Your thoughts after a bad day of reefing
 

So woke up yesterday morning to my skimmer shut off (thank god for float switch overflow protection) and my return pump shut off. After some trouble shooting seems as though my Eheim 3000 had shorted some how and was smoking hot and actually melting on the inside. No problem throw on my older back up Eheim 3000 and go out for the day. Return in the evening to once again return pump not on and just a buzzing sound. Turns out this pump had died too (both pumps were perfectly clean).

So I throw on my Mag Drive 9 and im back up and running again. However, ive now woken up to some very pale corals. My thoughts are that the 2 inch water drop due to the return pump not running all day and no surface aggitation allowed far more light penetration paling out alot of my acros. Ive ran a Hydra 52 with 4 T5's, the hydra 52 peaks between 90% and 100% (not on all channels).

So now that Ive got the return pump situation fixed Is the best way for these corals to recover just ramp my hydra 52 down to peaks between 50 and 60%? Cant really lower my coral colonies in the tank. Or just leave the light as it was seeing as now it has its usual light penetration with full water height and surface agitation?

Whats the general recovery time for something like this? A month or two? Sad thing my corals were looking the best they ever have.

That is a bad day! I'm not sure on recovery but keep things stable and they should bounce back

I always dim the lights if there is a bleaching going on in the tank. I'm not sure that it was caused by the lights being stronger, but from the lack of flow, and possible a temperature drop and fast rise. You mention the pumps were very hot, and I'm thinking the water may be quite warm in the sump too. The other thing to think about is the possibility of the melting plastic leeching toxins.

the melted plastic thing was mentioned on another site as well. I did a 30% water change this morning and replaced the carbon in my reactor. Also added another bag of carbon into my filter sock just in case.

Maybe I'll do a second big water change tomorrow as well to be safe. Funny though not all acros are affected just the ones that would have been hit the hardest by the lights so that's why I assumed it was the lighting. Good news it although they paled out all are showing nice polyp extension so I believe they should have no problem recovering. The question is just how long that will take.

+1 on melting plastic, also I'd be wondering about melting copper leaching from the pump windings, but my knowledge of motor technology might be 'way off base when it comes to aquarium pumps....I feel for you. :cry:

I'm wondering if I should do another 30% water change tonight to be safe.

I think that water change = cheap insurance. Just when you think you have it worked out, I mean you have back-up pumps ready to go and everything. You need beer!

I would do a water change, even if it won't help, definitely it won't hurt and I would dim the lights a bit. A week ago when we checked your light level it was quite high.

Did another 30% water change and lights have been dimmed until the acros recover. Fingers are crossed.

Seems like a good plan of attack. Good luck. Make sure your skimmer is running well too - it can remove all sorts of yuckies.