Help my galaxea is exploding its tissue.

[blazin'reefer]

My galaxea has been in my tank for about 2 weeks, the last week i noticed one area of the tissue ballooned up crazy and then 2 days later it popped and the skeleton was exposed, now a few days later the whole coral is blown up like that and likely going to pop exposing the whole skeleton around each polyp. Each polyp is still opening like normal but the tissue between them is all expanding and dying. Should i do a large 20% water change? Move it to a empty aio 3g pico i have with 100% new water? do a antibiotic dip with any of thomas labs products? any help is very appreciated as it is going downhill quick. I have a terrible record with corals and have never had a stoney coral grow at all yet in my main tank over years. All other new corals i just got look ok so far though.

 

[blazin'reefer]

tank parameters are sg-1.025 ca-360 alk-7 temp 79 nitrate 40 p04 under .25. i have been trying to raise the calcium and alk over the last few weeks but specifically this last week, all with difficulty and this is also the same week all of this has taken place. i also carbon dose vinnegar at 50ml per day in a 55 tank and noticed it was puffed up after tonights 25ml dose.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I've never encountered this problem before. You can try an iodine dip in case there's some damage or infection. Since you noted that the coral "puffed up" after dosing, I'd recommend stopping the vinegar for a day or two and see if that helps. Have you had any swings in your alkalinity recently? Are there any critters that might be picking at the coral or irritating it?

 

[blazin'reefer]

I've never encountered this problem before. You can try an iodine dip in case there's some damage or infection. Since you noted that the coral "puffed up" after dosing, I'd recommend stopping the vinegar for a day or two and see if that helps. Have you had any swings in your alkalinity recently? Are there any critters that might be picking at the coral or irritating it?

I do not have iodine on hand, only have antibiotics and coral revive. would revive help if it is an infection?
Im not 100% if it was related to the vinnegar or not but that is when i noticed it. i will try to not add any vinnegar tomorrow and see if it still puffs up like that. Its really weird, it puffs up like that at night before the lights dim then the next day will look normal and at the end of the light cycle the same thing for a couple days until it pops. I havent seen anything near it at all but there are vermatids and limpets in my tank. I do have low alk and calcium so i have been trying to raise it with not much luck so far over the last couple weeks. i will test all the parameters tonight and post them.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I do not have iodine on hand, only have antibiotics and coral revive. would revive help if it is an infection?
Im not 100% if it was related to the vinnegar or not but that is when i noticed it. i will try to not add any vinnegar tomorrow and see if it still puffs up like that. Its really weird, it puffs up like that at night before the lights dim then the next day will look normal and at the end of the light cycle the same thing for a couple days until it pops. I havent seen anything near it at all but there are vermatids and limpets in my tank. I do have low alk and calcium so i have been trying to raise it with not much luck so far over the last couple weeks. i will test all the parameters tonight and post them.

Yes, I just read your other thread. I don't know the ingredients in coral revive, and cannot comment on the use of antibiotics.

 

[blazin'reefer]

Yes, I just read your other thread. I don't know the ingredients in coral revive, and cannot comment on the use of antibiotics.

just looked it up and found this. Worth a try?

 

[blazin'reefer]

I am going to prepare a 15-20% water change incase i might have got any pollutants in the tank accidentally, also increase the activated carbon by a extra tbsp or 2.

I am leaning towards doing a revive dip when i do the water change since it says it is very effective against bacteria and if it is an infection I believe that it would likely be bacterial.

 

[blazin'reefer]

well its been 2 days, i did the dip and water change and havent dosed any vinnegar in 2 days. I thought it looked a little better yesterday and then i had 4 more terrible events take place.

First off after i did the water change i decided to break out the old glass float hydrometer and turned off all the flow in the tank for a minute or 2 after and it says the salt is only at 1.020-1.022 where my refractometer is saying 1.025, so i think my refractometer may be broken as that would explain the low levels of calcium and alk and possibly poor coral health aswell.

The next terrible event, as i was doing a water change i realized my tank is also cracked accross the right pannel so i now basically have a 55g water bomb sitting in my living room.

