Candy cane coral dying skeleton exposed

[Aquascape Girl]

Hello, I have 3 candy cane corals in my tank. The flesh on one of them has steadily been receding over the past few weeks. Now most of the skeleton is exposed with very little flesh left, I realize that this one might be beyond saving. The other 2 candy cane corals have been doing fine until recently. I noticed that the flesh underneath their heads is slowly starting to recede like the first candy cane.
My water parameters are:
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 78.8
PH: 8.3
Alkalinity: 9.6
Nitrate: 2 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Calcium: 410
Magnesium: 1395

After reading about possible causes, I think the alkalinity might be too high and the the phosphates too low.. I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt, should I switch to a salt with lower alkalinity? Also what is the best way to raise the phosphate level? I am a newcomer to the hobby. My tank is 28.5 gallons and 3.5 months old. It's stocked with 2 clownfish, 5 hermit crabs, 3 nerite snails, and a few other corals including euphyllia, a ricordea mushroom, a Duncan coral, and a pipe organ coral. All of my other corals except for the candy canes appear to be doing well. Any advice on how to save my candy cane corals is greatly appreciated.

 

[kingjames_dc5]

Best way to add po4 is to feed more or more frequently. I would say your alk is fine your po4 shouldn’t be any higher that 0.05 but definitely no 0. lps tend to like a higher nutrient level in the water. Another thing to consider is the light intensity The coral is receiving. I noticed you said everything else looks pretty good I would start with the light its either getting to much or not enough. Flow can play a role in this as well to much flow can stress the coral causing tissue loss. Also possible things to look at is a pest could be snacking on corals or aggravating it do you dip before adding them to the tank?

 

[Aquascape Girl]

Best way to add po4 is to feed more or more frequently. I would say your alk is fine your po4 shouldn’t be any higher that 0.05 but definitely no 0. lps tend to like a higher nutrient level in the water. Another thing to consider is the light intensity The coral is receiving. I noticed you said everything else looks pretty good I would start with the light its either getting to much or not enough. Flow can play a role in this as well to much flow can stress the coral causing tissue loss. Also possible things to look at is a pest could be snacking on corals or aggravating it do you dip before adding them to the tank?

Hi, thank you for the reply! Right now I only feed once a day, I will increase feeding to twice a day. The coral was higher up in the tank and when the flesh started receding I moved it to the middle, and when it still wasn't doing well I moved it to the sand bed. The other 2 candy canes are in the middle of the tank. I suspected high flow was stressing it out so I got rid of the wave maker and now there is just the flow from the return pump. I dip all of my corals and they went through a 90 day quarantine before I added them to the display tank. I also forgot to mention that I dipped the sick candy cane coral in seachem's reef dip (iodine) a few weeks ago because I thought it might be a bacterial problem since the other 2 candy canes were still doing well. Now that the other 2 are developing the same problem I think it might be an issue with the water parameters.

 

[Lavey29]

Lighting and flow is important with LPS but you got to make sure your nitrate is 5 to 10ppm and phosphate. 05 to .1 for LPS corals.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Hello, I have 3 candy cane corals in my tank. The flesh on one of them has steadily been receding over the past few weeks. Now most of the skeleton is exposed with very little flesh left, I realize that this one might be beyond saving. The other 2 candy cane corals have been doing fine until recently. I noticed that the flesh underneath their heads is slowly starting to recede like the first candy cane.
My water parameters are:
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 78.8
PH: 8.3
Alkalinity: 9.6
Nitrate: 2 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Calcium: 410
Magnesium: 1395

After reading about possible causes, I think the alkalinity might be too high and the the phosphates too low.. I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt, should I switch to a salt with lower alkalinity? Also what is the best way to raise the phosphate level? I am a newcomer to the hobby. My tank is 28.5 gallons and 3.5 months old. It's stocked with 2 clownfish, 5 hermit crabs, 3 nerite snails, and a few other corals including euphyllia, a ricordea mushroom, a Duncan coral, and a pipe organ coral. All of my other corals except for the candy canes appear to be doing well. Any advice on how to save my candy cane corals is greatly appreciated.

They actually don't look terrible to me on the surface. Your stock is very similar to mine on the whole. Alk too high maybe? But mine is up way high in the 12 range constant, no witnessed ill effects on my candy canes. What is your fish or invert stock? Possible something is nipping at them a bit? Good idea in lowering their footprint to mid tank or lower imo....

