Coral Sickness Diagnosis?

[Patrick Cox]

I have had this ORA Joe the Coral for about 18 months and in that time it has grown significantly. It is my largest colony. Also in that time it became very pale in the beginning because I was running a very low nutrient system by running Carbon and GFO aggressively and also I started my tank from Dry Rock and I think it takes longer to get a diversity of life in a tank started with dry rock vs live rock. However even though this coral was pale, it kept growing. Then I turned off my Carbon and GFO and I started feeding more and all of my corals became darker with more color, including this one. However, in the last month, this coral has declined in apparent health and now I think it is about ready to die totally. So my question is, what appears to be happening here and any idea what might cause this? I have heard of RTN and STN but I am not really sure what that means or if that is what I have here but the coral started lightening at the top with less poly extension and color and it has gradually worked it's way down.

The only change in my equipment has been moving from an ATI T5 6x39W fixture to an ATI T5 + LED (4x39w + 2 x 75w). However I have tried to keep the PAR the same and most of my corals seem to be doing fine under this fixture.

One other change I have made is an increase in nitrate and phosphate. All of my corals were pale and over time I have fed more, added more fish and now I have algae growing in my tank when in the past I did not. But again, most corals look very good.

So thanks for your thoughts on this.

 

[reefmutt]

That's a tough one considering the rest of the corals are doing better. I would have thought that maybe the addition of the leds stressed it out as leds can be tricky for acros to adapt to..
But if it's the only coral looking bad, maybe it is infected with something..
Sorry, really not sure..

 

[Moser]

Did you add new T5 tubes to the new fixture?... and the LEDs?. What is your LED power/ timing?.
Looks like it might have been blitzed by light to me…… that fixture is immensely powerful!.

Mo

 

[Patrick Cox]

Did you add new T5 tubes to the new fixture?... and the LEDs?. What is your LED power/ timing?.
Looks like it might have been blitzed by light to me"¦"¦ that fixture is immensely powerful!.

Mo

I think I did change out my tubes as the others were old. My LEDs ramp blue only from 9-11 AM and then the T5s come on and run for 6 hours with all LEDs on at about 40% I believe. Then after 6 hours the T5s turn off and the blue only LEDs ramp down for about 2 hours. Most of the dawn/dusk time is very low intensity blue light only.

I don't think I will find an answer to what happened. But can you tell me if this looks like RTN/STN? I am not sure what the looks like. Thanks.

 

[deeznutz1]

It appears to me that it's getting too much light. The tissue looks very thin as well. Coral appears to be week and frail. I'd make a few frags and put them on the sand bed.

RTN/STN is tissue necrosis. You will see white skeleton when it happens.

 

[rovster]

Yeah, if possible move to a low light area on bottom and give is at least a month to start regaining color, most likely brown. Then acclimate it to where you want it to go. Make sure the skin is totally healed either colored or deep brown before moving. If it still looks pale let it go for more. I'm currently going through this with a red planet I light shocked. It went almost bone white but after a few weeks on the sand it's getting it's sheen back. Nowhere near "colored" but the skin is darkening and thickening up.

 

[ajcanale]

Is the specific acro you are referring to the one that you included a picture of?

The acropora you pictured is absolutely not Joe the coral or even the same species, A. Tenuis. I believe what you have is a Plum Crazy. Maybe I missed something.

Regardless, I can definitely see there is thinning and stressed tissue. It reminds me of how several of my acro's looked like a couple years back when I discovered red bugs.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Well, I have another coral that is slowly doing the same thing. Any suggestions?

 

[tripdad]

Hello Patrick, do you have a fellow reefer nearby? When I have run up against a tough problem in the past I take a cutting and put it in a similar tank of a friend. This helps me isolate if it's a lighting problem, assuming similar set-ups, or a water issue. At least get's me looking in the right arena. I have had a similar thinning problem when my PO4 and NO3 got way out of balance as I was moving towards new targets. Good luck.

 

[reefmutt]

Hello Patrick, do you have a fellow reefer nearby? When I have run up against a tough problem in the past I take a cutting and put it in a similar tank of a friend. This helps me isolate if it's a lighting problem, assuming similar set-ups, or a water issue. At least get's me looking in the right arena. I have had a similar thinning problem when my PO4 and NO3 got way out of balance as I was moving towards new targets. Good luck.

Sorry for the little hijack, just curious what do you consider 'out of balance' and what are your targets?

 

[tripdad]

My NO3 was 15 and my PO4 was .15. I am trying to get a more traditional PO4 of .04-.08 and NO3 of 3-5. So far at NO3 of 5 and PO4 of .08. Colors are now staying brighter and flesh on all but 2 acro's is "fuller looking", sorry don't know how else to describe it. I have read about but don't fully understand it yet, not a chemist by any means, that you have to have some nitrate to reduce phosphate. If you have zero nitrate and elevated phosphate it seems to be hard to lower it. Several reefer's have been surprised by adding nitrate can help lower phosphate. Maybe Randy has the science somewhere?

 

[tripdad]

http://buddendo.home.xs4all.nl/aquarium/redfield_eng.htm
Reefmutt, I found this article to help explain my thinking, hope the link works.

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks tripdad, I have used cano3 to lower p very effectively, in the past. Works like a charm. Any source of n will.
Sorry for the hijack..

 

[Dapg8gt]

It's definitely not rtn/stn, just a Google search will give you a lot of info on those two issues fwiw..

I agree that I would start with adressing the change of light first, some acros just can't handle higher light as well as other and will do better lower in the tank.

In my tank if I have light colored acros it's a sign of to much light or not enough nutrients. I would double check your nutrient levels with other test kits just to verify they are reading close to each other. My last episode was from a faulty batch of Hanna ulr reagents that caused similar looking acros due to little to no p04.