Receding Tissue - Gonistrea Brain

I have a Gonistrea Brain that measures about 3" in diameter and is more or less flat. The tissue is starting to recede. But I also have a Blastomussa wellsi in approximately the same location and it is doing great. It has grown from only having four polyps to eight polyps in a year. My parameters are:

Ph - 8.0
Nh4 - 0.0
Nh2 - 0.0
Nh3 - 0.1
Po4 - 0.01
Ca - 1440
Temp varies from about 77 to 78.5
Sal - 1.025
Lights - Current 24" With Blue @ 75%, White @ 25% and Red and Green @ 15%
Water is 8" Deep
Lights are 1.5" off the top of the water.
Flow is a HOB Penguin Power Filter 150

Here is a picture of the Gonistrea brain, you can see the tissue receding at the edges.

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Here is a picture of the Wellsi and it is growing well.

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Any ideas why the Gonistrea is receding?

Thanks,
 
I will have to check my Alk. I did not record my latest or did not run the test.

Once a week I take a cube of Mysis or Brine shrimp and shave some off with a knife. I turn off the circulation and use a pipette and put some on each of my corals.

I do a 4 gallon water change each week to combat the algae/cyno.

Do I need to increase my Phosphate and Nitrate levels or do I need to use some other method of feeding these types of corals?

I only have one fish in the tank.....a Pajama Cardinal.

Thanks,
 
I will have to check my Alk. I did not record my latest or did not run the test.

Once a week I take a cube of Mysis or Brine shrimp and shave some off with a knife. I turn off the circulation and use a pipette and put some on each of my corals.

I do a 4 gallon water change each week to combat the algae/cyno.

Do I need to increase my Phosphate and Nitrate levels or do I need to use some other method of feeding these types of corals?

I only have one fish in the tank.....a Pajama Cardinal.

Thanks,

Corals will starve when there is no N and P, and/or insufficient or incorrect spectrum of light.

A good target level (except SPS only) would be nitrate 2-5ppm and phosphate 0.03-0.07ppm.

Increased feedings should move you in that direction, slowly over time.

While ALK needs to remain stable, it combines with Ca, to allow a Stoney coral to build its skeleton, the expansion/contraction of the flesh would be more of a nutrition thing IMM.
 
I suggest getting LPS pellets to feed in between the Mysis shrimp feedings. You won't have to worry about over polluting your water they will be snatched up during target feeding. And like said above a little dirtier water for LPS is always better and usually higher on the Alk spectrum. As it gets stronger you will notice that that Coral will send out very long sweepers and have feeding tentacles out more, it's crazy!

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 
I have slowed down on my water changes.....went back to the twice a month routine. I have noticed some algae starting to come back. Will wait and see what happens. I am going to add an additional pump to increase the water flow as well.

Thanks for the note about the LPS pellets.

Regards,
 
What Par level would you keep it at. I am having a similar issue with a favia right now and im wondering if I have it in to much or little light. Odd that it looks like its receding from the left side, not the right but there is no other coral there that could sting it and I don't think flow is any different on that side. I have not been feeding either though. Only ask the light question because I have recently played with the setting on my LEDS by increasing the power for longer.
 
I have quit cleaning the tank so much. I have some algae come back. I ran another series of tests yesterday and got the following numbers.

Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 76.9
Ph - 8.2
dKH - 8.4
Calcium - 450
Mag - 1400
Amonia - 0.00
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate - 5.0
Phosphate - 0.01/0.02

I am going to try to maintain these levels for a while and see how the corals react.

Regards,
 
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