The third terrible event, i went to turn my lights on today and my cat had knocked one of them into my tank while it was on so who knows if it will work at all now.

And the 4th being now the coral has exploded more tissue and there is more skeleton exposed... Really dont know how many more shots a person can take from this hobby in such a short period.

 

[blazin'reefer]

So the galaxea doesnt seem to have gotten worse luckily but still hasnt really recovered. I now also have a hollywood stunner chalice that has been losing tissue from the edge, aswell as a few others. Today it looked like the stunner chalice had algae growing where it was receding so i tried brushing it off lightly and made it worse.

The tank parameters are sitting at:

Temp: 78-79f
Salinity: 1.025 according to float hydrometer since my refractomer was having issues.
alk- 9 (was unable to raise it from 7 for a while till i raised my salt and has went from 7-9 over the last week with that and dosing 2 part aswell.)
Calcium- 380 to 400 (was 360 before raising salt)
Po4- 0.1 or less according to api
no3- 40ppm
havent checked my ph but when i was it was low a few months ago and only peaked at like 8.

I have been recommended by other reefers on here to get a icp and salinity calibration solution aswell as a hanna checker for ulr phosphate, i do plan on doing these asap but have had my tank start leaking and destroy my stand also in the last week or 2 so i am going to have to replace those and do stuff periodically. Is there anything else i can or should be doing in the meantime to help the corals not get worse atleast?

Here is a picture of the chalice today aswell after i made it worse trying to help it, it has slowly receded that far over the last week and the light colored area near the dying edge is where i tried to brush it off. I thought about breaking some pieces off but am worried it will just make it way worse since last time i tried that i killed the whole chalice. I think coral really just hates me at this point.

 

[ReefAddict0814]

So the galaxea doesnt seem to have gotten worse luckily but still hasnt really recovered. I now also have a hollywood stunner chalice that has been losing tissue from the edge, aswell as a few others. Today it looked like the stunner chalice had algae growing where it was receding so i tried brushing it off lightly and made it worse.

The tank parameters are sitting at:

Temp: 78-79f
Salinity: 1.025 according to float hydrometer since my refractomer was having issues.
alk- 9 (was unable to raise it from 7 for a while till i raised my salt and has went from 7-9 over the last week with that and dosing 2 part aswell.)
Calcium- 380 to 400 (was 360 before raising salt)
Po4- 0.1 or less according to api
no3- 40ppm
havent checked my ph but when i was it was low a few months ago and only peaked at like 8.

I have been recommended by other reefers on here to get a icp and salinity calibration solution aswell as a hanna checker for ulr phosphate, i do plan on doing these asap but have had my tank start leaking and destroy my stand also in the last week or 2 so i am going to have to replace those and do stuff periodically. Is there anything else i can or should be doing in the meantime to help the corals not get worse atleast?

Here is a picture of the chalice today aswell after i made it worse trying to help it, it has slowly receded that far over the last week and the light colored area near the dying edge is where i tried to brush it off. I thought about breaking some pieces off but am worried it will just make it way worse since last time i tried that i killed the whole chalice. I think coral really just hates me at this point.

After reading all of this, I cannot help but wonder … has anyone heard whether or not he checked in to the looney bin? Doing a well being check because if this were me- I think ALL my screws would come loose I sure hope you made it through the depths of hell you were walking through

 

[blazin'reefer]

After reading all of this, I cannot help but wonder … has anyone heard whether or not he checked in to the looney bin? Doing a well being check because if this were me- I think ALL my screws would come loose I sure hope you made it through the depths of hell you were walking through

Me and the tank are still kicking lol, has had its ups and downs but unfortunately more downs than ups. Things seem to be stabilizing to some degree though, most corals that are left that havent slowly withered away are growing so thats good. Just recently got a new clownfish though that will not eat anything for 8-9 maybe even 10 days now and i have tried everything. Just made another post about it. Still need to replace the tank and stand though so praying for no more major issues until that ends up happening after reinforcing the stand further. I also did end up getting my stuff fully warrantied from the tank company but ended up losing the money stupidly due to my own mistake.