What happend to my coral?

[Seehag]

This was my center piece coral it was out in front and looking great until today. When I came home for work only 1/2 of it was open with the fingers out. That was strange because it has always looked fully opened. Now it is looking white on the bottom and there is a brown fur kind of hanging off of it. Take a look at the picture, is this what coral does when it dies? I hope not I fell terrible if it is. Water still look's good, ammonia has never been any higher than .50 and Nitrates are 40.


Art


5 day's ago

After

 

[scowiii]

Yeah Mine is doing the same which came attached to my first package rock. Im not really going to get depressed about it since the tank is brand new. Just like everyone says learn as you go and not mourn. But Richard might have some insight with this type of coral.

 

[HowardW]

Hmmm.....hard to tell but it's possible from that pic that a crab or something else got hold of it. I once had a stone crab that completely tore the coral off of a rock and dragged it into his hiding place.

It's also possible it's bleaching from too much light or the water parameters. It's been my experience those guys like lower subdued lighting, good flow, and food. I would try moving it into a shadier place in your tank and keep an eye on it.

 

[liverock]

RTN?

RTN?

Looks like RTN...have you added any indo corals to the tank?

Richard TBS

 

[HowardW]

Ah yes.....excellent point, RTN is also very possible.


Have you had any temp spikes or other water issues that may have stressed out that coral? I would still just try placing it in a shadier area and maybe running carbon for several days and see what happens.

 

[Seehag]

I have not added anything to the tank except the package and what came with it. As far as Temp spike's I don't think so the temp has been variable from 79 to 81 deg but not a fast change, I haven't traced that down yet. The heater's are set for 75 but it look's like the pumps are heating the tank up. The light's run for 6 hr's, I did drop the salinity down from 1.026 to 1.025 slowly over Sunday and Monday.

I did however see a snail or hermit climb up it the other day, 1 day before this so maybe he is the culprit.

Art

 

[jazz881]

RTN? What is RTN?

 

[HowardW]

<<< the temp has been variable from 79 to 81 deg but not a fast change, >>>


Might not be a bad idea to slowly get the temp down in the 73-75 range if possible, nitrates at 40 is also kinda high and can be reduced via water changes.


RTN = Rapid Tissue Necrosis

 

[Seehag]

Howard

I thought they were high but I was waiting on the Ammonia to get above 1.00 as it say's on Tbs site. I was under the impression that changing water early would prolong the cycle.. Getting water temp down is going to be a problem at this point, because that is where it stabilized. I have a fan blowing on the fuge and two on the top f the tank. Don't really want to get a chiller, I have read that temp's as high as 85 are ok, but you know how that is, I would rather have it around 75 pr 76.


Art

 

[figuerres]

This is something I have not quite figured out but some things I think I can say are:


1) move it to some shade, they seem to not do well with strong lighting.

2) they seem to need very good flow.

3) shock! I think the switch from turbid gulf water at 10 or more feet down to a tank with less than 3 feet of clear water and strong light and high temp starts this problem.

IMHO they start to expell the zooxznthelle due to the shock and that is the "bleaching" you see, then if they still can't cope they start to die and alge / bactria start feeding on the dying tissue.

some times they will re-grow. some times they will also bail -- eject polyops.

I have seen the best long term health when the light levels are medium to low and in the shade they do not bleach as often.

also water temps may be a factor.

I now have a chiller and I see some places where some of this coral is coming back where it looked dead before.

after may / june I may order some and try a few "tests"
for example I have a frag in a fuge with minimal light and it looks like it is happy, other bits in the shade and one colony at the bottom of my tank that is lighter brown but seems stable and not dying.

I think we also need to get a solid ID of what this coral is, perhaps we can get someone to examine some dead ones and check the details... might help a lot ...

try some shade and stong flow, blast the gunk off with a turkey baster every day and see what happens.

also feed it.... seems like cup corals and gorgonians feed a lot and this lives with them ...

 

[Red_Six]

Got Phosphates?

Got Phosphates?

What are your phosphate levels? I have lost most of my tube corals on my TBS rock. They started dying about 2-3 months after I got The Package and I had no idea what the cause was. I thought my water parameters were fine and suspected the light issue; however I had tube corals all over my tank in all degrees of lighting so that did not make much sense. Looking at my reef log, I first tested for phosphates 1 month after I got part one and the levels were then already 0.6 ppm. I did not test again for 8 month and the levels were still at 0.5 ppm. The correct level should be less that 0.03 ppm:eek1: . By this time most of my tube corals were gone and I was fighting algae problems. Reading up on algae I learned what harmful effects the phosphates have both on algae and coral growth. I have since added a phosban reactor and now my levels are less than 0.02 ppm. The reactor was relatively cheap and easy to set up. I would recommend one to anyone setting up a reef tank.

It has been a little over a month since I added the phosban and I have noticed some new growth on my tube coral colonies that I previously thought were dead. The only other water chemistry parameter that was off was my nitrates, but they did not start elevating until after the tube corals were already severely damaged.


Read Randy Holmes article on Reef Aquarium Water Parameters

 

[HowardW]

Significantly higher than NSW levels of alk have also been known to cause RTN.