Pipe Organ Coral HELP!!

[Southern Fishing Co.]

I have recently bought a pipe organ coral about 3 weeks ago. When I first got it it would bloom but only little polyps emerged maybe ¼" out of their tubes. Then I saw some algea growing on it as it stopped opening up. I did a dip and the algea went away. Its been about 6 days since the dip. The skeleton looks good as far as color and it doesn't have any critters that I know of after inspecting it. I have it in a high light with high to medium flow. Honestly I'm wondering if it is still alive and is there anyway to find that out other than time and if it did get over stressed n died should I leave the base in my tank in hopes it starts to grow again(like if it wasn't completely dead, or can they grow back from being dead?) I'm still pretty new to saltwater and corals, been doing alot of research. Any help on this would be much appreciated! Thanks

Kw

 

[tsouth]

Would you please give us more insight towards the conditions of the tank? Is it new, is it mature, can you share its parameters such as phosphate, calcium, alkalinity?

With regards to lighting, what is high in your regard? Please let us know what lights you are using and how far from the lights this coral is. My research indicates these do well in ~ 100 par or so.

 

[Southern Fishing Co.]

The tank is 32.5g and is about 3 months old so its pretty new. Ph is 8.1, total alkalinity is low at about 40. Calcium is good. Temp is 82.1°. I need a phosphate test though (still trying to learn as much as possible)

Lighting is a Fluval SEA 25000 K and its about 8" from the light so its in the 150PAR area. I had 2 fish and 2 soft corals die which idk what the reason for that was, everything had been testing good. But since then the ammonia has been high. Have done 2 water changes one 30% and the latest being 50% ammonia went from about 7 to 1. Im looking to do another big water change today to get it down lower. Also the tank i got came with a filtration system already installed(thought this would be good for a first tank in a long time) but I think I need to get a better filter. Other than the ammonia level

 

[HuduVudu]

What is your dKH? If you total alkalinity is 40ppm then you dKh is 2.236, this is really bad.

Pipe organ coral is considered SPS and should be treated as such. It is also a semi-difficult to keep coral, IMO because requires a mature tank with micro fauna to feed on. Also because of the red skeleton the coral, it will require trace amounts of iron.

You should start some sort of dosing regimine immediatly and work to get your alkalinity number to something sustainable.

 

[Southern Fishing Co.]

Ok i gotcha. Thank you. I forgot to put this up in the last message but I did go buy some chemicals to help with the ammonia and have been dosing for the last week ....is there a specific one you would suggest for helping with the ammonia and one for helping the alkalinity?

 

[HuduVudu]

You shouldn't be dosing to deal with ammonia, that is your biological filter's job. As far as alkalinty there are several ways to deal with it but your tank is small and that coral will load it heavily. My suggestion is 2 part. It is very important when dosing 2 part that you change your water regularly. Like once a week and that you follow the directions explicitly. There are tons of videos for two part dosing and if you like BRS they have a cheap solution and decent information on how to do it.