Caulastrea melting away

[Mattie H.]

I've had this Caulastrea for over a year, he grew from 3 heads to about ten. Has always been very healthy and happy looking. I've never moved him. In the last number of weeks he's started to look like a saggy old lady, and now I'm starting to see skeleton showing. What could the problem be, and how can I solve it? I haven't made any lighting changes in over a year. I'm at a loss. Please help!

Before and after pics.

Before:

Now:

 

[Reeferdood]

Hard to guess from only a picture. Can you tell us about your system like parameters, lighting and your filtration method?
Also, have you made any changes over the last few months?

 

[Mattie H.]

Hard to guess from only a picture. Can you tell us about your system like parameters, lighting and your filtration method?
Also, have you made any changes over the last few months?

Here are my parameters as of a few days ago. Don't mind the ammonia, it's typically at dead 0, but right before my last test I had a rock anemone crawl under a rock and die. Ammonia is back to 0 as of today.

 

[Mattie H.]

Hard to guess from only a picture. Can you tell us about your system like parameters, lighting and your filtration method?
Also, have you made any changes over the last few months?

I had a doing incident about two weeks ago where the doser dumpes about 35oz of soda ash. Caused a calc precip, water took a day or so to clear up. Didn't seem to affect much, I did a 1/3 water change and dosed the calc levels back up to where they needed to be. Don't know if that was before or after the caula started to go bad.

 

[Mattie H.]

Also had an outbreak of hair algae about a month or so ago when my skimmer overflowed lots of poo poo back into the tank. Got it under control after a short while with hard skimming, and heavier than normal carbon and gfo in the reactor. Also used Algaefix for a few weeks to kill off what had grown, worked like a charm.

 

[Mattie H.]

Here's what it looks like now. It's opening in the evenings, but the skeleton is real exposed, it's not puffy and full like it used to be.

 

[DSC reef]

Looks like possible chemistry swings could be the culprit, that salinity is a bit low as well. It might be safe but I'd be scared to add algae fix in a tank with corals. With the anemone dying and a ammonia spike, it could be the perfect storm.

 

[Mattie H.]

Maybe not so coincidentally, this Birdsnest also started to go bad at the same time. It was awesome and fuzzy until a few weeks ago.

But so strange, everything else looks great - LPS, Montys and softies.

 

[Mattie H.]

The anemone dying wasnt the cause, that happened well after this issue cropped up. But you still may be right. I have always manually dosed, but the Alk and Mg does swing quite a bit. I bought a nice doser and I'm setting it up now. If that's the issue, is there anything I can do to save this frag as it is now?

Is the Salinity really low enough to cause issues? This display has always been at 1.023 since I started two years ago... But I can always graduate it up.

Looks like possible chemistry swings could be the culprit, that salinity is a bit low as well. It might be safe but I'd be scared to add algae fix in a tank with corals. With the anemone dying and a ammonia spike, it could be the perfect storm.

 

[DSC reef]

I think the birdsnest is a goner and the calaustrea is a waiting game. If you can find a good piece on the birdsnest then you can try to frag it.

 

[Mattie H.]

Agree, sadly. Its dropping branches left and right, I'm keeping whatever looks alive and hoping something is salvageable.

I think the birdsnest is a goner and the calaustrea is a waiting game. If you can find a good piece on the birdsnest then you can try to frag it.

 

[FugeTown]

Dude your magnesium level is pretty low , I think it’s supposed to be around 1350

 

[Mattie H.]

Heck, I dose it higher than 1350 regularly, but that stuff gets sucked up like nobody's business...

Dude your magnesium level is pretty low , I think it’s supposed to be around 1350

 

[FugeTown]

Heck, I dose it higher than 1350 regularly, but that stuff gets sucked up like nobody's business...

Yea me too I dose 5ml of bulk reef supply liquid which keeps us at 1365

 

[Mattie H.]

Yea me too I dose 5ml of bulk reef supply liquid which keeps us at 1365

Alk and Mg are the very first things going into the doser. Ca doesn't seem to deplete nearly as fast.

 

[Reeferdood]

What is killing your system is likely the swings. I recommend if you want to be successful at keeping a healthy tank you should buy a GOOD doser and do a very good job of testing.. This hobby requires more time than most people really can imagine..
I like trying to get people going right the first time instead of learning like I did. School of hard knocks...

 

[FugeTown]

I agree with reeferdood , I started the stability business with my auto topoff system keeping my salinity stable and now I’m filling my topoff reservoir with kalkwasser which keeps my calcium and alkalinity very consistent. Oh yea btw I made the auto top off myself if you couldn’t tell

 

[Flippers4pups]

I agree that pramameter swings are a huge factor. In times of corals dieing, such as your birdsnest, frag off what you can save tissue wise. Candy cane should recover once your water pramameters are back in line.

Anenome dieing in the tank requires a larger than usual water change followed by using GAC for a few days.

Your mag is low, your N03 needs to be 5-10ppm, not 0.

During this time of adjustment, reduce your flow and lighting if possible. Once your corals recover, increase your lighting schedule slowly over a couple of days and increase flow.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Mattie H.]

Your mag is low, your N03 needs to be 5-10ppm, not 0.

Should I shut off the carbon reactor? Gfo as well?

 

[Mattie H.]

Trust me, I think I probably test TOO much! But there are always definitely swings, especially with the Alk and Mg. They drop like crazy week after week, and until now I've been dosing BRS 2 Part manually about once a week. I just bought a nice 4-pump doser and set up the Alk and Mg dosing. Hopefully a few weeks of steadiness will make those candy canes look better. God, I hope so.

What is killing your system is likely the swings. I recommend if you want to be successful at keeping a healthy tank you should buy a GOOD doser and do a very good job of testing.. This hobby requires more time than most people really can imagine..
I like trying to get people going right the first time instead of learning like I did. School of hard knocks...