Flesh slowly melting off plate coral. PLEASE HELP!!! please

[bamf25]

I have a plate coral which has been in the tank for about 4 months. Over the last two months it has slowly been losing flesh on its top surface, and I have not seen the mouth opening much to eat. I keep it low in the tank on either a low rock or the sand. I try and spot feed twice weekly, but have been a little inconsistant with the holidays. I have a nice variety of mainly lps and softies in the tank. MG = 1350, calcium = 450, ph = 8, ammonium = 0, nitrite = 0, nitrate = 5, temp = 78, salinity = 1.025, the only issue I had is my alk had fallen to like 6.4. I am in the process of correcting this. Could this be the issue?

All other corals in the tank are great, including frogspawn, hammer, acans, chalice, flavia, gsp, mushrooms, toadstool, and zoas. None of the fish have been nipping at the plate as far as I have seen, and non of the other corals show any sings of being eaten.

Other than the alkalinity what else could be wrong here. This is not a sudden thing, it has been a very slow flesh loss. The only other flesh issue with any corals was a little flesh recession on a chalice which appears to have stopped.

 

[Rockys_Pride]

The alk swing could be the culprit. The question is, what caused the alk swing.

 

[noahlito]

Alk

Alk

Alk can def be an issue. Im sure u already know to keep it up between 8-12. 6 can be an issue. Depending on the test kit it might be lower. Use baking soda or reef supplement to get ur alkalinity back up. Make sure to go slow!

 

[noahlito]

Also consider flow, chemical warfare, and age of tank. I would also consider those nitrates too. Remember test arent fully acurate.

 

[bamf25]

I have the alk partially raised, but am doing it stepwise over 2 or 3 days. The plate is in low flow area of the tank. The only reason I can see for the alk drop is a fairly persistant hair algea issue I have had the past few weeks. I am getting it under control as we speak. With that said the only value that seems to be dropping is my alk, everything else has been very stable. It is also fairly isolated in the tank there are no other corals within at least 6 to 8 inches from the plate.

I hope i can get it back.

 

[jmbanh]

Feed it more to give it a chance to bounce back. I would feed it once a day. Make sure to keep blasting the exposed skeleton to make sure algae doesn't take hold.

 

[bamf25]

Now that I have my alk back into the good range, I have noticed the plate is puffing up more, and the mouth seems to be opening again. Seems like the alk was at least part of the issue.