Need advice on chalice coral

[Rockstacker]

I have had this chalice coral for over a year now.
Although it has been growing, it has browned out and only the eyes retained the original color.

This is a recent picture of the chalice.

This is a picture of the chalice, taken around July 2012. It used to have a purple base with green eyes.

It has completely grown over the frag disk, and is now starting to grow over the rock that it is sitting on.
So far it has only grown one new eye.

Could the color loss be due to lighting issue?
I am not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but I remember installing a GFO reactor shortly after adding this chalice. Could phosphate reduction cause browning out?

Water parameters:

Specific Gravity: 1.025
Ca: 400 ppm
Alk: 8.5 dKH
Mg: 1480 ppm
pH: 8.2

Nitrate reads 0 with a Red Sea test kit but I do see some hair algae in some spots, and quite a few bubble algae. So I know there are nitrates in the tank.
Phosphates - I do not have a test kit, but I do see cyano patches every now and then. So I know phosphates are higher than what they should be.

I do not target feed this particular coral.

Also, any idea what kind of chalice this is?

 

[lowbudget]

dramatic drop of p04 will cause stress and make chalice do that. did you also change lighting? that looks like chalice is bleaching out. maybe too much light? did you move it?

 

[Rockstacker]

Same light fixtures (120watt eBay LEDs), but I did ramp up the lights slowly throughout the year. (from 20% blue/10% white, now they are at 50% blue/40% white)
The chalice is near the sand bend - about 3 inches above the sand bed because it is sitting on a small rock.

 

[Igarc009]

I had a piece brown out on me. I believed it was a lighting change as well I had it in the shade for about 3 months. I moved it to a high light area now and in about three days its almost completely colored up.

 

[bvysochin]

Sorry.. but it doesn't look like it'll make it, long term.. I have a huge bucket full of chalice skeletons. Some almost 12" across. Imo, it's very difficult to have them bounce back once they start to bleach like that. For me, LED's were the cause. Since it's expelled most of its photosynthetic zooxanthellae, it'll be hard for it to obtain energy.. I've heard spot feeding might help it bounce back. You don't want to do any dramatic light changes either.. as that could accelerate the imminent death.. How long has it been bleached? And was the growth before it bleached, or since it has bleached? If you could make it turn brown, that'll be better than the white it appears to currently be (maybe a bad photo?).. In my experience, White = bad = death.. brown = good = recovery..

 

[Rockstacker]

This has been growing despite the color change.

Here are some pictures I have gathered through the previous months to compare the size:

July this year, taken with DSLR camera with flash. Even today, this is the coral's color under natural light.

August this year (taken with iPhone)

Picture from today (taken with iPhone)

I will try to take another picture tomorrow with the DSLR camera to get better color representation.

 

[robert_ellis]

I think brown means not enough light doesn't it?

 

[reefes pieces]

I think it's bleaching since you said you've slowly raised your light intensity. Maybe lower the frag and target feed it.

 

[Rockstacker]

Any lower and the chalice will be on the sand bed.
I can relocate it so some of the rock ledges provide some shelter from the lights.

 

[lowbudget]

in your first picture it looks like it was bleaching, i agree with crystal, hard road for recovery. sorry

This has been growing despite the color change.

Here are some pictures I have gathered through the previous months to compare the size:

July this year, taken with DSLR camera with flash. Even today, this is the coral's color under natural light.

August this year (taken with iPhone)

Picture from today (taken with iPhone)

I will try to take another picture tomorrow with the DSLR camera to get better color representation.

 

[Rockstacker]

I relocated it to a shaded area and will see how it goes.
It has been this color for quite some time but it continues to grow.

For reference with the rest of the tank, it is in the bottom-center.

I will just have to see how this one turns out. I think it may have been the initial bleaching last year that put it behind the curve.