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Coral Health -07/28/08 Hello, I know that one of my questions is going to be one of those questions that no one has a for sure answer for but I must ask anyway to get someone else 's opinion of the situation. I acquired a 120 gallon Salt water system from a friend a while back, I spoke with Bob about it during the setup and moving phase, and as an update I lost 2 small Montipora digitata colonies and a yellow fang blenny during the move. Everything else out of the set up is in tact including all of the acropora colonies which I thought I would surely lose. I was able to save some of the orange Digita but lost it later due to the frags falling off a rock. To the question... when the tank was originally set up at my house the coral polyp extension was great. The baby blue Monti that I had acquired in the deal looked like blue fuzzy tree branches. As well as some of the Acros who had been showing great polyp extension. Here in the recent month or so my Acros do not have the extension they once did and my baby blue Monti hasn't had extension for a great time, several months to be exact. My calcium is in the 360-380 range and my KH has stayed in the 150 - 180 ppm range through this time. Has anyone pinpointed what causes polyp extension, I know it is a mechanism of feeding,... around the weekly range I try to spot feed all the SPS E.S.V. Phytoplankton to entice the polyp extension to little avail. <Not worth it (won't help the underlying problem). Try using oyster eggs. Polyp extension (or lack there of) is, as you likely know, the result of a combination of factors (lighting, feeding, water quality, water flow, etc. etc.). The coral might also simply be adapting to its new environment. If I were you, I'd start feeding oyster eggs (and perhaps other very fine particle meaty food) and just be patient (see what happens).> Also I have a Green Hydnophora that has always had a colony of green zoanthids at the base of it. My pistol shrimp, during his bulldozing adventures, toppled some rock and the Hydnophora was moved. When I moved it It began rapid tissue necrosis. <Typical... these corals do not like to be moved (not even from one part of a tank to another).> I can not take credit for the save,... but by some divine act the piece made it through the ordeal without a major loss. <Cool. Oddly enough, also typical for this coral. Though they hate to be moved, they are also known for some miraculous recoveries.> (the colony stands about 5 inches and I lost about an inch from the bottom) I did not cut the colony and the zoanthids have been slowly making their way up the base. Now at this point it seems that the zoanthids have spread to the beginning of the living Hydnophora tissue. Is this a cause for concern? <Hmm... probably not. These corals are fierce.> At the back portion I have noticed the Hydnophora has split the zoanthids... or kept them from spreading, by spreading down the base where the bare skeleton is. <not surprising> Last question I swear, I've been researching and saving them ;). I want to purchase a calcium reactor to help ease the pain of trusting someone with my tank while I am on vacation,... ok ok.. I just want one. Anywho I have plans to put in a 375 gallon tank in the next 6 - 8 months, and use my current 120 for a refugium. I want to buy a reactor that would be big enough for this system, probably a Korallin C-3002. Would this be a bad idea to place a 800gal reactor into a ~200 gallon system? If I did this what adjustments should I plan on making to it off the bat? <Oh, hmm... best I can do here is redirect you to http://www.wetwebmedia.com/calcreactors.htm Please see the FAQs and related articles.> Thanks guys, Your always a huge Help!!!! Adam <Thank you, Sara M.