Pipe Organ Problems

[balticbsc3]

About three weeks ago my girlfriend bought a Pipe Organ Coral from the LFS for her BioCube 29. The coral did fine for a week, but over the past two weeks the polyps began to close. The coral at this point has only 5-10 polyps left and the others look like they have died. The fish in the tank are a mated pair of maroon clowns, a purple firefish, and a six line wrasse. I tested her water. Ammonia was 0, Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are less than 10, PH was about 8.3-8.4 and salinity as 1.027-1.028!!! Everything seems to be in check except for the salinity. I know that it is high, but could this be responsible for killing the pipe organ, but allowing the fish, her zoanthids, mushrooms, colt coral and candy cane to continue to grow very well? Let me know what you guys think. Thanks!!!

 

[xenon]

My pipe organ is the heartyest coral in my tank. I even blast it with 4,000gph and the polyps get trashed and it just thrives. lol

 

[gflat65]

Mine was temperamental in the beginning, but seems to have adjusted... Get the salinity down, check Alk and Calcium (just for good measure-you want around 380-420 or so on Ca and 8-9.5 or so on Alk/dKH). Once you get things equalized, it will likely come back with a vengeance...

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Your salinity isnt that big of a problem; corals can certainly handle 1.027- its actually close to their natural numbers, remember than hobbiests tend to keep their salinity artificially low.

Tubipora is often difficult to keep. Sometimes the way its harvested, its cut off too close to the polyps- they live for a while, sometimes months, then finally die off. Because of its odd structure, its also easy for debris to settle in and between tubes, which can smother polyps too.

They like pretty intense water current, and can take pretty strong light. Try moving it somewhere in the tank with a heavy current and see how it does for you.

 

[dendro982]

Mine had some kind of the common for them predators, and was eaten before I knew what is going on.

 

[balticbsc3]

Thanks for your help! I'll try moving it up in the tank and getting some more current on it and see what happens. It seems as if a lot of the polyps have fallen off. I wonder if it is too late to do anything for it, but I'll give it a shot.