First SPS is this an okay Pavona?

[Ztrain]

So I picked up a Pavona because several places said it is an easier to keep to SPS. So figured it'd be a good one to start with. After getting this one I was looking at it and it seems to have a lot of white spots in it. Is this necrosis or dead spots? Will it grow back? What do the experts think it looks like? It would seem it also came with a few fast swimming bugs like copepods or something, a neat looking purple sponge, and some type of polyp that I don't know what they are around the base.

Any identifications, thoughts, opinions would be helpful.

Thank you,

 

[ghostman]

That pavona looks to be in very rough shape. The white spots are dead areas with skeleton showing through. I think there is also some brown, dying areas, and some areas of red cyanobacteria growing on the dead areas. It's possible that the coral might come back with good lighting, strong water motion, and excellent water parameters. A dying, large pavona might not have been the best purchase for your first SPS. Maybe a frag of a monitopra or small green slimer acro would have been a better choice. I hope you didn't pay too much for the coral, and I wouldn't be too happy with the store you bought that from.
To keep SPS you need good lights, flow, and water parameters. What's your tank equipment like, and what are your water parameters? I hope you have luck with the pavona, and nurse it back to health.

 

[Ztrain]

Yeah they told me I didn't need to do any type of dip either which I should have listened to myself and not not them at the store. Honestly I'm getting really annoyed. There were two little things swimming around rapidly in the bucket I used for acclimation the next day. And then there was one I could see the shadow of swimming inside the coral I could see with the flashlight. Well my big thing was clown fish and anemones but figured I'd do a coral or two till I'm ready to try anemone again. If I got a sps pest if that coral goes it won't really have anything else to live on. Ohh well hopefully their just some type of benign copeapods.

I've been trying really hard to try and buy stuff local but with all dry rock except for 2.5lbs of live rock getting, bubble algae, aptasia, and who knows what else and now this I'm seriously contemplating just ordering live stock 100% online now. Cheaper and seem to be more reputable.

What could have been or is still killing it? What are the risks to the rest of my tank? What are the chances of it pulling through?

Anyways I'm at 8 NO3, .3PO4, 440 Cal, 8.1 ph 1.025 salinity, 1280 Mag, 9.8dkh. Trying to think if I'm missing anything. Using Nopox, BRS mini with ROX carbon, and PSK-75 skimmer on a 20g. My lighting is a Kessil A150 Ocean Blue.

 

[alexgv14]

Will i would siphon out as much of that cyano growing on it thats probably what was killing it. As a matter of fact you may be able frag of a large healthy section of the coral and work with that separately it may pull through better. If the coral had pest it could affect your other sps corals.

 

[Ztrain]

Will i would siphon out as much of that cyano growing on it thats probably what was killing it. As a matter of fact you may be able frag of a large healthy section of the coral and work with that separately it may pull through better. If the coral had pest it could affect your other sps corals.

I am considering fragging off a few of the blades without any white. Yeah there's a little bit of the purple cyano on there. I developed 3 small patches red cyano a couple weeks ago when I started carbon dosing. So Don't know that syphoning it out will make a difference but will try. Doing a WC tomorrow.