I just bought a green lobo brain coral. My water parameters are Sg 1.025, Ca 500, Mg 1350, Alk 9.3 DKH. I only dose those to keep the three in balance. Nitrates 10ppm, all others 0. Test with Salifert kits. When I brought it home I put it halfway up my rock work...30 inch deep tank with 150 MH and pc actinic combo lights, 6 inches off the water. It seems about a 1/2 inch section has receeded off the skeleton, the rest of it looks good. Any ideas? Could it be from the travel from the LFS to my tank? I do supliment for filter feeders with phydo once ever two or three days.
Brain advice!
- Thread starter Maudsley
- Start date
Bcollins111900
New member
could be stress. spot feed it and make sure your water perams. are perfect. Phyto will be little no benifit for it so spot feed it mysis and cyclopeeze.
chrisstie
Premium Member
With LPS sometimes even if the tissue gets knicked up a little in transport (i find them to be a tad delicate) recession can occur- also if something nearby happened to have sweeper tentacles enough to sting it. But like Bcollins said sometimes just stress from transporting is enough
At night watch it open up its feeders and sprinkle a few mysis on there and it should get nice and fat and happy for you
At night watch it open up its feeders and sprinkle a few mysis on there and it should get nice and fat and happy for you
I have spot feed the coral real early in the morning, not sure how far the sweepers go on a brain but it does not look like its taking the food. I have also moved it along the bottom third of my tank to hopefully let it adjust better the the MH's. I have no other aggresive corals in the tank so being stung shouldn't be an issue.
Der_Iron_Chef
New member
My green open brain seems to be very sensitive to light and flow. Also, it's most receptive to feeding late at night. I'll post a pic below here, which shows the extent of my brain's "sweepers":
Der_Iron_Chef
New member
Also, your Calcium levels are quite high! I'm not sure if keeping them that high is damaging, but it seems well above the recommended levels I've ever seen.
Ok...early in the morning...6ish...my brain sweepers are out. On another note....about a month ago my Calcium was at 750 due to overdosing......it has come down 250ppm from a water change and no suplimentation since I found out about bad test kits. I only use Salifert now and have definately gotten a handle on my water chemistry. Tonight around 10 pm I will see if the sweepers are out and spot feed.
Der_Iron_Chef
New member
Thanks! I use a Nikon Coolpix 8800. It has a macro setting, though I'm not sure if it's a true macro lense.
Let us know how the feeding goes tonight
Let us know how the feeding goes tonight
jaugermeister
Premium Member
does any else think the Nitrates has a role in the health of the brain? I know many other corals are sensitive to Nitrates and can even cause death if exposed for long periods. Try to lower you Nitrates see if that helps.
bgiles11
New member
Most Brain corals are low to medium light lovers. They also prefer to be on the substrate, Now I have placed them high, and they have done well. The more flourecent they are in colr, usually the more light they love. Nitrates affect everyting! To the extent depends on the species, and sometimes even the individual. I feed my lobo's and open prains mysis, silversides, kril, and shrimp. They definitely like to eat.
jaugermeister
Premium Member
I feed a lot also, so would it be correct to assume that his brains health is related to the high nitrates in his system?
elegance coral
They call me EC
The nitrates are a problem. I would suspect that the PH is a little low as well. If the coral is healthy enough to expand its feeding tentacles it will eat. Just place a small piece of shrimp on its tentacles and it will do the rest. Infection would be my main concern at this point. You may want to think about diping and/or adding iodine to the water.
Am I wrong in assuming that if Alk is keep within parameters PH is a non issue, This is what all the moderators in the water chemistry forum have told me. When I test my PH it is 8.2. If I let my alk fall below 8.0 DKH my PH will also drop out of parameters. Once I tested the theory I have not tested PH on a regular basis as I test every three days on ALK. But I did test PH after I read the post and its 8.2
elegance coral
They call me EC
I have just found that it is harder to maintain PH when the nitrates begin to climb. It's not impossible to do its just that high nitrates can have a negative impact on ph. If you maintain the ALK this will help to stabalize the ph and counter the effects of the nitrate. Even if you can keep the ALK high enough to maintain the PH, I would still do something to get the nitrates down.