> Brains on the demise, cause/s? 6/10/08 I love you web site. You have answered many many questions that I have had. This should be a simple question I hope for you. I have a 70 gallon salt water tank for 3 years with 60 lbs of live rock. I have a yellow tang two clown fish, a Banggai cardinal and two cleaner shrimps. I have added a open brain coral and a closed brain coral. I have an orbit 4x65w compact florescent light. I have glass on the top of the tank. The open coral is losing some of his color and I was wondering if it might be because the glass is on top. <Mmm, likely a lack of useful light energy is a factor here... the glass may be part of this> All the water conditions are within range for these corals. <Need values> There is also a piece of Plexi glass that is on the orbit light as well. Should I remove the thick glass that I have on top of the aquarium to let the light through better. <I would try this> I couldn't find anywhere on the net that tells you if it is okay to have glass on top of your aquarium. Thanks very much for your help. Keith <... and you do feed this Trachyphylliid, Mussid... and have read re on WWM? Bob Fenner> Brown Jelly Disease -03/17/08 Hi, I have a couple of questions.. I do believe my one frog spawn has brown jelly disease.. Should this be removed from the tank and quarantined? <It depends on how bad it is. Moving it now might make things worse. If it's progressing rapidly, your only hope might be to frag off the infected parts.> Does this disease spread to other corals? <Yes and no, it's a complicated question actually. Think of this disease as an infection a bit like one a person might get from a dirty wound. The infectious agents can spread, but usually won't infect an otherwise strong, healthy coral.> And last but not least how can I go about curing this disease.. <There's unfortunately not much you can do except perhaps gently siphoning off the "jelly", increasing water flow to the coral, and generally making sure your water parameters are as ideal as possible. Running some activated coral and increased skimming might also help. Again, if it's bad enough, you should consider immediately fragging off the infected parts.> Thanks Trish <De nada, Sara M.>
Coral bleaching and tissue loss 10/16/07 Hello, On
Friday I awoke to a tank with all my LPS closed up tight as a drum,
except a torch that is about a week old. My monti's and Acro's
were colorless and no polyps extended at all. My crocea was even closed
up. A couple of very small zoanthid colonies were closed as well. A
small toadstool leather with really long polyps was closed up and bent
over lying its head on the rock. Even some calcareous macro algae is
pretty much white. <That's really strange.> My frogspawn
looks like the tissue around the base of the head just disintegrated.
There is some stringy web looking strands where the flesh used to be. I
also have a very small blue mushroom rock with just a few mushrooms on
it. All the corals are mostly frags so it is very easy to keep them
away from each other right now. I keep Chaeto in a fuge and do not have
any Caulerpa in my tank. I tested and all my params were normal for my
tank, all using fairly fresh Salifert test kits. pH 8.4 No Phosphate
Nitrate 0.2ppm Temp 79 Salinity 1.025 Ca 350 kH 9.0 I have a 100 gallon
tank that is 10 months old. I top off with Kalkwasser via a float
switch in the sump and keep all my params pretty consistent. The only
weird thing I can say is that the torch would spew brown stuff from its
mouth in the evening some times. I assumed it was extra zooxanthellae
or some other waste that it was purging. It is the only coral that
looks halfway normal right now. I have done three 7 gallon water
changes and have put a bunch of carbon in a reactor and am hoping for
the best. <Good plan, except I would do a bigger water change (maybe
30%).> It was just weird to me that everything in the tank got hit
all at once. <That is weird. It sounds like either something
chemical or maybe a sudden spike/drop in temperature or pH. Do you have
any larger colonies or any relatively larger animal which could have
spawned? Spawning events can cause something like this, but this
wouldn't happen with frags. Another thought is that maybe you had
some kind of toxic animal that died (maybe something you didn't
know you had). Um, or maybe something fell into the tank? Do you have
any kids who could have mistook your aquarium for a wishing well? I
have heard of mass die-offs overnight, but usually something new was
recently added or there was some other possible explanation.> With
such small colonies I thought I would not have many problems with
chemical warfare. Does this sound like what can happen with
allelopathy? <It definitely sounds like it could be something
chemical, but I can't say specifically what it could be. It could
also be a drop or spike in temperature. Is there any chance of
that?> I am just shocked at how quick and severe this has been.