 

[Aquascape Girl]

Lighting and flow is important with LPS but you got to make sure your nitrate is 5 to 10ppm and phosphate. 05 to .1 for LPS corals.

Thank you for the reply. I think the Nitrate and Phosphates have been too low.. I'm going to try feeding more and see if that helps raise them.

 

[Aquascape Girl]

They actually don't look terrible to me on the surface. Your stock is very similar to mine on the whole. Alk too high maybe? But mine is up way high in the 12 range constant, no witnessed ill effects on my candy canes. What is your fish or invert stock? Possible something is nipping at them a bit? Good idea in lowering their footprint to mid tank or lower imo....

Thank you for the reply. Yeah for some reason it's just the one that looks really bad.. I have 2 clownfish, 5 hermit crabs, and 3 nerite snails. I don't think the clownfish bother them, but sometimes I see the crabs crawling around them.. I don't think the crabs actually touch the coral though.

 

[Lavey29]

Thank you for the reply. I think the Nitrate and Phosphates have been too low.. I'm going to try feeding more and see if that helps raise them.

My corals and overall tank condition got noticeably better with decent nitrates and phosphate numbers. Feeding didn't work. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for several weeks to get my numbers up

 

[HB AL]

To be honest they look fine to me from just looking at the pics. But if tissue is dying off then something is definitely wrong and needs to be rectified asap once the problem is figured out. Good luck

 

[attiland]

Hello, I have 3 candy cane corals in my tank. The flesh on one of them has steadily been receding over the past few weeks. Now most of the skeleton is exposed with very little flesh left, I realize that this one might be beyond saving. The other 2 candy cane corals have been doing fine until recently. I noticed that the flesh underneath their heads is slowly starting to recede like the first candy cane.
My water parameters are:
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 78.8
PH: 8.3
Alkalinity: 9.6
Nitrate: 2 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Calcium: 410
Magnesium: 1395

After reading about possible causes, I think the alkalinity might be too high and the the phosphates too low.. I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt, should I switch to a salt with lower alkalinity? Also what is the best way to raise the phosphate level? I am a newcomer to the hobby. My tank is 28.5 gallons and 3.5 months old. It's stocked with 2 clownfish, 5 hermit crabs, 3 nerite snails, and a few other corals including euphyllia, a ricordea mushroom, a Duncan coral, and a pipe organ coral. All of my other corals except for the candy canes appear to be doing well. Any advice on how to save my candy cane corals is greatly appreciated.

Hi, thank you for the reply! Right now I only feed once a day, I will increase feeding to twice a day. The coral was higher up in the tank and when the flesh started receding I moved it to the middle, and when it still wasn't doing well I moved it to the sand bed. The other 2 candy canes are in the middle of the tank. I suspected high flow was stressing it out so I got rid of the wave maker and now there is just the flow from the return pump. I dip all of my corals and they went through a 90 day quarantine before I added them to the display tank. I also forgot to mention that I dipped the sick candy cane coral in seachem's reef dip (iodine) a few weeks ago because I thought it might be a bacterial problem since the other 2 candy canes were still doing well. Now that the other 2 are developing the same problem I think it might be an issue with the water parameters.

Based on just your water parameters I think your main problem is 0 phosphate and low nitrate. In comparison I run 0.03-0.2ppm phosphate and 5-15ppm nitrate and LPS is happy
Your tank is new based on the pictures and understocked yet so you may want to use some supplement nitrate and phosphate.
I would put that wave maker back too to opposite the return pointing upwards about 1/3 down from the surface facing about th middle of the front glass. point is no corals should have direct flow from wave makers. Flow is your friend.

 

[Shirak]

Try target feeding them a little chopped up mysis or some small pellets presoaked about an hour after lights out. That is when the feeding tentacles usually come out on the candy canes. You may have to coax them if they are bad shape though and turn the flow down or off completely for 30min or so.

 

[Aquascape Girl]

My corals and overall tank condition got noticeably better with decent nitrates and phosphate numbers. Feeding didn't work. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for several weeks to get my numbers up

Yeah there are only 2 fish and a few corals in there right now so I don't think I can feed enough to raise the numbers, dosing is probably a better option. I just ordered some neophos and neonitro. Thank you!

