Open brain coral lightened

[ethankap]

My open brain coral was doing fine but recently seems to have lightened a lot. Polyps are still extending.

The only change I had made was pulled green and red out of the LED lighting to manage a diatom outbreak. Would that cause the color change? There was also some stringy mucus off of it. I have also been using Microbacter7 to manage a algae outbreak and started dosing an alkalinity buffer.

Here's the before and after.

Parameters:

Nitrate at 1.5PPM
Phosphate undetectable (Hanna)
Alk 8.5
Ph 8.2
Calc 489ppm

 

[mtraylor]

I don't see a difference in the coral except for the difference in lighting. Obviously it will look different under different lighting. The before is super saturated photo and the after is taken with less lighting and more blues. That's about it.

 

[ethankap]

I'll try to find a better picture. The pink has lightened up to a white and it looks "puffier" if that makes sense. I moved it a bit under that ledge there, and reverted the lights to their original programming. Every other coral is doing really well.

 

[mtraylor]

Oh ok. Yeah I cant see much there. Maybe a couple new photos will help. If all your other corals are ok that's a good sign, but some corals are sensitive to certain changes. I would be checking my ALK a couple more times to ensure there is nothing going on there. Also do you have any big temp swings with the changing weather?

 

[Cory]

Ime when you hit 0.00 on a Hanna checker with p04, corals pale when your dosing carbon sources.

 

[ethankap]

Oh ok. Yeah I cant see much there. Maybe a couple new photos will help. If all your other corals are ok that's a good sign, but some corals are sensitive to certain changes. I would be checking my ALK a couple more times to ensure there is nothing going on there. Also do you have any big temp swings with the changing weather?

Alk is at 8.6, so I'll hold off on any more buffer to see true consumption rate. Temperature has been holding fine. I have two torch, one star polyp, a purple goniopora, acan, Duncan, Kenyan tree, Monti, two zoa and a new SPS frag all doing great in here. Fish are also good.

Here's a better picture.

Before:

And after

 

[ethankap]

Ime when you hit 0.00 on a Hanna checker with p04, corals pale when your dosing carbon sources.

Not dosing any carbon currently, just the Microbacter and the ESV Component 1 (Alkalinity buffer).

 

[Cory]

Not dosing any carbon currently, just the Microbacter and the ESV Component 1 (Alkalinity buffer).

Yes but your still reducing nutrients with microbacter. Try to aim for .03ppm po4.

 

[ethankap]

Yes but your still reducing nutrients with microbacter. Try to aim for .03ppm po4.

K. I'll pause on the dosing period, see if that has a meaningful effect? That and the lighting change (pulling down red and green) are the only changes I've made. I put the red and green LED's back in, so we'll see if that causes more algae or not.

 

[mtraylor]

Alk is at 8.6, so I'll hold off on any more buffer to see true consumption rate. Temperature has been holding fine. I have two torch, one star polyp, a purple goniopora, acan, Duncan, Kenyan tree, Monti, two zoa and a new SPS frag all doing great in here. Fish are also good.

Here's a better picture.

Before:

And after

Oh wow! Yeah I see it now. Its reseeding from the skeleton. Your alk is at check and I agree with everyone here that the low phosphates can be a problem. With calcium that high I would guess that your magnesium is up in the zone, but it wouldn't hurt to check. If all your parms are in check, its best to just leave it alone right now and get your nutrient level up. Get your phosphates around .04 and everyone will be happy. It will recover.

 

[ethankap]

Oh wow! Yeah I see it now. Its reseeding from the skeleton. Your alk is at check and I agree with everyone here that the low phosphates can be a problem. With calcium that high I would guess that your magnesium is up in the zone, but it wouldn't hurt to check. If all your parms are in check, its best to just leave it alone right now and get your nutrient level up. Get your phosphates around .04 and everyone will be happy. It will recover.

What’s the safest way to get Phosphates up a bit? Just feeding more?

 

[DSC reef]

Another option is feeding more. I carbon dose so I can feed heavy from fish to coral. I would consider to not stop dosing completely and start feeding more, LPS like to eat. LRS, reef nutrition, Dr. G's, reef roids are all good sources of good to feed.

 

[ethankap]

I’ll up the reefroids from target fed every three days to every two and adding some to the water column. I forgot the other change was I strained the mysis shrimp before feeding and got some turbo conch and a Midas blenny, who’s a pig. So the tank may have gotten too clean.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Not dosing any carbon currently, just the Microbacter 1 (Alkalinity buffer).

It's in the mb7.

And check the amount of alk you're dosing all at once. Could be a small spike.

 

[DSC reef]

It's in the mb7.

And check the amount of alk you're dosing all at once. Could be a small spike.

+1 alk swing and feeding/nutrients were my go to when LPS like trachyphillia started fading.

 

[mtraylor]

The target feeding is not going to get your coral back. Its too distressed. Personally I'm not into target feeding the corals but that is something you will have to decide if you like or not.

One thing you don't want to start doing is big swings in multiple things in the aquarium. I would stop the dosing and let the parms come up slowly. This will allow the phosphates come back a bit. Also adding a bit of amino acids wouldn't hurt you any, but be careful if you should decided on that because they can cause algae blooms. I think time and no dosing would be of benefit.

 

[Cory]

What’s the safest way to get Phosphates up a bit? Just feeding more?

I dose sodium phosphate. Called t.s.p from home depot

 

[ethankap]

I noticed alk went from 8.2 to 8.6 in the last six days of dosing. I had calculated a .1 drop per day but appears the dosing was more than needed for maintenance. There is precipitation in the water currently.

I did a water change yesterday and will stop dosing Microbacter and alk buffer for a few days and let everything settle and map the parameters in that time. As well as feed a bit more.

 

[ethankap]

I noticed alk went from 8.2 to 8.6 in the last six days of dosing. I had calculated a .1 drop per day but appears the dosing was more than needed for maintenance. There is precipitation in the water currently.

I did a water change yesterday and will stop dosing Microbacter and alk buffer for a few days and let everything settle and map the parameters in that time. As well as feed a bit more.

Reading on the calcium situation, its at 504ppm right now so I'll continue dosing alkalinity, no calcium, stop with Microbacter7. All other coral are healthy (including notoriously difficult goniopora) so hopefully the brain coral comes back. I'm 4 days past the LFS money-back, but maybe they'll accommodate.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Reading on the calcium situation, its at 504ppm right now so I'll continue dosing alkalinity, no calcium, stop with Microbacter7. All other coral are healthy (including notoriously difficult goniopora) so hopefully the brain coral comes back. I'm 4 days past the LFS money-back, but maybe they'll accommodate.

I would let the numbers drop naturally rather than interfere. It's more stable to do nothing.
And better, if you want to correct it, to do a water change.

The alk dose will keep bumping your ph. In several very small doses it would work better yes .
To me , that's more work than it's worth.

Imbalance in cal/alk/mag are generally not a problem save at extreme low/limiting limiting levels.
I can point you to that article if you'd like.


Me, I've never minded nursing a coral back to health , I've learned a lot from it. Doubly true if it was my mistake.
And most of the good lfs I've bought from , if it was their fault , just gave me some discounts /freebies and don't want the half dead coral back.