<It is rather odd. Do keep us undated.> Thanks, James <Good
luck, Sara M.> Corals are dying, please help!!! -- 08/27/07 Hi, guys, How is everything? <fabulous, thank you> Hope you're having a great summer. <indeed> All your advice has been right on the money, you've helped us more than once, and it has worked wonderfully. Wanted to thank you. All was going quite well until June. Turning to you again, because things are on a down-slide to such an extent that I am not sure how to remedy the situation. <Sorry to hear that, let's see if I/we can help'¦> To refresh, we have a 1-year-old 55 gallon tank, with a 45 gallon sump/fuge system. On your advice we've replaced crushed coral substrate with a 3-inch sandbed, and added about the same into the refugium. We installed a nice overflow system, built a powerful spray injection skimmer, added halides and new actinics. We also purchased a new RO/DI system, and have a large tub of water on hand for all kinds of emergencies.<excellent> My husband also designed an automatic top-off system that allows gradual addition of RO water to the sump. The lighting is on several timers, simulating sunrise/sunset/dusk/ moonlight. The fuge is illuminated from 9 am till 8 pm by a small set of old fluorescents. Nitrates went from 10 to zero. Phosphate is zero. Calcium is continuously replaced on "as needed" basis (helping corals grow and keeping phosphate down). Water harness is also checked, and is within normal limits. We have a "copepod central" in the "fuge"! I think the starfish that lives there also reproduced recently (we have mini-stars in the main tank, as of last week). For about 4 months the tank was on autopilot, requiring only routine maintenance and monitoring. All water parameters, except for temperature are ideal. The temperature has been very difficult to control this summer. We have no AC, but the tank is shielded in the bedroom which has north-west exposure and hardly ever gets any sun, except before sunset. A chiller at this very moment is financially prohibitive. <How about a cheap in-window air conditioner from ::sigh:: Wal-Mart? I've seen some of them sold for even <$100. This would probably make you more comfortable too, no?> 30% water changes were done three times this summer to control temperature. So far we lost the birdsnest, green slimer, sun coral, and a couple of other SPS frags, a flowerpot, and about half of the Galaxea. <yikes> Our 3-inch coral banded shrimp and coral beauty angelfish are also dead. Nothing else seems to be affected. The green hair algae are taking over now, even though phosphates and nitrates cannot be detected with ANY system. <Here's the thing about measuring nitrates and phosphates when you have algae 'problems': it's quite likely that the algae are the very reason why your nitrates and phosphates are undetectable. The algae is likely sucking up these nutrients fast enough to effectively deplete them from the water. This is good for your water quality (hence the idea behind the algae scrubber filter), but will still leave you with the algae to deal with.> We tried to keep a sea hare, but it didn't eat anything, and died within two weeks, and a large snail soon followed its fate. The yellow tang does not touch the stuff either. The filaments are soft and long, just like baby hair, and grows in tufts or clumps on live rock, corals, anything it can get hold of. <Yep, sounds like hair algae.> Coralline algae also took off like crazy. <Hmm'¦ not a good sign. What exactly are your calcium and alkalinity measurements?> The last three months we have seen some bleaching of the corals, some bleach from base to tips, and some, like the bird's nest started bleaching at the tips in just one area but moving rapidly over the entire coral. Then, the green hair algae move in to cover the dead skeleton. <typical> All the SPS frags we had are now dead. The sun coral was next. <Well, you certainly picked some challenging corals for a tank that's only a year old. Don't get anymore SPS or sensitive corals for now.> A white spot forms on one fragment of the coral. No slime, nothing! Within a week or two that coral is completely white and "dry". We were going crazy, looking for nitrates, phosphates, anything. But the water parameters are still textbook. <Ideal parameters depend a lot on the kinds of corals you keep. You've set up a very complicated situation with so many different kinds of coral in a relatively small tank.