My Blasto isn’t happy :(

[christwendt]

Okay so I’ve been paranoid about my corrals I’m new to reefing. But I’m positive my Blasto is not happy. It’s mouth is constantly open and it expels this brown stuff. I’ve moved it to a spot with shade and low flow. This one head looked kind of like this when I got it, can I save this corral ? Also If you look closely there is little hairs where the Blasto head has receded. Is that algae ?
Water params
2.5 nitrate
0 phosphates according to lfs ( I’m buying Hannah checker tomorrow )
0 nh4
0 nitrite
470 calcium
1.026 salinity
8.3-9.0 dkh. It fluctuates that much in a day I need to get a auto dozer
8.1 ph
1200 mg ( buying supplement tomorrow ). Everything else seems to be happy. Tanks is one month old. I’ve taken out my chemipure blue gfo cuz I had no phosphates and read that might be the problem. Any tips? I really am trying to not kill my first corral

 

[JonoB]

I would definitely think you could save it. Remember, stability is key. Don't move it around too much or make too many changes. I would personally get phosphates and nitrates up some. I struggle with keeping those up but my corals tend to look so much better. Also, this kind of goes against the raising phosphate thing, but it looks like there's some algae on there and that might bother it some.

 

[christwendt]

I would definitely think you could save it. Remember, stability is key. Don't move it around too much or make too many changes. I would personally get phosphates and nitrates up some. I struggle with keeping those up but my corals tend to look so much better. Also, this kind of goes against the raising phosphate thing, but it looks like there's some algae on there and that might bother it some.

Thank you for posting. I mentioned I couldn’t tell what the hairs are on the coral. So it’s algae. I don’t have algae anywhere else like that. How do I remove it from a coral like that? I have hermits that I saw remove the few bubble algae from the Blasto but they haven’t cleaned it since.

 

[christwendt]

I would definitely think you could save it. Remember, stability is key. Don't move it around too much or make too many changes. I would personally get phosphates and nitrates up some. I struggle with keeping those up but my corals tend to look so much better. Also, this kind of goes against the raising phosphate thing, but it looks like there's some algae on there and that might bother it some.

Also when you mention stability. Is this why 20 gallons are so hard ? I’m finding it hard to not over dose dkh / calcium. It’s so hard to maintain 9.0. I add what should be the right amount and I go over 9.0. I was aiming daily jump from 8.3 dkh to 9.0 and I ended with 9.3.

 

[JonoB]

How recently did you get the frag? I'm willing to bet the algae came in on the coral. Not a big deal, it happens. you can either pull the algae off with your fingers or use some sort of dip. You might try searching "hydrogen peroxide dip" for Coral, just using the stuff you can get at the store. I've used it before, but never on a blasto so ill let someone else speak to that.

 

[JonoB]

Yes smaller tanks are going to be harder to keep stable, but you can do it! Just have patience and learn from your experience. If it goes up higher, just dose slightly less the next time till you find that rhythm. I wouldn't think the difference between 9.0 and 9.3 would be a huge deal though, but that's good that you are testing and keeping track of it!

 

[christwendt]

Yes smaller tanks are going to be harder to keep stable, but you can do it! Just have patience and learn from your experience. If it goes up higher, just dose slightly less the next time till you find that rhythm. I wouldn't think the difference between 9.0 and 9.3 would be a huge deal though, but that's good that you are testing and keeping track of it!

okay so if I were to manually remove it there is no way my fingers could grab it because it’s so small. Tweezers ? I’ll use peroxide if someone can vouch it works on Blasto ? And good to know I’m just now getting it down with the testing. Is 8.3-9.3 too much of a swing ? I know I need an auto doser. It’s hard with my days at work to dose throughout day.

 

[JonoB]

Yeah that's a little too big of one for me. Do you have an ATO you use? I would use some Kalkwasser.

And yeah, tweezer would work.

 

[christwendt]

Yeah that's a little too big of one for me. Do you have an ATO you use? I would use some Kalkwasser.

And yeah, tweezer would work.

I do have auto top. I’m familiar with kalkwasser and ato at least read about that. My confused part is when I do a water change it messes my levels up. I’m using really expensive salt that they highly suggested. I don’t understand how you auto dose with kalkwasser or a auto doser two part if when you do water changes it obviously changes your levels each water change due to new mixed salt. Do people shut off auto doser until things are used up again and return to ideal numbers ? Does that make sense ?