Hawkins receding. Options?

[Velodog2]

My first problem ever with an acro I suppose I should consider my self lucky. But my ORA Hawkins I've been growing for about a year has started receding from deep in the middle. It's progressing slowly but steadily from the base to the tips of the branchlets. Some days not at all, others more, but most days I can see more bright white skeleton.

Since it seemed to start in the center I thought perhaps sufficient flow was not getting to this area, so I added another Vortech a couple days ago, but it hasn't seemed to help yet. Ironically this coral, as well as the rest of the corals in the tank, continues to grow faster than it ever has before. I've slowly been increasing my alk and Ca until they are now steady at around 10.5-11.0 and 430-450. Nothing else has changed to my knowledge.

I don't know anything about this kind of problem. Is there a known cause? Any hope for a cure? Are my other corals at risk? I will remove this colony and trash bin it if it means saving my others.

Here's a pic from about a week ago where you can see the recession through the branches. It's mostly hidden in the center, but has at least doubled in area since this photo.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Bump for some SPS guys!

 

[Velodog2]

Thanks. I did some searches as I should have initially and it seems I should probably just try to frag it at this point. Supergluing the receding edges is the only thing reported to sometimes work and the recession is too extensive now for that.

 

[afamousjohnson]

Yup frag it and try n save yourself a piece to start over with. Just had to do this with a few colonies myself. The worst.lol GL

 

[H2O]

i had the same problem with my hawkins I was able to cut frags one of them made it so it should grow back its hard to tell for sure why did it bleach I had my Alk drop to 7.5 and one mp40 wetside broke so I had some flow and Alk problems all at ones now things r growing again and i see spots getting less and less flow now I need to add 2 pm10s to move some more water Tru the middle or somebody won't eat tonight

 

[Velodog2]

Well based on the location of the problem in the dead bottom center of the colony I'll stick with my assumption that poor flow was a contributing factor. I have till now assumed that a single mp10 turned up all or nearly all the way was sufficient flow for an 18 gallon tank. And that may be true on average, but I think all flow originating from one location was leaving too many dead spots. I always assumed I would have trouble with this as my coral grew out, but didn't think it would happen this soon. Wish me luck with the fragging and thanks for the help.

 

[Rob.D]

It wouldn't hurt to dip the fragged pieces in a iodide based dip, in theory, if the rtn/stn is caused by bacteria the dip will help.

 

[Velodog2]

Ok good suggestion. How is an iodine dip made?

 

[hart24601]

Be careful with dipping Hawkins and with how long you expose it to air. These thin skinned guys that don't produce much mucus can be really touchy with dips and being exposed. But I agree that fragging is the best bet.

 

[Velodog2]

Well I fragged it tonight. I probably tried to save too much and will end up losing it all as a result, but it's ok as long as I didn't spread it to other acros. I didn't dip the frags at all but tried to coat the edges with superglue. Of course the one time I could've used the usually useless runny stuff to coat the edges with all I had was good thick stuff, but I tried.

The Hawkins was surprisingly tough physically for such a delicate looking coral, and the base that had formed was really thick and solid.

I'll let you know what happens next.

 

[Velodog2]

So all seems well! All three pieces I saved are doing very well plus the encrustations around the original base are still growing. So overall I came out ahead I think. The original root cause I still believe was inadequate flow to the center of the colony which has been remedied, and a lesson learned about how sensitive such things can be.