Need help with Blue Cespitularia Coral

[tjs1200]

Our Blue Cespitularia Coral has been doing great, today it shriveled up and changed color, I have attached pictures. I checked the water Alk 8.5, Ammonia 0, salt 35.5, ph 8.02, it is close to a BTA, hoping it wasn't stung, any insight would be appreciated.

 

[BlennyTime]

I see your clown in it, has he started hosting the coral recently? That can stress soft corals out in the beginning.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Nitrates and phosphates might be higher than it likes. I can see a fair bit of algae in the pictures. Overall, its a very forgiving coral once it settles in.

 

[tjs1200]

The Clownfish has been hosting for about three weeks

 

[vetteguy53081]

With the looks of algae, etc, i suspect elevated nitrate and Phos levels. With that suspicion, zero ammonia would not be a likelihood.
Are you by chance using API Test kits ?
Elevate them off the bottom as they do best mid tank and reduce white light intensity for the sake of algae growth. Pull off as much of that algae as you can by hand as it appears to be converting to bryopsis which is a problem algae. Bottom of base have tunicates which could be stealing its' food source.
Add some snails:
3 turbo
3 Astrea
3 trochus
3 cerith
6-8 blue leg hermits which are tiny

 

[tjs1200]

I am using the API test for ammonia and Hanna for everything else except calcium I use red sea. We have several snails and two emerald crabs, will add the hermits if they will play nice with the emeralds.

Wil test phos and nitrate and post results.

 

[tjs1200]

Phosphates were .45, Nitrates were 0, I did a 30 % water change, any other suggestions?

 

[LegendaryCG]

Water change was good, you can’t really accurately measure phosphate when you have algae present, if it was .45 it’s actually much higher.

 

[Dkmoo]

is this a new tank? Low no3 high po4 is a classic sign of immature tank. Early tank biome is more N absorbing (coral, algae) than P absorbing (bacteria, pod, microfauna). Keep up with your water change and manual husbandry will help and over time the P absorbers will stablish.

If you are not already dealing with one, you may have a cyano bloom soon from the high P.

Try to deep vac the sand one small section per WC to help remove the sand waste nutrient battery.

If you are feeding "high p" coral foods, try switching to a high N low P source like phyto or aminos

 

[tjs1200]

The coral looks better this morning. Thanks for all the help.

The tank is 8 months old, made many mistakes I am trying to undue, I am using Oceanmagik from Algeabarn to feed coral. We are getting ready to setup a 75 gallon tank with sump and protein skimmer/with co2 skimmer.