Brain Coral Doing Poorly

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

Today I was looking through my tank and noticed my brain coral, a coral of about 1.5" diameter had lost around 90% of tissue. The remaining tissue still looks healthy as ever though, the rest is a skeleton. I'll post pics later but the phosphate and nitrate tested at 0, salinity was a bit high 1.028 (I accidentally topped off with saltwater, it had only been that way for a few hours). Every other coral looks great, except for the acan who is right nextdoor to it. Whats up?

mcarroll · Jul 31, 2018

ArowanaLover1902 said:
I'll post pics later but the phosphate and nitrate tested at 0

Did we talk about this already or am I blending threads?

Stop removing nutrients from the water (if you are presently) and strongly consider adding some fertilizer (potassium phosphate as well as nitrate) to stop the effects ASAP.

Diesel · Jul 31, 2018

When I need to answer “what’s up” I need a few pics.
But you can answer this first,
Size of tank?
What kind of fish?
How often you feed and how much?
Do you snack in front of your tank and what?
How do you export nutrients.?
How close are the brain and acan?

ZoWhat · Jul 31, 2018

Brains not doing well boils down to:

* Too much white light (too much PAR)

* Alk (dKH) too high (over 12)

* or in your case, SG being too high or too low

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

I think maybe blending threads, my nutrients seem to usually stay between 0 and very low, I thought this was optimal?

35 gallon, shallow and long. A clown, 2 watchman, a barnacle blenny, and a lawnmower blenny. Very rare feedings, less than once a week. I do not, why? Water changes (every week to other week), lots of biomedia, cheato, and a mangrove. Not very close, about an inch.

I'd probably go with too much white light as I just changed my lighting system and even upped my white light levels, except that one portion is still alive. I'll test Alk.

My big curiosity is that the only other coral that seems even a little upset is the nearby acan, even my other brain coral looks happy (not quite as inflated as usual, but fine).

Diesel · Jul 31, 2018

I would place them a little further from each other.
If other corals are doing great but these two which are only one inch from each other I suspect during lights off a corslwar going on.

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

But they've been together for almost 4 months, I've had that brain for over a year.

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

And the side facing the acan is the best, its the side away from the acan that is dead

Diesel · Jul 31, 2018

Oh, well you see pics will answer all that.

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

Its the regional affection of the tissue that really confuses me, if its parameters why isnt the everything equally affected, if its light, why is only part of it dead, if its a war, why is the tissue away affected?

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

Here it is, you can see the total lack of tissue and exposed skeleton. Also included are pictures of some of my other corals, which are all healthy.

DSC reef · Jul 31, 2018

IMO, looks like a chalice with tissue necrosis. Chalice corals are sensitive to chemistry swings and low nutrients. They can show signs of stress before other corals are affected.

Diesel · Jul 31, 2018

Sometimes you can’t explain the things why they happing.
Everything can be top notch and yet a few others are lacking that.

Imo something in your tank is bothering it and it can be as simple as a shrimp or pest.
Looking at how close some of your corals are I would move it away for a while.
That frogspawn can throw sweepers out as far as 8”.

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 31, 2018

I hadn't considered chalice before, the LFS told me it was a brain and I didn't question it, they usually know what they are doing. It does look way more like a chalice though. I'll move the coral, dial down my white light a bit, and I've done my water change and brought salinity down. Maybe a pest bothering, thats my best bet. Hopefully nothing that spreads. I've never had a problem from the frogspawn besides that zoa under him, he gets stung a bit, I've been meaning to move him anyways.

Diesel · Jul 31, 2018

You ever considered dipping your coral if you see something like this.
Ppl have some good luck that something will come off.

mcarroll · Aug 1, 2018

Flow may be borderline in that area - very hard to see when this is the case.

Low nutrients complicated by marginal flow can definitely be a problem.