Sick Welsophyllia

benihana

New member
For the past 2-3 months my Welsophyllia has been really retracted, to the point of showing it skelleton during the day. At night it puffs up a little, but not anywhere close to what it was like. When I first got it (about 5 months ago) it was probably ~6" when fully open and puffed up, now it would be lucky to hit 4".

All of my params are spot on, and no other coral/fish has been affected. It was on my sandbed from the day that I got it, and then after it had been retracted for a while I moved it to a slightly shaded area thinking that it may be getting to much light, even though I have not changed anything in my tank (lights, pumps, flow direction, flow velocity, etc...)

Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them or if anyone has any ideas on what to do to get it back to looking healthy?


Thoughts??
 
Do you supplement Iodine? Brightwell Aquatics has this to say about Iodine:
"Presence of iodine is vital to hermatypic invertebrates because it is used to detoxify excess oxygen produced by zooxanthellae. This oxygen irritates sensitive tissue. Corals and clams that appear to shrivel or close under intense lighting are likely attempting to shade their zooxanthellae symbionts to reduce the rate of oxygen production. Iodide essentially bonds with oxygen to form non-toxic iodate, relieving the need to shield zooxanthellae and enabling the host organism to open more fully.
The predominant form of iodine in seawater is iodide. The natural seawater concentration of all iodine species combined is approximately 0.06 ppm, classifying it as a minor element. Even in this small concentration, iodine is required for survival of fishes, crustaceans, macroalgae and kelp, and hermatypic invertebrates alike. The importance of iodine in a reef aquarium cannot be overstated. Iodine binds rapidly with latent organic material and is passively removed by aggressive protein skimming and the use of organic-adsorption products such as activated carbon and specialty resins. The combined biological and chemical depletion of iodine necessitate that its concentration be monitored and the aquarium supplemented as needed. The rate at which iodine is extracted from the water is determined by the stocking density of reef-building livestock, type of lighting, and other biological, physical, and chemical conditions. Once the rate of iodine uptake in the aquarium has been determined, the proper dosing rate of this product can be easily calculated. " --- Select "Product" page and then "Iodion" to get to this information yourself.
 
Iodine would honestly be the last thing on my mind if I were looking at what your looking at benihana. In my own system I see this periodically with my lps when my salinity is off, especially my bubble coral. With LPS, my first suspect would be phosphates, then magnesium, if alk and Ca were in check.

Phosphates are usually the culprit though. Unless your ready and able to measure the iodine uptake in your system, and are also able to differentiate between iodine and iodide with your test kits. Carefull though as some will testify it is rocket fuel for micro algaes when supplementing when not necessary(which IMO is more often than not)...


-Justin
 
After reading this thread and comfirming all my level were fine I added an Iodine suppliment and after over a month with my Welsophyllia not expanding, it expanded fully the very next day.

Temp - 80.2
SG - 1.025
NH4 - 0.0
NO2 - 0.0
NO3 - 0.0
PH - 8.23
Ca - 480
PO4 - 0.03
dKH - 11.6
Mg - 1350
 
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