> The green hair algae has taken over a large portion of the live rock, and some in the sump. The phosphates are ZERO, but the Chaetomorpha in the refugium grows like there's no tomorrow. Two weeks ago my husband cleaned out a "cube" of it that has taken over and assumed the shape of the fuge. He left just a small clump. Today this clump has more than tripled in size. We can't find anything wrong with the water. My husband is so frustrated he wants to take the hammer to the thing. A coworker of mine who has a bit of salt water aquarium experience says that it is simply a "cycle", and it will "weather over". This is one costly "cycle"! <Well, everything is a 'cycle' of sorts. Your tank is struggling to adapt to an excess of nutrients. What are you feeding the tank? How much and how often?> Today I woke up and found the "elegance" coral pulled out of its skeleton, laying against the back wall of the tank under the rocks. <Yes, this happens when corals are extremely stressed. It can re-grow the skeleton, but under greatly improved conditions.> I have some mushrooms, zoos, a candy coral, and a brain coral, and none of them are affected. <These are tougher corals. You'd almost have to try to kill mushrooms and zoanthids. I think, for now, you should stick with tougher corals. But don't get any leathers (not if you keep the LPSs).> I do not know what to think about the "elegance", I never thought that they are able to migrate. But its skeleton is in one place and it is in a totally different spot. <It's extremely stressed. It's not dead, but getting there'¦> I have a yellow tang, a clarkii clown, diamond spotted goby, and a yellowtail damsel. <Your tank is much too small for a yellow tang. This might also too many fish for a small reef tank. Reef tanks do best with a minimum number of fish.> The clown hosted the elegance until last night, and she looks confused and restless now. <I assure you that the elegance is not pleased either.> We tried to "starve" the algae by reducing feedings and decreasing halide lighting time. <Right idea'¦ wrong implementation.> The orange diamond goby has lost a TREMENDOUS amount of weight-- it looks like a little tadpole skeleton now. I cannot in good conscience starve him to death, so I picked up the feedings again. <I'm not entirely sure lack of food is what's causing him to starve.> I am at my wits end, and do not know what to do. We are doing everything by the book, but somehow things are not working out. <Yikes, which book?!> I read the material on your website, but nothing has really helped. Just "checking off" everything as I read it: yes, doing that, and that, and that.... <::sigh::> I am thinking, there may be a parasite...or starfish offspring...or hair algae toxin.... or is the water test kit lying? I've looked up info on the green hair algae can survive on as little PO4 as 0.05 ppm. Our kit does not go that low. But I know that spa places offer phos test kits that read in ppb. Would this test kit work on salt water? Is there a low-range test kit for nitrates, and who makes it? And the biggest question is. . . how can I "starve" this green "monster" if my fish are suffering? Please help!! <Ok, here's what I think you should do: 1) don't add anymore coral or fish! 2) if possible, find another home for the yellow tang 2) decrease MH light over the main tank to 7hrs a day (mostly to control heat) 3) leave the light on the sump (and Chaeto) 24/7 4) decrease feeding to only what is absolutely necessary to feed your fish. Now that you don't have any SPS left (correct?) you can commit to keeping an LPS/soft coral mixed tank. Your calcium should be around 350ppm and your alkalinity should be about 3 to 4 meq/L. What salt mix are you using? Are you adding anything else in terms of supplements, additives, etc.? And just how high is the temp in the tank? Try to think of the overall picture rather than the 'check list.' You have a system with excess nutrients. This is what's causing your hair algae. You're never going to completely deplete your tank of nutrients (and you don't want to). What you want is to control what gets the nutrients and what doesn't. You want the Chaeto, coralline algae, and corals to use the nutrients, not the hair algae. Hair algae won't grow over coralline. So if you can get that back and growing strong, that will help. If you can get the Chaeto to grow more and even faster, it will compete with the hair algae for nutrients. Your mushrooms and zoanthids can help too. Basically, you want to create ideal conditions for the things you do want so they can out-compete the things you don't want.