sps coral shedding?

[pkirby]

I have a recently introduced coral to my system. it's been in the tank for about 3 weeks now and has suddenly started taking a turn for the worst I'm afraid. It appears to be shedding? I've included a picture to describe what I'm seeing... but I definitely don't understand it. I just tested water parameters and things look great. my other sps corals are looking fine and are growing exceptionally well in my opinion.

just to clarify, 'great' water parameters are:
alkalinity: 11
calcium: 420
ph: 8.0
temp: 79f
nitrate: undetectable
phosphate: undetectable

the system is 75 gallon display with a 30 gallon sump (holding roughly 15 gallons of water)

surely someone else has experienced this and can give me some pointers Do I need to try adjusting flow in this area of the tank? Should I try moving it lower in the tank? The person who I bought it from was keeping it under a 1000w MH... I'm keeping it under t5ho, so I can't imagine that I'm giving it too much light.

Thanks

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[Reef Bass]

To me it appears to be sliming, or producing excess mucous. Typically this a defensive reaction to being touched or irritated.

IMHO, your alk is high. I like 8-9dkh. You also don't mention your magnesium level?

 

[pkirby]

I agree it appears to be irritated. I haven't touched the coral since I put it in the tank a few weeks ago, but I guess it's possible part of the clean up crew has crawled on it at night. I haven't noticed anything bothering it during the day...

I haven't tested for magnesium before, so I have no clue what my levels would be. Could magnesium level affect the coral sliming/shedding?

 

[Sharkbait25]

To me it appears to be sliming, or producing excess mucous. Typically this a defensive reaction to being touched or irritated.QUOTE]

I've had this happen to one of my acro's and the neighboring acro that was placed to the top left of it was covered in the mucous and a few days later it became white and died, so if i were you i'd keep an eye on where the mucous goes cause it may kill your other sps... bad coral!!

 

[3skitch3]

+1

+1

+ 1 for it looks like it's just sliming. Usually goes away after an hour or so with the flow of the tank in my experience. Something must have gotten to it.

 

[Reef Bass]

I agree this reaction usually dissapates quickly, especially with decent flow. The times I see it most often are after handling or after being stung. Any chance something else is tagging it?

 

[pkirby]

nothing else is close enough to be stinging it... I can add an additional powerhead to the tank and direct flow closer to it; although it's currently pretty close to a koralia 1040, it's to the side of the stream. Do you think that would help?

The display is 75 gallon. The return pump should be pushing around 300gph when I consider the head loss... and there are two koralia 1040's, one on each side of the tank. It's a minimalist aquascape with only 60lbs or so of live rock in the display so I assume I have enough currently. I would be opposed to adding a third pump though, either a 750gph or another 1040

 

[chrishayes]

I have a valida that does this EVERYtime I do a waterchange. Regarless of anything else. Also if I stir up the sand or turkey baste the rock. As everyone has said, after flow is restored it clears after an hour or so. +1 to the fella that said watch your other corals for the slime getting on them. All my corals look at the valida like the kid in class that wont shut up! lol it bothers them, a lot!

 

[pkirby]

I've added an additional 800gph pump to my tank that will stay in until the 2 additional 750gph koralia pumps I ordered today arrive. that should increase my turnover to around 50x... at least I should be able to rule out a flow issue at that point!

 

[power boat jim]

Chech the tank for micro bubbles, if they are present in the tank in dense enough numbers the coral will get irritated by them and slime.