Is This Coral Dying??

bugsman

bugsman

Member
I got a Brain Maze coral awhile back. Just a frag and nothing very big. At first it seemed like it was doing well, but over the last few days I've noticed it turning brownish. Would someone please tell me what's happening to this coral? I moved it today hoping to put it in a better area. Here's a picture.

I also have another question. My zoas are reproducing and seem to be doing very well except for one spot. It's been the same size and in the same area for about 2 or 3 weeks. Does anyone know what's going on there? Nothing else is happening and like I said they are getting bigger. If you look at the picture, it's right where one of Sam's antenna is.

Thanks for any help.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
In the first pic of the maze brain, it looks like it's bleaching. The coral has expelled it's zooxanthellae because of water conditions or lighting or flow.. in any rate, it's very difficult to treat it, and it will probably die. I can kind of see some tissue necrosis along the edges. If it was fine when you got it and it's not now, then there is something wrong with your water quality or water flow or lighting or even a combination of everything. Check your nitrates and phosphates first, to see if there are any abnormalities and then check your pH, alkalinity and calcium next to see if they are in ideal conditions.
What kind of lighting do you have? Give us some tank stats and maybe we can help you.
 
bugsman

bugsman

Member
I have a 28 gallon JBJ nano cube HQI - metal halide lighting. It is stock as bought except I added the JBJ nano skimmer to it which seems to work fine. I did a water change and today I'll test all my parameters and post them, but last Sunday all parameters were:
Temp: 78
Salinity - 1.023
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 5
Phosphates - .25
CA- 420
Alk - 10 (8 drops)
I'm using a sponge, chemi pure elite and puregen in the filter rack. The only other critters is the tank are the zoanthids, mushrooms, frogspawn, 2 percs, the cleaner shrimp and CUC.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Platygyra sp, if that is what you have, bleach and have tissue loss but once the environment favorable the can recover.It seems that flow is more important than lighting for these coral. They need a fairly strong current, not direct blowing on them, to keep them clean of detritus. I believe that your lighting should be more than sufficient for this coral, but that you may have shocked it when you put it under the LED's if the lighting it came from was signigicantly different. It is always a good idea to acclimate any coral to your lighting conditions. The other thing to remember is that this coral will grow quickly under the right conditions and will use up a lot of calcium. Gonna need to keep an eye on your parameters, calc, alk and mag. Oh yeah and they do have some nasty sweeper tentacles.
Here is a picture of mine.

And here you can see the sweepers, the tentacles with the white balls at the end. They are quite long now, about 3 inches when extended.
 
bugsman

bugsman

Member
I just moved it yesterday in what I hope is a more favorable location. It was down on the sand but I've now moved it to a bit higher on a rock where it's getting more flow. I just took all my parameters again (8:30am). Lights came on a 7:00am.
Temp - 78
Salinity - 1.024
PH - 8.0
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
CA - 440
Nitrates - 10
Phos - .25
Alk - 8.75 (7 drops)
I still don't have a test for magnesium - I'm trying to get my nitrates and phop lower but can't seem to do it. Any suggestions on that? I'm going to cut down on feeding for one - what else would be good to do. I sure hope my maze will look that good someday. That's just beautiful.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
well with ur cal and alk being in those ranges..i couldn imagine ur mag couldnt be to far out of whack!
You use api kits? With 7 drops on ur dkh test with api it would be around 7 more so than 8...u said alk so im guessing u use a diff set of tests!
Bleaching can also occur if the coral has had lack of oxygen, light, proper water, proper flow, even temp...lets say if it was in a bag during transport for extended periods of time. How was it when u bought it and how long did it take to get that way?
High light, good random flow, and great water conditions are the only way of bringing it back...but most of the time it is known as a dead coral!
Could take months for it to come back!
 
bugsman

bugsman

Member
I'm using Tropic Marin KH Alk test kit. I buy my RO water from the LFS and by the parameters I put down above, what is your opinion on my water quality? I'd really like to get the phosphate and nitrates down some. I've been doing about a 2 to 3 gallon water change every other week. Considering changing that to weekly to see if that helps. I'm hoping by moving the coral to a different location that the water flow will be better for it. I'm just going to leave it where it is and see what happens. I've had the coral since July or so (not sure exactly, my main computer went down with my log on it - in the shop for repair). So it's taken that long to get this way. It's the brown coloring that has just started to show up in the last couple of weeks that started getting me concerned. Thanks for the input and if you have any other advice, it's appreciated.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
well if its browning than its most likely gathering up a lot of zooxanthellea (photosynthesis algae) !
It was probably under higher light before and is now trying to adapt to ur lights.
Kinda like if a famer needs more food...wats he do? He grows and plants more food! LOL
if u want ur trates and phates to go down...more frequent w/c's would help, protien skimming, turf scrubber, or a fuge is wat i suggest!
 
bugsman

bugsman

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1guyDude http:///t/387943/is-this-coral-dying#post_3417846
well if its browning than its most likely gathering up a lot of zooxanthellea (photosynthesis algae) !
It was probably under higher light before and is now trying to adapt to ur lights.
Kinda like if a famer needs more food...wats he do? He grows and plants more food! LOL
if u want ur trates and phates to go down...more frequent w/c's would help, protien skimming, turf scrubber, or a fuge is wat i suggest!
Would it take two months for that to start happening? It just seems like a long time , but then again, I'm definitely new at all this - so I'll keep watch on it and see what happens.
I plan on starting a HOB fuge, just have not done it yet. Thanks for looking over this thread and responding.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
honestly from my expierence i couldnt tell u!
I had one sps frag brown on me and i ended up donating it to a fellow reefer not to far from me!
Reef clubs are a great source for friends, info, and deals!
 
tur4k

tur4k

Member
I would do a large water change (around 30%) to get the nitrates and phosphates down. I would also use some GFO to lower those phosphates. Either a bag of Chemipure elite or Phosban. Phosban works best with a reactor, but it does come with a mesh bag. You can just dumps some of it into the bag and toss the bag between some sump baffles.
 
bugsman

bugsman

Member
I plan on doing another water change this weekend. I already have a bag of Chemipure elite in my filter rack along with puregen and a sponge/filter floss. I have a JBJ Nanocube. Everything else in the tank seems to be doing pretty good. I want to add another fish or 2 to my tank and maybe a brittle star. Thanks for in the info.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
actually the OP had okay ranges of cal and alk....this makes me think his mag should be good as well!
His coral bleached because of the shock of either the light, flow, or levels wernt that similar to the previous system the coral was in! Those dang sps are touchy!
 
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