> Thank you! Nina <De nada, Sara M.> Candy cane/ torch coral loss, help please! 8/23/07 Hi Crew, I have a 37 gallon salt water reef tank. My nitrates are in the o.k. range, and my filtration system is (2) 50 gallon aqua clear filters, lighting is coral life, 30in 130 watt fixture, (1) T-5 30in 36 watt fixture, salinity perfect, 50 lbs of live rock. I have torch coral that shrivels, falls apart, dies one head at a time, (no brown slime). I also have been battling red algae (with frequent water changes & rock cleaning) which seems to also be on the stem of the torch coral. <These events may be related...> I do maintain an arsenal of snails in the tank. How can I salvage what is left of my torch coral?? <Break off the living heads, or the dead ones... move the live part/s to another system> I also have candy cane coral which appears to have some sort of pale yellow calcified growths with one small tube protruding out per growth. The growth surrounds the base of the heads and at this point I have lost 3. The growth is starting to appear on the live rock at various points in the tank. What should I do to save the rest of my coral and do I need to eradicate the growth, and if so, how?? Thanks, JP <"Frag momma frag, whatcha gonna do?" Need to discern what the real/root cause/s of the trouble in this one system is/are... and fix... "Small systems are hard to keep stable, optimized"... Perhaps a cursory reading on WWM re toxic tanks will bring something live to your consciousness. Bob Fenner> Chunk of salt on stony coral... 8/8/07 I've got a predicament, while feeding my fish yesterday my 6 year old nephew tossed in a chunk of salt out of the bucket and it landed right on my open brain coral. A lot of it's flesh came off and I was wondering if it could come back from being burned like it was. <Hopefully so> Needless to say my nephew now knows now to put anything at any time in my tank. Thanks a fellow fish geek. <Only time can/will tell... Bob Fenner> Mysterious Coral Bleaching, Not Such A Mystery
(Antibiotics Administered To The Display System) -- 08/08/07 Dear
WWM Crew, <<Hello Bill>> Please lend me your thoughts.
<<Sure thing>> Recently (within the past week) I noticed
two Montipora corals in my tank that have been acclimated and growing
well begin to bleach. Within the past two days a few small Pocillopora
and Acropora began to bleach as well and polyps hid. <<Mmm, an
environmental issue of some sort>> I've checked the tank
parameters - everything seems rather on par -- 75 gallon tank
-Alkalinity - 4.2 (may be a bit high?) <<Considering you Calcium
is over 400...yes, a bit>> -Calcium - 420 -Nitrate - 0 -Temp - 74
- 76 night and day <<Probably fine but a little on the cool side
in my opinion>> -SG- 1.024 <<Better than many I've seen
but bumping to NSW levels (1.025/1.026) is best>> -Lighting - 2 *
250 10K, 4 * 96 actinic. All the corals have loved the light to this
point. <<Unless the bulbs are 'very' old this is likely
not the issue>> I think my problem may be one of two things, or a
combo of both. I used a cycle of "Chemi Clean" Cyanobacteria
remover which threw my protein skimmer way out of cycle. <<Ugh!
It has done much more harm than that I fear...you have likely wiped out
much of your biological filtration. You didn't list an Ammonia
reading but you need to check this right away...as well as
preparing/performing large water changes and adding chemical filtration
(Carbon/Poly-Filter/Chemi-Pure) to try to keep the buildup of
nitrogenous compounds under control until bacteria has a chance to
repopulate>> It is creating massive amounts of micro-bubbles so I
haven't been able to run it properly. <<Possibly overcome by
the increased organics load...perhaps you can adjust it 'down'
a bit>> I am doing a third partial water change today (in the
last week) to try to remove excess chemicals so I can get my skimmer
running normally (not overflowing the collection cup constantly).
<<The water changes probably explain why your Nitrate reading was
zero. Do try to get the skimmer back in service...perhaps throttling it
back a bit to slow down the overfilling of the skimmer cup>>
There is also one leather coral in the tank, could the lack of chemical
filtration for the past two weeks, or that in conjunction with the
leather emitting toxins be killing these previously healthy corals?
<<Is definitely a contributor...at the very least is exacerbating
the situation. Get some chemical filtration going!>> Any advice?
