Hollywood stunner chalice is dying off???

Gratefyl · Dec 30, 2019

Hi there. So I got a rescue chalice from my local shop and it's been doing fine for several months...edges stopped splitting etc. I recently got a used reef breeders photon light that I only run at 30% and I don't know if it's that, or something else, but I noticed a white bleached spot on it and now it has spread and the chalice seems to be dying.

Ran readings and the nitrates are high (75) so we'll do a 70% water change tonight, but wanted to know if there is anything else folks suggest I do to try and save it!!

rkpetersen · Dec 30, 2019

Excess nutrients and/or light could both be issues.
From that image, it looks like it's happening to the part that's most brightly lit.
Also make sure no other corals are anywhere near it; it could be getting stung by sweepers, although more often it's the hollywood stunner putting out sweepers and stinging other corals.

Auquanut · Dec 30, 2019

rkpetersen said:
Excess nutrients and/or light could both be issues.
From that image, it looks like it's happening to the part that's most brightly lit.
Also make sure no other corals are anywhere near it; it could be getting stung by sweepers, although more often it's the hollywood stunner putting out sweepers and stinging other corals.

^^+1^^ Yep. That. I've found my Hollywood Stunner to be nearly bullet proof. It is in medium flow and medium light. It has experienced pretty high nitrates, but not that high (mabe 40 to 50ish). Do you have any other corals that seem to be affected?

Gratefyl · Dec 30, 2019

Everything else seems to be fine and it's been in that kind of nitrate situation one other time and was fine. We'll do the change this eve and in the meantime, I've removed it from the brighter light and put it back in the light it's used to. Hoping it will come back where it's died off...but at least stop! Thanks to all who have responded so far!

crny1 · Dec 30, 2019

Not doubting anyones suggestions but our Hollywood stunner is under Reefbreeders Photon V2 at about 6 inches under the water and 550 par (80%)...............So my guess is the nitrates did it.

Gratefyl · Dec 30, 2019

Hoping the big water change tonight will catch it before it's too late..

John3 · Dec 30, 2019

A purple base color suggests to me not enough light. When I had T5 lighting my stunner was this color and barely grew. When I switched over to a Radion it turned bright green base with brighter green/orange mouths and started growing like a weed.

With tissue recession I don’t know if it makes sense to get it more light now. Is it still letting stingers out at night?

John3 · Dec 30, 2019

Saltyreef · Dec 30, 2019

Whats your mag, alk & cal @?

Fishingandreefing · Dec 30, 2019

If the bleaching part doesn’t spread you can leave it or cut it out. Right condition, it will grow back very fast. Mine used to dying because nitrate was high, now grows like weed.

BornHandy · Dec 30, 2019

Saltyreef said:
Whats your mag, alk & cal @?

I second the motion.

Gratefyl · Jan 1, 2020

I'm not sure I've ever seen it do that. The tissue die off seems to have stopped since the change, so I'm hoping it will heal... I'll watch it tonight and see if it does any of that. Wondering if I have too much light at night....I typically keep it set on Moon.

Gratefyl · Jan 1, 2020

BornHandy said:
I second the motion.

I'll check again today, but readings the other day were 1420/7/420. On 12/1 - 1680/8.4/420

Saltyreef · Jan 1, 2020

Thats a pretty hefty alk swing and your mag is extremely high in your 12/1 readings.
I presume the insufficency of replenishing macros may be at fault here.
Forgive me if youve answered this but what salt mix are you using and what are you using to measure sailinity? Are you confident on accuracy of test kits?

Gratefyl · Jan 1, 2020

We are NOT super confident with the test kits and I'm considering getting as much digital stuff as I can as I just don't trust that we are doing everything EXACTLY right. Using Red Sea foundation pro to test Ca, KH and Mg. Using API to test Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia. Using a refractometer to check salinity. We used to use Instant Ocean salt until several months ago when we changed over to Reef Pro Mix by Fritz after the guy at our LFS recommended we stop using Instant Ocean. Will do readings again tonight.

Gratefyl · Jan 1, 2020

Tested again tonight : PH - 8.1; Salinity - 1.026; Ammonia & Nitrite both 0; Nitrate - 30 (just did big water change yesterday); Calcium - 420 (consistent); Alk - 7; Mag - 1440; Phosphate - .25 (I hate this test and the so very close shades of light green). I think we have an SPS dominate reef (fish, anemones, zoas/polys, chalice, monti, etc...stony corals never seem to thrive/live). Attaching a pic (prior to this chalice bleaching a bit) for reference in case my assumption is wrong. Any advice about ideal levels and what the next steps would be to get there? We don't does with ANYTHING at this point in time. We do have some alk buffer so we might try that just to see if we can bring that down over time.