Stylophora with a Black Patch post-algae. Suggestions?

[ArtsyAxolotl]

I posted this on another website but I thought it couldn't hurt to post someplace else... So I joined this site! Maybe someone here can help me out? I'm just a little concerned.

So I got this gorgeous coral from a LFS yesterday. Guy said it was a Stylophora. Anyway, got the coral home, and as I was prepping to acclimate it, I noticed that the plug it came on was absolutely coated in a coarse, reddish brown, grass-like algae. What really got me worried was that there was also a patch of bright green algae that looked suspiciously like bubble algae, so I decided it was best to just remove the coral from the plug and just avoid getting that junk in my tank.

So as I'm trying to get the coral off the plug, I noticed that the brownish algae was growing up the back side of the coral. The tank setup at the lfs didn't really allow me to see the back and I wish it had, because I definitely didn't see this. So I carefully scrapped the algae off, and to my dismay the coral was a sooty grey/black color under the algae. There's also a little patch on the top of the branch that was turning black that is also looking a bit greyish. The opposite branches look fine.

I'm still a newbie to the reefing hobby, so I've never seen anything like this before. Is my coral ok? Or is it dying? I know coral turning white is bad, but what about the opposite? Any tips would be amazing. It took food just fine last night, but I'm just worried that black will spread or get worse.





Also, have a bonus pic of my pep helping me take pictures of the coral before I glue it down

 

[joshky]

First off, well done on removing the coral from the frag plug! Great habit to get into and can save you and your tank a lot of frustration.

Those black spots are literally the dead skeleton, which the algae was growing on. If the algae persists in your tank on the skeleton you may want to consider fragging the piece up to remove the old dead skeleton, but if it doesn't return I would leave it as is and it'll grow over it in no time given correct conditions.

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

I've always heard putting unfamiliar plugs in was a bad idea anyway, but I'm glad I did good haha. I find them hard to mount with the plugs, to be honest. The only plugs I kept were one on the bottom of a monti because, well, I don't know how I would have gotten that one off, and one under an acro because I couldn't get it off the plug. Neither had anything but purple coralline algae so I wasn't worried. this one worried me

I wondered if it was something dead.. Thanks for explaining it! I could only find threads of people's corals turning white when they started to die. So far I haven't seen the algae growing back, although if it does I'm definitely going to frag it. the one branch has no spotting what so ever, so I'd probably keep that piece.

So the fact that part of the skeleton is dead is fine? That's a relief. I'm glad it isn't a disease or something that will spread.

 

[joshky]

I've always heard putting unfamiliar plugs in was a bad idea anyway, but I'm glad I did good haha. I find them hard to mount with the plugs, to be honest. The only plugs I kept were one on the bottom of a monti because, well, I don't know how I would have gotten that one off, and one under an acro because I couldn't get it off the plug. Neither had anything but purple coralline algae so I wasn't worried. this one worried me

I wondered if it was something dead.. Thanks for explaining it! I could only find threads of people's corals turning white when they started to die. So far I haven't seen the algae growing back, although if it does I'm definitely going to frag it. the one branch has no spotting what so ever, so I'd probably keep that piece.

So the fact that part of the skeleton is dead is fine? That's a relief. I'm glad it isn't a disease or something that will spread.

Those are old dead spots from the look of it, given good water parameters and time it should heal over to where you couldn't even tell it was there to begin with. If you do have to frag it just glue it back together the best you can, the fresh wounds should be easier for the stylo to grow back over and may even incite a growing response.