Is my open brain coral dying??

[Stacieharris]

I am new to the saltwater world. I got this brain coral 3 months ago. It has been doing great. I noticed it wasn't opening like normal. A week ago I noticed the bottom edges was becoming stony but it was the same color as the coral so I thought it was normal. Two days ago it never "œblew up". Just stayed like the picture. I checked my water and the nitrate was 20 so I did a 20% water change and added a nitrate removal sponge to my filter per the local pet store. Today the edges are looking more stony and lifted and it has white wavy lines in the pink part close to the mouth. I am worried please help.

 

[rjjr1963]

Not looking good. Have you checked Alk, Salinity etc....the basic stuff? Do you remember doing anything around or in the tank a week ago? How is everything else in the tank. I'd start running carbon incase the tank was contaminated with something.

 

[homer1475]

That is a dying coral. I've had 3 now that just don't do well for me(my wife loves them so I continue to try). One I had for a year before I had a huge algae outbreak that strangled out the coral. I had one for a couple weeks before it decided to up and die, and now a third that got damaged in shipping and never recovered.

For a reference, I have 2 goniopora, acans, clams, 3 different maze brains, lobo's, etc that are all thriving in my tank. Just can't seem to keep an open brain alive.

 

[Bent]

Ive never had any luck with lobos or trachys

 

[AlSimmons]

Has there been any changes to your lighting within the last three months or so? Assuming your parameters are within reason you might want to find the coral some shade for awhile and see how it responds. You can always move it back if need be.

Btw that purple/red color your seeing on the skeleton looks like Cyanobacteria.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

 

[Shamous113]

How close is it to the coral next to it and what type of coral is it? it could be sending out sweeper tentacles that are stinging the brain coral. A full tank shot may be helpful as well.

 

[Uncle99]

Your nitrate a bit high, should be in the 2-5 ppm range, what is your phosphate level, should not exceed .005 ppm, I see green hair algae in the pic which may mean excessive nutrients.
i always keep iodide at .03-.06 in the water for leathers and gorgonians, shrimps, the added plus it is a mild disinfectant in the range listed above.

I have 6 brains, 16 months old now, feed them once per week or two via turkey baster.

 

[mako61]

Your nitrate a bit high, should be in the 2-5 ppm range, what is your phosphate level, should not exceed .005 ppm, I see green hair algae in the pic which may mean excessive nutrients.
i always keep iodide at .03-.06 in the water for leathers and gorgonians, shrimps, the added plus it is a mild disinfectant in the range listed above.

I have 6 brains, 16 months old now, feed them once per week or two via turkey baster.

What do you use to added / measure iodide. How often ?

 

[Stacieharris]

So my tank is a 5 months old 20gal. I have had all sorts of different algae growth. I had brown when that went away then purplish black hair then purple and Now I am starting to get green. The LFS said it was all normal cause my tank is still cycling. I havent have a problem with any of my corals. The brain coral was close to the toad stool leather so I just moved it. The salinity was 1.022 so I top off with saltwater today,
ph 8.2,ammonia 0,nitrite 0,nitrate 5-10 Which is a change from 20
Temp is 80.2 but it drops a little at night. Did I get the coral too soon?
I have three different mushrooms, a sinularia, a toadstool leather, a pipe organ, frogspawn and a plate coral. As far as fish I have a clown,a dottyback, a goby with a shrimp and a wrasse. I also have cleaner crews a sand shifter, hermit crabs, snails,urchin. I had a cleaner shrimp but it died yesterday since I couldn't find it.
I did some research on protein skimmer but most info said not needed for small tanks. Do I need one??

 

[Reefiez]

looks like a little ring of cyano growth on the skeleton =(

i personally haven't had good success with these, and now stay away from them

 

[Uncle99]

So Mako61, I have 70g more than 50 corals. I dose 5ml of iodide, wait 24hours, test, in an effort to get the test to show me a result of .03-.06, the reef safe level.
Once at this level, I test daily until back at zero ppm, then divide the dose by the days for a daily dosing amount.
Mine worked out to be 5 ml every 4 days.

 

[Uncle99]

So Stacieharris, I would not say too soon.

The things I notice are:
-it is better to place brains and the sorts on the substrate sand instead of the rocks. Yes they can go on a rock, but not normal.
-crabs are known to pick at corals, I find them useless for algae control.
-I found some urchins to be quite distructive, I seem them eat right through coraline algae down to bare white rock, or knock over, run over everything.

Since my last rebuild when I removed all CUC except snails, I have not lost a fish, a coral, not even a snail, which indicates to me while I am not watching, things ARE going on.
It's been 16 months now.....no losses....hum?