My first SPS

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7635045#post7635045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flyfisherman
Branches of the coral are definitely dying and it appears to be bleaching from underneath. This coral is definitely about to be covered by whatever algae you have in the tank. I would frag a piece immediately and epoxy to a small rock. Then you can move it around and find a happy place and potentially still have the colony down the road. As far as the rest of the colony, I would break off all the dead pieces, or scrub them and stick the colony in high flow. Under PC lighting I would put it high in the tank, like 4 inches from the surface.

Those are wide branches so strong flow is a must and positioning it so light is able to penetrate the alive parts of the coral will maximize it's life. You could break the dead pieces off. You don't want dead algae covered branches blocking alive branches from the light.

You should also try fastening to a rock and never letting it move again. SPS don't like to chill out until they know they ain't moving anymore. Getting nudged by hermits and moving a tiny bit is enough to freak them into not chilling...

Reefers can absolutely keep many SPS alive under PC lighting but don't expect vibrant colors, more like brown with little growth. Then again you can dose like crazy and maybe get better growth.
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another person dooming your coral... if it came from the store like that chances are the tips were damaged in transport to them... watch for recession if it does start to RTN then yes frag the healthy part... corals do start to grow once the encrust a base but as far as I can tell in all of my studies there is nothing in a coral for it to tell it is being moved around... true it will not be happy if it is constantly being rubbed up against something by flow but gluing it down so it never moves again is not necessarily the correct thing to do... bottom line for your tank... keep it high and in decent flow and you should have a nice coral... it may not reach its action potential but should remain a nice coral with decent colors....
 
advice advice advice...I love it!

Now we've all told this reefer what to do with his coral, he's probably more confused than he was before he posted...

Just kidding guys! My congrats for caring enough to take the time to help this reefer, and others...

Doc
 
another person dooming your coral
Click to expand...
I'm not completely dooming it, but algae appears to be covering it and that is tough to reverse without taking action.
corals do start to grow once the encrust a base but as far as I can tell in all of my studies there is nothing in a coral for it to tell it is being moved around... true it will not be happy if it is constantly being rubbed up against something by flow but gluing it down so it never moves again is not necessarily the correct thing to do
Click to expand...

Why do most frags slime or polyps close when you move it from one spot to another? The coral must know it's being moved, no?

Gluing it down isn't the correct thing to do if you haven't found it's happy place. But with a coral looking as stressed as this one, I think finding that happy place needs to happen sooner than later...
 
Don't sweat the algea growth on the bare/dead skeleton.....in good conditions the tissue will regrow right over the algea covered skeleton...see it many many times in all monti species...

Doc
 
Never give up until its a bare white skeleton. A Tang will eat the algae RIGHT UP! IF you do frag it, you can glue it s pieces to rubble and moves it until you find its "happy spot" then glue the rock down.
 
The best I can guess at why polyps retract is they do sense changes in water movement and when I move a coral I grab the coral itself which causes the polyps to retract, the slime coating is to protect it from me grabbing it..... I guess what I mean is the small movements of rocking shouldnt be enough to make the coral die or "not chill"
 
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Think about a coral on a reef in any of the oceans of the world. They sit in one place and they grow. This is only interrupted by one of a couple of possibilities:
1) A hurricane or storm that damages the reef. Result: frags fall and must adapt to the new placement or die.
2)Disease or an unexplainable bleaching event. It heals or it dies.
3) A diver breaks off a piece and collects it for aquarium use. THIS is the TOUGHEST possible situation! They have no CNS, they don't think, they react to change and slowly adapt over time. The best we can do is try to make them at home. I hope we all succeed at accomplishing this goal!
 
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Guys â€"œone more time, the coral is not bleached out, but the picture is. I paid $40 for it .I am working on my new tank with T5 â€"œsix bulbs and two way squirt valve .Here are pictures of it .As you can see I cued out the wide plastic bar on the middle and replaced it with stainless steel line to have more light going in to the tank.
 
new tank looks good... just for curiosity what is it in now??? I am not going to flame you I have kept sps in a 10 gallon for almost a year til I moved them into my 180.... just wondering.
 
I raised all of my frags for over a year in a 55 before upgrading to a 180. It could BREAK any budget, trying to fill a 180 with full sized colonies!
 
ha it is bad.... here is mine... I have a good mix of large and medium and small colonies and too many frags....
forgive the bad picture took it with an old camera during the later end of my light cycle

CIMG0037.jpg
 
I am planning to do DSB made of finest sand I can fined .I like the natural look of DSB and hope it will help with feeding my corals because some plankton is growing in it. Well I think like that…
 
I have a 4 inch DSB...but I mixed fine sand and crushed coral...4 inches of fine sand would be fine trouble.... less inches would be great though! I'll never go BB....

Keep in mind with a DSB you MUST have MEGA circulation...or you will develop pockets of hydrogen sulfide....rotton eggs....bad stuff...

Doc
 
DOC- what do you mean by: 4 inches of fine sand would be fine trouble.... less inches would be great though! I don’t get it. :confused:
 
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