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>

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>
Re: MH Tweaking, pale scleractinians...   4/1/07   SG: 1.026   PH 8.3ish   dKH 10ish     CA  400ish <Mmm... what is your Magnesium? Easy for this to get out of balance with Kalk use, some types of melted media in Calcium reactors>   20G water changes every Sunday   I only keep a couple of fish (pair of black percs, pair of F. Pseudo's, Six Line.  I have a peppermint shrimp, 2Xskunk cleaners, and a pistol.   Flow is achieved with a Oceans Motions 4 way on a 4800GPH External Pump.   I under skim slightly, using a 240G rated skimmer on about 300ish gallons   I run a CA reactor and drip Kalk.  CA reactor maintains about 10.2 dKH   Kalk is only about 5G per week.  but holds the PH and CA steady.   I have undetectable Nitrate/trite/PO4   All water is with RO/DI with a TDS of 0   The 300g system is split 125G display, 80G sump, 75G fuge, and a little 25g AquaPod for a Mantis species only. <All this sounds/reads very well/as good...>   All in all I feel like I have built a good system and I have good husbandry, I just have pale corals.  I don't use any additives at all except about 1.5ml of P. Iodide daily <Mmm, I would add this only once a week... during water changes... This alone could be "the" problem here... I would not add Iodine/ide/ate more often than this unless you had good tests for, and a real need...> or at least when I remember to.  I feed the corals reef chili about 2 or 3 times per week.  I have a wide variety of Acro species (maybe 12 different) plus Pocillopora, Pavona, Montipora, all of which are pale in color.  Bleachish tips, pale branches. <Mmmm...>    I hope this provides the extra info you were looking for,  thanks again for your time. <And lastly... am sure your water temperature is rather stable... Thank you for this further information, follow-up. I would expand your feeding menu here... including the addition of vitamins, HUFAs (like with the use of a product like Selcon). Bob Fenner>

Bubble Coral Damage 4/5/04 While working in my tank tonight I bumped my bubble coral.  A small portion got crushed against the sharp shell. There is definitely some tissue damage. It pulled into its shell right after, and has not come out for an hour or so.  Is this likely to regenerate, or did clumsiness just kill my bubble coral?  Thanks! -Ken <while even some hardy LPS corals are very sensitive to tissue damage, Bubble corals are not.. really durable and resilient! With good water flow, water quality and adequate feeding/light, I suspect this coral will recover very soon. No worries. Anthony>

Expulsion of coral pigments? 3/11/03 Hi guys <cheers> I just got home from work and was surprised to see about 200+ reddish specs floating in my overflow and tank. They are the size of Spectrum fish food pellets (about 1/32") and some are connected by clear "slime" and are floating/suspended in groups. I touched some and they tend to crush at the slightest touch and look like a spot of blood. I have a green with pink tips Euphyllia (Torch) that is deflated and the pink tips appear to be gone. <yikes... the spots could be expelled packets of pigments (proteins and zooxanthellae)> Could this be what I am seeing? <possibly yes> I also have a red/green open brain, a red Blastomussa merleti, red Wellsi, Red Lobophyllia, green  Turbinaria, pink Pocillopora - all of which are deflated or have their polyps pulled in to some degree. <check all of the water chemistry ASAP (including strayed temp or SG?)... then do a large water change (25-50%)> The tank also has a variety of xenia and anthelia and a green Sinularia, orange Ricordea, mushrooms, Palythoa, and a small button leather all of which appear to be doing fine. I have had the corals from one to 8 years. This morning I had added Kent Tech-I. Could this be the problem? <only if you added too much or too fast. Not likely... look for a bigger parameter. Perhaps a sudden influx of freshwater from a neglected evap top off? A sudden change of carbon that improved water clarity?... or change of light bulbs that caused light shock> Maybe too much? Tonight I did a 10% water change and am running carbon. Is there anything else I should be doing? If it is the Torch, will the pink colored tips return? Thank you for your help. Tim <all of these corals can recover in time... but it will be very slow (months) and feeding will be crucial in the interim. Best regards, Anthony>

Low pH shock? Hi guys, <cheers from across the pond> It's been a while since I have had to write to you (which is a good thing -no offence!) <understood <G>> During the recent heat wave we had over here in the UK, many of our corals in our reef tank bleached.  (Huge investment in a tank cooler for next year!)   <arghhh! So sorry to hear it. Only so much that evaporative cooling can do, indeed (fans)> Happily, some of them are recovering now and are getting their algae back.   <slowly but surely they will recover> Anyway, we have slowly started to replace the corals that didn't make it.  Yesterday, my hubby inadvertently tipped a lot of "Amquel" into the tank - I am not sure how much. The tank pH was already slightly low and he was going to add buffer etc afterwards.  The corals shriveled up and have not come out to play since.  I logged onto the Amquel site and read that you should exercise caution when adding to a tank of low buffer reserve.   <risk of buffer precipitation I presume> I assume the corals are suffering from mega pH shock.   <hmmm... perhaps. Overall irritation> If we raise the pH slowly over the next few days will they recover or have we lost them all (again)?  The fish seem to be fine. Thanks very much. Lesley <not lost again... and please do not add more chemicals (pH adjuster) to compensate for an overdose of another chemical. Instead, remember the admonition: "Dilution is the Solution to Pollution". What you need here is simply a large water change or two in the next week to dilute the problem, raise pH, and bring all back to par. 30-50% each time with well-aerated/adjusted water. No worries! Anthony>

Coral Soup? (Saving Corals From An Overheated Tank) Yesterday I was changing the reflector on my canopy and had to take everything apart. Well, I have a digital heater and the probe that takes the temperature of the water fell out without me not noticing till this am around 4:00, and the water got to around 91.8. <Yikes> Well, my Frogspawn is looking awful, along with my Colt Coral, but the Zoo's are doing fine. is there anything I can do to stop losing the beautiful frogspawn and colt coral???? PLEASE HELP <Well, there is no guarantee, but I have personally had good experiences with these corals rebounding after miscellaneous traumas. They do have fairly good recovery properties, IMO. I guess that the best thing that you can do is to return the temperature to a normal range, and observe the corals carefully. Employ a chemical filtration media, such as activated carbon or Poly Filter (or put in some fresh media, if you already use them), and consider a small water change to help remove any of the allelopathic or other compounds that the corals may have released during the stressful period. You may need to use a sharp razor blade to cut out any sections of the corals which appear to be damaged beyond their ability to recover. Make sure that the cutting is done in a separate container. With a little luck, these corals should be able to rebound! Regards, Scott F>  

The bleaching problem (huge thermal vacillation) Thanks for your response. The only thing I goofed up was last water change the temp dropped because the water is stored in garage and its cold here in the east now. It normally runs at 80 degrees and it dropped to 71 <Wow! An unbelievable drop... if it coincided with a lower salinity as well, that spells catastrophic for many. To better days. Anthony Calfo>