I need some expertise....help

[medic29]

Hello all....

I got a problem with my soft corals and I'm not sure what is going on. I had gotten some tonga branch from a fellow reefer that had a soft coral on it that I believed to be a colt or leather. It thrived in my tank for a few months, then about a month or so ago it began showing signs that it wasn't doing well. I switched to MH lighting back in November. I didn't get real worried about the coral on the Tonga branch because I was going to remove it anyway. I really didn't want it to die off, but it was a hitch hiker and honestly I wasn't real concerned.

Here is how it looks now.

The coral enclosed in the circle is another piece, above it is a soft coral that is very similar that I purchased at my LFS a long while ago and it is still doing okay. Its base rock is sitting on the branch. I'm not sure what happened to this coral, but it has all basically died off and comes off the branch fairly easily and there is a lot of "dust" that comes off and into the water column whenever I mess with a piece of the tissue.

 

[medic29]

continued

continued

Now, this piece of coral was doing very well and was sitting by the tonga branch for a long time and I moved it a couple of months or so to the other corner of the tank to make some room. In the last 2-3 weeks it has not opened up like it usually does and has been looking extremely "mad" as I call it. Here are some pics.

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This coral had been lying over (forward); after speaking with the owner of my LFS to get some suggestions he suggested supplying more flow to it to see if that would help blow some of the dead tissue off and help it sluff some tissue if that is what it needed. I pointed one of the return lines at the front glass and am bouncing some flow off the glass down and towards the coral, which has pushed it up and exposed an area of concern which was hidden when it was lying down. I have tried to circle the area in a couple of the pics. This morning there is a whitish tissue in this area and I haven't figured out what that is yet.

In the last couple of days I've noticed my older Kenya trees are not happy, but the sprout next to it is. Here are a couple of pics.

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22 This is a side shot and like I said the sprout looks fine.

 

[medic29]

continued more

continued more

This is another Kenya tree piece that came on a piece of live rock I've had for a while and it looks fine.

In the same general area I have this finger leather and it looks okay.

I have some other hard corals, frogspan, hammer, gogorians (sp?), some of these have been recently added to the tank.

The LFS also suggested running some carbon, which I put a small amount in my sump last evening. I need to get some more. I haven't run any carbon for a few months.

Any ideas? If you have questions, please let me know and I will answer them as quickly as I can. I really don't want to loose any of the corals that are appearing stressed. I liked how my tank looked, but now my some of my soft corals are appearing very stressed.

Any help would be appreciated!!!

Rick

 

[syrinx]

Water parameters , what is near it? I like chemi pure for carbon. That looks like sushami`s finger leather that croaked on you. I can replace it when things get better. I will say more when you get your water tests to me!

 

[medic29]

Water has been doing okay.
pH 8.2
Ca+ 450
dKh 10
Mg 1360
Amm 0
Nit 0
Nat 0
Phos 0
sp gr 1.024

This from a couple of days ago, but they have been stable. I will check some more tonight.

Everything has been pretty stable recently. My Ca+ and Alk was a little down last week (420 & 7.8) and I boosted up my Bionic 2 part for a few days.

 

[Keep on Truckin]

Carbon. With that many soft corals in the same tank you surely have a nice chemical warfare going on.

 

[medic29]

Okay, I have some in the sump now. About 1/2 cup or so (all I had), how much should I run for about a total of 70 gal in the system total? How often should I run it??

 

[redvipe2010]

I would run as much as you can, and change out every 2 - 3 weeks. I'm guessing chemical war also. How are you running your carbon? I run mine in a phosban reactor, it holds quite a bit.

 

[medic29]

I've just got it in a cloth bag, placed in the sump. I'll have to pick some more up because I put the rest (1/2 cup) in the sump last night.

 

[epon]

Re: I need some expertise....help

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9251567#post9251567 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by medic29
It thrived in my tank for a few months, then about a month or so ago it began showing signs that it wasn't doing well. I switched to MH lighting back in November.

My guess doesn't like the mh, try moving it off to a back corner maybe. Maybe do a lugols or hydrogen peroxide solution dip, I'd just tooth brush the necrosis and put it in the shade. Stuff dies though.

 

[Vitaly]

Just wanted to throw one off my experiences into the ring. About 2 months ago, pulled my "panty hose" bundled carbon out of my sump and did not replace it. In about 1-2 weeks time I noticed that my soft corals are not opening up fully.

Shortly thereafter, I re-introduced the carbon, and in 1-2 weeks time everything began to look healthy again.

I hope the carbon does the trick.

Have you done any water changes lately?

If the stress is a result of terpenes accumulating in the water, would a 20-40% water change help? <I>(the more experienced memebers are gonna have to chime in on that one)</I>

 

[Vitaly]

Well its been about 24hrs...any updates? I imagine that not too much has changed, but I do hope the corals are looking better.