 

[Aquascape Girl]

To be honest they look fine to me from just looking at the pics. But if tissue is dying off then something is definitely wrong and needs to be rectified asap once the problem is figured out. Good luck

Yeah the 2 look fine, but the one in the first picture I posted definitely looks almost dead.. almost all the tissue is gone. Based on the advice I got here, I am going to raise my phosphate and nitrate levels. They are super low, so hopefully that will help!

 

[Aquascape Girl]

Based on just your water parameters I think your main problem is 0 phosphate and low nitrate. In comparison I run 0.03-0.2ppm phosphate and 5-15ppm nitrate and LPS is happy
Your tank is new based on the pictures and understocked yet so you may want to use some supplement nitrate and phosphate.
I would put that wave maker back too to opposite the return pointing upwards about 1/3 down from the surface facing about th middle of the front glass. point is no corals should have direct flow from wave makers. Flow is your friend.

Hi, thank you for the reply! It's good to know what parameters work for other people. I think you are right about the low phosphate and nitrate so I just bought some neophos and neonitro to start dosing. The flow from the return pump is pretty strong even though I turned it down.. but flow from the opposite side of the tank would probably be good so I'll put it back in the place you suggested. I'll just have to make sure it doesn't blast the already stressed out candy cane corals.

 

[HB AL]

Ya, I don't worry about having nitrates and phosphates to low with the giant bioload I have. I have the opposite, keeping them lowish! Whatever you do just make the changes slowly.

 

[Aquascape Girl]

Try target feeding them a little chopped up mysis or some small pellets presoaked about an hour after lights out. That is when the feeding tentacles usually come out on the candy canes. You may have to coax them if they are bad shape though and turn the flow down or off completely for 30min or so.

Okay I will do that! Thank you! I think feeding them is a good idea because right now they aren't getting enough nutrients from the water (tested and found out that phosphate is 0 and nitrate is also pretty low)

 

[Aquascape Girl]

Ya, I don't worry about having nitrates and phosphates to low with the giant bioload I have. I have the opposite, keeping them lowish! Whatever you do just make the changes slowly.

Yeah I didn't even know that having too low nitrates and phosphates was a problem because most people talk about trying to decrease them. I'm really glad I came here for advice! Thanks! I will try to increase the levels slowly.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Yeah I didn't even know that having too low nitrates and phosphates was a problem because most people talk about trying to decrease them. I'm really glad I came here for advice! Thanks! I will try to increase the levels slowly.

You don’t want them too low. Nitrates are mainly just a problem for SPS I think. I don’t even measure my nitrates anymore. Your candy canes don’t look that bad by the way. Mine do this about once a week when they expel water to clean themselves then they reinflate. They do like to be fed. I feed mine mysis once a week. Also, they’re basically immortal. Don’t remove the skeleton even if you think they’re dead because they can grow back. Check out mine below, that’s the day I brought them home vs 6 months vs a year old now.

 

[Lavey29]

Yeah there are only 2 fish and a few corals in there right now so I don't think I can feed enough to raise the numbers, dosing is probably a better option. I just ordered some neophos and neonitro. Thank you!

I had to double dose for 2 weeks before my numbers showed up. Make sure you test every couple days to know when you hit your mark.

 

[Aquascape Girl]

You don’t want them too low. Nitrates are mainly just a problem for SPS I think. I don’t even measure my nitrates anymore. Your candy canes don’t look that bad by the way. Mine do this about once a week when they expel water to clean themselves then they reinflate. They do like to be fed. I feed mine mysis once a week. Also, they’re basically immortal. Don’t remove the skeleton even if you think they’re dead because they can grow back. Check out mine below, that’s the day I brought them home vs 6 months vs a year old now.

Whoa I can't believe that's the same coral!! It looked completely dead in the 6 month photo! It looks so healthy now! Thank you for the photos! It's nice to know that my candy canes could come back. My nitrates are pretty low right now at 2ppm. I bought some neonitro to slowly raise them. They don't look bad in the photos, but just in the past few days I've noticed more tissue dissapearing. Luckily the phosphate and nitrate supplements I bought came in the mail today so I can start raising the levels and hopefully they will become healthy again like your candy cane coral! I've been feeding mine some brine shrimp and LPS coral food when I see the feeding tentacles out at night, but maybe I'll go to the fish store and pick up some mysis since it seems like that's what everyone recommends.