Mysterious recession

[Lunchbucket]

sorry been gone for work...better answer the questions quick

Stoney Mahony - SG steady at 1.026

Chicago - alk has been low lately as the reactor slowed. was 7.5 a couple days ago now it's back up at 9.2dKH. Mg - 1350 ca 440. po4 undetectable w/ Salifert but haven't used my buddies colorimeter for quite sometime

Wade2185 - no kalk for top off as i have an electronic float style top off and don't want it dumping lots of kalk in at one time or getting stuck nuking the tank. i use a Ca Rx for all my alk and ca needs. i'd love to use kalk more...guess i could use it the old way in a drip system at night. kalk does help keep pH up and precipitates po4. my pH usually runs about 7.92-8.2 or so. i'd love to see it higher but i think the AZNO3 lowers it.

jackson6745 - i don't see any starfish anywhere. i have seen them in the past but they are all gone for quite sometime

Stoney Mahony - i have no filter media to be trapping detritus. only teh sump that gets vacced every other week and the sand gets vacced too

RichConley - i'm not sure i agree. bryopsis seems to grow in nutrient poor systems no matter what. IMO and from what i understand it will suck up po4 out of the water before it can be registered on a test kit. also bryopsis seems to live no matter what. rock was cooked when i started the tank over after a po4 crach from a certain salt brand in Jan or 04. rock was all cooked up and po4 media was used since day one. i use RO/DI water, feed light, keep a light bioload, do plenty of h2o changes, use po4 media, skim w/ a BIG skimmer...everything right IMO.

clkwrk - i agree that bryopsis is a beast and it seems that it can take po4 from anywhere quicker than any other organism

pennilessreefer - i'd agree that bryopsis can trap w/ the fern like structure. also i'm sure it can absort P eaisly into the skeleton

NuclearReefs - yep been in the same place since the day they were put in. i did add another tunze after they were in there though. and then i upgraded from a turbelle to a stream on that unit that hits the glass and disperses right by the coral in question. i don't believe teh flow is changed there. the prostrata right next to it blows like a mo fo

Big E - i've heard of the high pH thing too. just dont' like messign w/ parameters that much...seems sort of risky IMO

oligotrophic - sounds like lots of people are going w/ the po4 wicking philosophy. i'm thinking that is a good idea about removing from the rock and remount it

cieslin1 - flow looks good and everything is blowing around

KevinFJB - seems like the Rowaphos or the AZNO3 could be an additive to the recession. hope it isn't the AEFW's

Lunchbucket

 

[Lunchbucket]

ok ok...now that i look back through some pics i think the rock that the coral was placed on came from my LFS's LR tank. so it could be loaded w/ PO4 i guess!!! i better remove it from that piece of rubble and mount to something that has been in the tank, my po4 low tank, since day 1.

it could take 1.5yrs for it to grow down onto the rock and then receed up it???

Lunchbucket

 

[Lunchbucket]

well took the coral out and cut if off of the base which i think was a rubble piece from my LFS and could be PO4 laden.

cut off

pieces in 1/2

base #1

weird look on top. when i cut it off it STUNK under there.

ready to go back in on a new rock that was taken out a long time ago, soaked in ro water after it was dried out

back in the tank

a "test" frag i mounted on another piece of LR and put in a different portion of the tank

in the left you can see the main colony and in the right you can see where i put the frag

anyone see anything? hope this helps it it was a very very cool coral!! hope it regains it's looks

Lunchbucket

 

[Lunchbucket]

back in July

April

close up

Jan 06

Dec 05

day #1 - guess it wasn't a LFS piece of rock...you can see that rock had been in my tank for quite a while by the coraline etc

ok you get he picture
Lunchbucket

 

[Mchava]

Lunchbucket if possible can you take the original ruble rock and split it in half to see what the inside looks like? It might be intresting to see if its black from the middle. I know i've seen this before on realy old lr from old systems.

 

[cward]

I hope you coral makes a comeback and encrusts to the new rock. Keep us updated with pictures.

 

[Lunchbucket]

i can split it tomorrow.

why would the whole colony brown out?

Lunchbucket

 

[Lunchbucket]

well split the rock. it was fine on the inside. looked like normal rock

but it did stink like marine epoxy. not sure why because i never use expoy and wouldn't have on this piece. there was some epoxy under neath the skeleton where i cut it off. not sure if i had expoxy on there from a coral a long time ago or what...but i didn't use it when i mounted this coral. why would it still smell like epoxy under there??

Lunchbucket

 

[blstravler]

Anyhow, on all my corals that were slowly receeding I noticed at night small stars would be at the area of the coral losing tissue. I thought they were just eating alage or detritus. I started picking these stars off of healthy corals (at night) and saw recession under the stars. Since I added 3 harlequin shrimps my starfish population has gone down and I haven't lost a coral......Many swear these stars are harmless..I dunno

I have had the same problem twice in my tank over the past 8 years. First time my old LFS told me they would do no harm and were good for the tank. I lost 50 percent of my acro's then I got 2 Harlequin's and things stopped dying quickly. About a year ago I staeted to notice them again on the front of my glass in the morning and I looked at a few acro's and they were at the base starting their damage again, Now I just keep a pair of Harlequin's in my tank and feed them ever so often. It is pretty neat to watch them come out and hunt for the little stars. Though there are not to many left so I am keeping up their diet mostly.