recovery. This isn't the first time I've seen just a select few animals affected by heat and not the first time I've seen two different specimans (or colonies) of the same species react differently and recover differently in th same system. It also gives an idea of how long recovery may take so patience is a must and it's usually best to leave a speciman alone rather than keep moving it around.