Chalice not doing well, any advice?

octoberfest · Oct 13, 2011

I recently picked this chalice up and it's highly pi$$ed off. I have many other corals in my tank that are very happy but this one is obviously not. What worries me is obviously the skin pulling away from the skeleton.

Tank parameters are:

Calcium 450
Alk 9
Magnesium 1400
Nitrates 10ppm
PH 8.2
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78

maharsreef · Oct 13, 2011

Try a coral revive dip. People have had good results with chalice recesion. Also maybe too much flow???

fab1971 · Oct 13, 2011

That's wierd. Your numbers look good and I don't see any brown jelly or indications of disease or bleaching. I'm stumped on this one. Good luck. I'm sure someone else will offer you some good info.

Acro76 · Oct 13, 2011

Check the bottom of the colony for any decaying sponges. At a minimum, I'd take a turkey baster to it and try and clean out any infected areas. You may end up fragging it to save it, especially if it doesn't improve in a few days. Might wanna lift it off the sand with some PVC, just so water can circulate around those spots where it is receding.

Good luck, I've seen worse off chalices turn around!

octoberfest · Oct 13, 2011

I don't think it's too much flow, you can't see any of the flesh moving. It's a closed loop and you can see one the closest return to the left and it's pointing up.

I'll try to do a revive dip tomorrow. Keep the advice coming.

nixer · Oct 14, 2011

it could be those pest micro crabs.
does it happen progressively every night?

dakotasreef · Oct 14, 2011

It could have been injured in transport. That would be my guess based of the given info. It does not take much pressure to cut through the flesh.

octoberfest · Oct 14, 2011

Its like this consistently, it doesn't change.

ghostman · Oct 14, 2011

+1 for lifting it off the sanded for increased flow. From the pics it looks like you have another chalice on a PVC pipe, did that one have a similar issue? Maybe its a stupid question, but has the black sand caused any problems with any other corals?

purplereef · Oct 14, 2011

Try intecptor in your tank and elevate it off the sand. What does the flesh on the bottom look like?

octoberfest · Oct 14, 2011

ghostman said:
+1 for lifting it off the sanded for increased flow. From the pics it looks like you have another chalice on a PVC pipe, did that one have a similar issue? Maybe its a stupid question, but has the black sand caused any problems with any other corals?

I'm going to go cut a piece of pvc here in a few. The chalice to the right is lifted up but only to keep it level because of the way it's growing. the black sand hasn't caused any issues at all. There is one spot on the chalice on the right that is a little messed up on the side but that is known damage from moving it.

octoberfest · Oct 14, 2011

purplereef said:
Try intecptor in your tank and elevate it off the sand. What does the flesh on the bottom look like?

Why would you recommend using interceptor?

I'll get some pics when I lift it up.

JF2381 · Oct 14, 2011

Like other have suggested raise it off the sand.
I had similar problems with one of my chalice. It was the only one that was directly on the sand it was receeding. It stopped the minute I took it off the sand bed and did a CoralRx dip.

octoberfest · Oct 14, 2011

OK, I got it up off the sand and I can honestly say that this may have been the issue. We'll see what happens. I may still do a Revive dip later today but i want to see how it reacts to this first.

octoberfest · Oct 14, 2011

I pulled the chalice tonight to do a Revive dip on it. I can say when I looked at the underside I was not real happy with what I saw. As you can see there is some major recession on the underside.

So as of right now I've verified that there isn't too much flow on it, I can't see any of the flesh being beat up but there is enough indirect flow to keep "poo" off of it.

I've raised it off of the sand bed with a 4" diameter piece of PVC cut at about 2" thick.

Everything else in my tank is looking good. The center 75% of the chalice is looking very happy.

Right now my plan is to keep an eye on it and if it stops where it is I'm going to leave it be and let it heal on it's own.

What I'd like though are some opinions on what to do if it continues? Should I continue to do dips? Should I consider fragging it and if so how much?

Here is a pic of the underside...I know I know...it looks terrible.