Pocillopora damicornis

[heartbreak7]

Hello all,

I have a large colony of pink pocillopora about the 3/4 the size of a basketball. This thing grows verrry thick, hardly any space between branches. The problem is it seems as if the lower inside branches, and the underneath branches are becoming skeleton (no tissue), I'm wondering if this is a problem, or the colony is concentrating on growth and allowing the shaded parts to die out? All other SPS in the tank look great. This thing gets great intermittant flow throughout.

Here are some water readings

Alk: 8.4
Cal: 450
PH: 8.0 (a little on the low side)
'trate: ~5
I'm getting a mg kit tomorrow, water changes are done bi-weekly with TMPro

 

[tangdiver]

Might be like others, need alot more flow to keep inner branches alive. IMO more flow, but should not be that bad if you do not do this. It should only "die off" so much...IMO but see what others say.

Good luck,

Grant

 

[sneeyatch]

i have one almost the same size and it's lost some color on the bottom too, but there is no tissue loss - polyp extension is good and growth is good. i think it's because the light just can't get through to the bottom of the colony - branching is just tooooooo thick. kind of reminds me of monti cap when the plates overlap - loss in color, but not dead.