<<Yes...don't administer antibiotics to your display
system...and start reading here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm>> Thanks! Bill
<<Regards, EricR>>
RTN Question -- 5/25/07 Hello and happy Friday, <Hi there and happy Saturday!> I have a couple of questions regarding RTN. Can RTN spread to other corals? <RTN (Rapid Tissue Necrosis) is more a description of the condition than the name of a specific disease, akin to renal failure as opposed to Polycystic Kidney Disease. So could it spread? All depends on the causative agent. More info here and the related links in blue: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corldisfaqs.htm > I have a pink birds nest coral that grew to the point where one of the branches pushed against the rock it was glued to, and dislodged itself while I was on vacation. <St. Murphy at work again!> I noticed that some of branches tips were starting lose their color so I reattached it, it got worse so I fragged it. <A reasonable move.> The fragged coral seems to still be turning white from the base upwards on all of the frags, then one of my Montipora cap started to discolor in the middle of the cap about a month ago, and has lost some of the tissue in that area, and has spread to the outer rim. <Sounds like zooxanthellae expulsion, perhaps there is an environmental issue at work here.> I have gotten back to changing out 10% of my water/wk and running a magnum 250 with carbon. My water parameters: 150-Gallon Tank Nitrate 0 Phosphate 0 Calcium 400 Alk 10 Temp 77-79 Salinity 1.025 Magnesium 1200 <OK.> Can a build up of salt creep on the top of the tank if dislodged kill corals, or burn them? <Oh, yes.> I've made corrective action to minimize this just in case. <Good.> I have a couple of soft corals Xenia that's uncontrollable <Heeee! Often the case!> 7 different types of Acros that are unaffected A couple Milli's (one showing signs that a small area on one branch might be effected. A couple of Red Monti Cap (both are now dying) <Uh oh!> I feed Nori 1-2 times/day for my powder blue tang, and Foxface . I use Selcon one a week A mixture of frozen Cyclop-eeze, formula 1, formula 2, sweetwater zooplankton, frozen Mysis 2 times/week. Am I missing something that I should be feeding my SPS here? <Seems like a good variety.> I know it's not predatory, and I changed out one of my halide lights because it was over 12 months old. <All sounds good.> Can pruning xenia cause in increase in allelopathy and cause this? <For the most part, Xenia is one of the least toxic corals, but a few species do produce a chemical that is capable of damaging stony corals.> I have to prune this thing every few days or it'll take over all of the lighting at the top of the tank. <Xenia can be invasive.> Thanks for help, <Welcome! Mich> -David MH Tweaking 3/31/07 Hello
there, <Hi from HI> I bother your crew
way to <too> much so I will be short and to the point. <Sort
of like me!> 125G display, all SPS, predominately
Acros. Previously ran 3X400W radium 20Ks but my corals
became very pale some bleached at the tops on an 8 hour photo period
14" from the surface. <Yikes... ever try placing your face this
close to these lights?> I downgraded to 3X250W 20K Radiums, they run
9 hours @ 10" from the surface, and while the undersides and
deeper Acros show more color, the higher placed corals are still very
pale. <Mmm... have you heard of the term
"photo-acclimation"?> I don't have a single coral in
my tank I would consider "stunning" they were all
"stunning" when I bought them, however they quickly grow very
pale. <Can/could be a few "things" at play here...> I
have tried adjusting the height however it takes so long to notice any
change I feel fairly lost. <The lighting needs to "start"
higher, screened, electronically dimmed... the animals lower... however
less-intense initially... graded to brighter over a few weeks
time...> My question is having ruled out all other factors like
chemistry/flow/etc. and being fairly confident my problem is related to
Photo period/distance from water, what suggestions would you give me as
a place to start and how long would you give it to notice positive
change? <Mmm, please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/acclimcoralslight.htm and the linked
files above> Is there something else I am missing in regards to this
pale plague? <Mmm, could be... as stated, there are other
possibilities... and you've presented no real data re actual
measures, set-up, maintenance... Not a mind reader... but do have very
strong intuition at times> Color aside the Milli's grow
