Candy cane coral splitting or dying?

Macsreefs · Jan 25, 2023

I can’t tell what’s going on with my candy cane coral … I got a new ai prime as a early Christmas gift did the acclimation settings and everything seems like they love it my hammers and torches are splitting a bunch already but my candy came I can’t tell…. It doesn’t look happy… help please I just got a water test and they said everything’s fine with the water too.

DanyL · Jan 25, 2023

Tha's not a happy Candy Cane unfortunately, it's receding.

From my experience with different kinds of Candy Canes, including a neon green like yours they usually thrive in pretty much all lighting conditions, even 500 PAR doesn't seem to hurt them. However, a too fast of a change could shock any coral and it could very well be the case here too.

My suggestion is to make an Iodine dip in an attempt to stop the infection, and place the candy in a less lighten area, even slightly shaded for a couple of weeks, then slowly, over a month or so introduce it back to more light.
It may take awhile for it to start growing again, so you'll need to be patient.

Also, once the receding stops, you might want to cut away the dead heads for aesthetics as they will not regrow over the exposed skeleton.

To ensure it isn't a fast-reactor for an otherwise delayed reaction of the others, what are your water parameters?
Can you tell us if there was any swing or trend you noticed in the past month?

vetteguy53081 · Jan 25, 2023

Macsreefs said:
I can’t tell what’s going on with my candy cane coral … I got a new ai prime as a early Christmas gift did the acclimation settings and everything seems like they love it my hammers and torches are splitting a bunch already but my candy came I can’t tell…. It doesn’t look happy… help please I just got a water test and they said everything’s fine with the water too.

This is tissue recession and due to stress caused bt several factors:
Light too bright ( which seems may be- Moderate light and water flow is best)
Too much water flow
Elevated Phosphate and even nitrate (Nitrate <15 and Phos .04-.08)
elevated salinity
Lack of feeding
Ph Very low
irritation by sponge growth which lifts tissue literally off the skeleton

Macsreefs · Jan 25, 2023

Okay thank you I got a water test 3 days ago they said everything looked good. I don’t really keep track and write down all of the parameters, I just take in a some water and have them test it.
I think it’s due to the light like you said now. I recently got an Ai prime light as an early Christmas gift and I had it on the acclimation mode, it finally finished and now I’m noticing this …. So I will do a iodine dip and put him in a shaded area for a while and cut away the dead. All of my other corals like my torches, hammers, Xenia, rock flower anemones, alveopora, green star polyp, montiporas, Duncan’s and zoas seem to love it!
Thanks again

DanyL said:
Tha's not a happy Candy Cane unfortunately, it's receding.

From my experience with different kinds of Candy Canes, including a neon green like yours they usually thrive in pretty much all lighting conditions, even 500 PAR doesn't seem to hurt them. However, a too fast of a change could shock any coral and it could very well be the case here too.

My suggestion is to make an Iodine dip in an attempt to stop the infection, and place the candy in a less lighten area, even slightly shaded for a couple of weeks, then slowly, over a month or so introduce it back to more light.
It may take awhile for it to start growing again, so you'll need to be patient.

Also, once the receding stops, you might want to cut away the dead heads for aesthetics as they will not regrow over the exposed skeleton.

To ensure it isn't a fast-reactor for an otherwise delayed reaction of the others, what are your water parameters?
Can you tell us if there was any swing or trend you noticed in the past month?

Okay thank you I got a water test 3 days ago they said everything looked good. I don’t really keep track and write down all of the parameters, I just take in a some water and have them test it.
I think it’s due to the light like you said now. I recently got an Ai prime light as an early Christmas gift and I had it on the acclimation mode, it finally finished and now I’m noticing this …. So I will do a iodine dip and put him in a shaded area for a while and cut away the dead. All of my other corals like my torches, hammers, Xenia, rock flower anemones, alveopora, green star polyp, montiporas, Duncan’s and zoas seem to love it!
Thanks again!

Typhon · Jan 25, 2023

Yeah.. looks like TN. I would recommend dipping the candy cane too.

I would recommend "Brightwell MediCoral Coral Dip". I had good luck with it dipping a hammers frag when shipping delays cause TN too.

DanyL · Jan 25, 2023

Macsreefs said:
Okay thank you I got a water test 3 days ago they said everything looked good. I don’t really keep track and write down all of the parameters, I just take in a some water and have them test it.
I think it’s due to the light like you said now. I recently got an Ai prime light as an early Christmas gift and I had it on the acclimation mode, it finally finished and now I’m noticing this …. So I will do a iodine dip and put him in a shaded area for a while and cut away the dead. All of my other corals like my torches, hammers, Xenia, rock flower anemones, alveopora, green star polyp, montiporas, Duncan’s and zoas seem to love it!
Thanks again

I advice you to start do your own tests at home.
They really aren't difficult as they may seem at first, and you'll master it after a few times.

The added benefit is that you're able to test your own water when issues like this arise and see if there is any problem on the spot as well as to follow up with fixes accompanied by daily tests sometimes.

You also really do need to track your parameters to be able to detect any trends early on and take action when needed.

Macsreefs · Jan 25, 2023

DanyL said:
I advice you to start do your own tests at home.
They really aren't difficult as they may seem at first, and you'll master it after a few times.

The added benefit is that you're able to test your own water when issues like this arise and see if there is any problem on the spot as well as to follow up with fixes accompanied by daily tests sometimes.

You also really do need to track your parameters to be able to detect any trends early on and take action when needed.

I’ll do that! Any test you recommend with a link possibly? I looked into it before and couldn’t really find anything that looked promising. I’ve seen like the big kits with like 7 test just not 100% sure.

vetteguy53081 · Jan 25, 2023

Macsreefs said:
Okay thank you I got a water test 3 days ago they said everything looked good. I don’t really keep track and write down all of the parameters, I just take in a some water and have them test it.
I think it’s due to the light like you said now. I recently got an Ai prime light as an early Christmas gift and I had it on the acclimation mode, it finally finished and now I’m noticing this …. So I will do a iodine dip and put him in a shaded area for a while and cut away the dead. All of my other corals like my torches, hammers, Xenia, rock flower anemones, alveopora, green star polyp, montiporas, Duncan’s and zoas seem to love it!
Thanks again

Okay thank you I got a water test 3 days ago they said everything looked good. I don’t really keep track and write down all of the parameters, I just take in a some water and have them test it.
I think it’s due to the light like you said now. I recently got an Ai prime light as an early Christmas gift and I had it on the acclimation mode, it finally finished and now I’m noticing this …. So I will do a iodine dip and put him in a shaded area for a while and cut away the dead. All of my other corals like my torches, hammers, Xenia, rock flower anemones, alveopora, green star polyp, montiporas, Duncan’s and zoas seem to love it!
Thanks again!

assure they are NOT using Api test kits to check your water asthey often produce false test results.

DanyL · Jan 25, 2023

Macsreefs said:
I’ll do that! Any test you recommend with a link possibly? I looked into it before and couldn’t really find anything that looked promising. I’ve seen like the big kits with like 7 test just not 100% sure.

There are 5 main parameters you should follow and make sure to keep stable and adjust when needed.
Some weekly and others once every 2 to 3 weeks.

weekly:
- Alkalinity
- Calcium
- Magnesium

Every 2 to 3 weeks:
- Nitrate
- Phosphate

I highly recommend you to use the Salifert tests kits, but Red Sea are good as well (although some find them slightly more difficult to use).

For phosphate specifically, I recommend to use Hanna Phosphate ULR checker, because the other kits are hard to read and mostly a hit and miss on the color comparison.