Favia flattening

[bvanfish]

I have had this spicy lemon favia for about a month or so and it’s grown exponentially but now the past few days it seems thin and not having a feeding response as much.

first pic is when I first got it and second is a month later. You can see a good spread on it

it used to eat mysis anytime they dropped in the tank now I do not see that.

parameters
Salinity 35
Temp 78.8
Alk 154
Ca 420
Mg 1380
Nitrate 7
Phos 0-.03

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

A coral can't grow exponentially in one month, its impossible. They normally don't start growing at all until at least a few months after its been in the tank.

The nutrients seem very low, and the tank seem quite new. How old is the tank? How is your lighting and flow? How often do you feed it? Do you have other corals in the tank, how are they doing?

 

[bvanfish]

What would all the new red flesh be on the frag plug then?? on the back side you can see flesh coming down the frag plug which for sure wasnt there before.

tank is 2.5 months about, have other corals that look good, favia fed 2-3 a week mysis. Lighting and flow seem to be solid as all others are doing well. I wouldn’t say this is doing poorly just seems deflated the last few days

 

[AFHokie]

I also have a spicy lemon and it has been one of my fastest growers. Definitely didn't take a couple months to start growing. I definitely wouldn't say exponential, that's a bit of a stretch, but fast, noticeable, growth within weeks, yes.

Even now, having been in my tank for 7 months or so it has some days where it just looks unhappy but then will be fine again the next day....or sometimes even hours. Some nights it has all it's feeders out, some nights none.

If you haven't' changed tank parameters, or flow, or lighting, it could be a physical disturbance. Any fish or inverts?

Or...it could just be a living organism being a living organism. I have three acans that are all in the same area but there used to be four. For some reason one of them just started retracting flesh and never recovered. All the others are fine and have been thriving and growing, just inches from where the others are. No logical explanation, just nature and things we can't see or test for.

 

[bvanfish]

@AFHokie yes exponential may have been a bit much but as it was one of my first corals a month or so ago it seems to be growing fast in the eyes of a newb.

The only thing I have tweaked was slowly and slight adding a tiny bit of magnesium but I doubt that has anything to do with it?

No new fish or inverts all pretty much status quo.

Very true I guess I need to give up the control of knowing everything, somethings will just happen I suppose. Thank you for the feedback appreciate it!

 

[AFHokie]

@AFHokie yes exponential may have been a bit much but as it was one of my first corals a month or so ago it seems to be growing fast in the eyes of a newb.

The only thing I have tweaked was slowly and slight adding a tiny bit of magnesium but I doubt that has anything to do with it?

No new fish or inverts all pretty much status quo.

Very true I guess I need to give up the control of knowing everything, somethings will just happen I suppose. Thank you for the feedback appreciate it!

I've gotten more help from this site than I probably deserve so I try and help wherever I can.

Most of the time something "strange" became something bad was when I knee-jerked and tried to fix it. Most of the time (not always) taking a deep breath and watching carefully is the best route to take.

Not sure how much Mg is a tiny bit but I'd think it's not the case.

Do you perform water changes or dose any other trace elements? Could be that the major elements are fine but you are missing some trace ones that have depleted over the past month or two.

Also, as for nutrients, my spicy lemon has spent most of it's life in my tank at around 5-10 nitrate and .05 phosphate (sometimes as low as .01 and high as .1 with no apparent difference).

 

[bvanfish]

I dosed like 15 ml of mag and it is consistently changing my mag slightly every day. I am testing before and after dosing to check and make sure it is slow and steady

good call, I will not be changing anything so I do not mess it up.

I do 20% water changes ever Sunday.

 

[bvanfish]

I guess you were right just needed some time, all puffy and eating again.

 

[AFHokie]

Excellent!