.5-.75"/month, the Montis grow like weeds, even the very thick
branched Acros are growing at a very pleasing rate, they just look like
crap. <Can you define this? Or send a pic? Not of the fecal
material... Heeeee!> All frags show low/medium daytime extension and
crazy full bloom moonlight extension. <Okay>
Any guidelines or pointers would be
great. The only other piece of info that's relevant is
that I did start the new 250s at about 20" and brought them down
1" per week until they hit 10-11" <Oh! Well that's an
equine of a different hue altogether... Perhaps there is some sort of
allelopathy at play here... Again, you don't present a stocking
list...> I don't know WWM crew, getting pretty
frustrated. Thanks for your time, Jeff
<Guess so. BobF> Coral/Health 3/20/07 Hi there, hope you're
doing great! <I am, had a little bout with water myself last
Sunday.> I'm looking for a little advice. <Shoot> I
purchased 3 LPS corals 2 weeks ago, a "Blasto", a "candy
cane" and a small red open brain. I set up a 10 gallon quarantine
tank, with a HOT filter and 96W power compact light. The tank was not
cycled, though I threw in some sand from my display aquarium. I am also
doing bi-weekly 20% water changes, and checking for ammonia which has
been zero, nitrates about 5 ppm. Calcium is at 250ppm (low, I know),
Alkalinity 11 KH. <Need to get this up to 350-400.> I
supplemented only with a little buffer as I normally have for my
display (only recently started adding some calcium to the display
tank). The 1st week the brain looked beautiful, and I fed it almost
daily, and then....Bam! <Not necessary feeding daily, two to three
times weekly will suffice as the corals do produce much of their own
food with proper lighting, water conditions.> It started looking
like crap. No longer inflating, receding from the skeleton, and this
morning I noticed some necrotic tissue at one end (right side of photo
if you look closely) which is progressing. The other 2 corals seem to
be ok, the Blasto looks great, and the candy cane "so so",
<Candy canes generally do not bloom until the evening hours after
lights are out. At least mine behaves in this manner.> but
that's the way I bought it. I have been reading everything I can
about these corals for months, and have a beautiful green open brain
that is thriving in my display tank for over a year! <Awesome.> I
guess my questions are 1) is there something I can do? 2) Is it dead,
and how can I tell? 3) Is it best to leave it be, or will it harm the
other 2 corals in the tank? Anxiously awaiting your reply, thanks.
<Corals will sometime go through this stage. You need to
correct your calcium level and maintain proper pH. Your 96
watt PC should suffice for the 10 gallon tank. I'd dose
iodine, strontium, Moly, etc and see if that does not help along with
getting the calcium up. Putting the corals in a newly set-up
tank with "new" water didn't help matters
any. Best to age/cycle for at least a week before adding
your corals. When doing 20% water changes in such a small
tank, it is very important to keep water parameters very close to the
existing parameters in the tank. A drastic change in
parameters can also trigger what you are seeing. Best to
invest in a good reference book such as Aquarium Corals/Eric H.
Borneman, and/or Book Of Coral Propagation/Anthony Calfo. James (Salty
Dog)> Dave Re: Coral Health
and Lack of Info - 3/24/07 I guess I should have given a little
more info. Yes, the Euphyllias are still expanding. I
waited 2-3 days between moves. The tank is 135 gal with a 40
gal refugium with a big ball of Chaetomorpha. I have 100+ lbs of live
rock in the main tank with a 4" sand bed. None of the corals
touch. I made sure to keep some distance between all of them. I also
have a Bubble coral, Kenya Tree coral, Daisy coral, Leather, Open Bran
Bulls-eye Mushrooms and a Spaghetti Leather. I also feed Mysis shrimp,
rotifers, Cyclop-eeze, reef plankton and bloodworms. I try to feed a
variety. <Thank you for this, Lee. It is much easier to diagnose
problems with a clear description of the setup involved. Again, nothing
really strikes me other than allelopathy as a possibility. The only
thing I can think of is that while there's no direct contact from
coral to coral, the defense mechanisms of some neighbor nearby is
adversely affecting the Euphyllias. Look to your paths of flow; find
what is upstream from them and you'll likely find your culprit.
Otherwise, nothing really jumps out at me. Sorry I've not been more
helpful here. -JustinN> |
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