Pipe Organ in Trouble

[VVolfe]

I added a pipe organ coral a few weeks ago. Going to LFS tomorrow and was hoping for some advice before going.

then:

now:

The brownish on the edges didn’t show up until the last time I target fed reef-roids to it.

I see less and less active polyps. Anything I should try to save it?

Everything else seems fine: Acan, Condy, Frogspawn, stylophora, encrusting stylo, Zoa’s, palys, gsp.

last check my water is
salinity 1.025
ph 8.1 API
Nitrites and Ammonia 0 API
Nitrates 10 ppm API
dkh 8.0 Hanna
Phosphate .05 Hanna
Calcium 440 Red Sea

PAR is a bit low and I have another light on the way.

Flow too high? I read to put it in pretty high flow to keep algae off the red “tubes.” I was also told these are pretty resilient.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have reason to believe you are getting false readings, typical of API Tests and you may have elevated nitrates. They could also be getting picked. Not sure what fish you have in the tank.
Take a water sample to the LFS or other that does not use api test kits and have them test the water for you and to see what results they come up with and to compare with yours
Temp 77-79
Ph. 8.1-8.3
Salinity. 1.025
Ca 440
Alk. 8-11
Mag. 1300
Nitrate. < .5

 

[CanuckReefer]

I added a pipe organ coral a few weeks ago. Going to LFS tomorrow and was hoping for some advice before going.

then:

now:

The brownish on the edges didn’t show up until the last time I target fed reef-roids to it.

I see less and less active polyps. Anything I should try to save it?

Everything else seems fine: Acan, Condy, Frogspawn, stylophora, encrusting stylo, Zoa’s, palys, gsp.

last check my water is
salinity 1.025
ph 8.1 API
Nitrites and Ammonia 0 API
Nitrates 10 ppm API
dkh 8.0 Hanna
Phosphate .05 Hanna
Calcium 440 Red Sea

PAR is a bit low and I have another light on the way.

Flow too high? I read to put it in pretty high flow to keep algae off the red “tubes.” I was also told these are pretty resilient.

They are pretty resilient....I would NOT supplement them with roids, they don't need it in my experience....they are also pretty moody....your Params look really good imo....I'd wait another week, and see if the heads poke out, it took a while for mine. Slow grower as well....Vette has a few of them , so follow his advise....

 

[VVolfe]

I have reason to believe you are getting false readings, typical of API Tests and you may have elevated nitrates. They could also be getting picked. Not sure what fish you have in the tank.
Take a water sample to the LFS or other that does not use api test kits and have them test the water for you and to see what results they come up with and to compare with yours
Temp 77-79
Ph. 8.1-8.3
Salinity. 1.025
Ca 440
Alk. 8-11
Mag. 1300
Nitrate. < .5

LFS said all parameters were good. They read Calcium at 450 but that was it.

I did a Phosphate test from Hanna when I got home and got .11 which is higher than the .05 I got last test.

They suggested using a blaster to blow out any algae and leave it since the polyps that are out looked healthy. i blew off what I could and put him a bit closer to the light.

 

[Shirak]

How much flow is pretty high flow? I find mine like to blow in the wind! Mine are in acro rippling waves of waving polyp hands type flow... And 150 -200par This is a still shot but the polyp arms are really moving with the powerheads.

 

[vetteguy53081]

LFS said all parameters were good. They read Calcium at 450 but that was it.

I did a Phosphate test from Hanna when I got home and got .11 which is higher than the .05 I got last test.

They suggested using a blaster to blow out any algae and leave it since the polyps that are out looked healthy. i blew off what I could and put him a bit closer to the light.

LFS said good. What numbers did they give you and what test kits were they using ?

 

[VVolfe]

LFS said good. What numbers did they give you and what test kits were they using ?

They had the same numbers I did except for the Calcium which was 10 higher but he did say that was an API test but with it as close to what I got from the Red Sea test it’s enough to say my calcium is ok.

They have a mix of Red Sea and Hanna tests there and with all the customers I wasn’t really able to stand there the whole time.

I have a Hanna nitrates checker that I think I will try to figure out this afternoon. When I first got all the Hanna checkers I went Straight for he phosphate and calcium since I hadn’t been able to test any of those.

 

[VVolfe]

How much flow is pretty high flow? I find mine like to blow in the wind! Mine are in acro rippling waves of waving polyp hands type flow... And 150 -200par This is a still shot but the polyp arms are really moving with the powerheads.

I did move it up yesterday back to the higher flow. I think when there was a bunch of polyps out the high flow looked ok but when there aren’t many out it looks like they‘re about to blow away.

 

[Shirak]

I did move it up yesterday back to the higher flow. I think when there was a bunch of polyps out the high flow looked ok but when there aren’t many out it looks like they‘re about to blow away.

Well your water parameters sound good and if the polyps are moving noticeably in the current I would leave it where it is. Maybe the par as you mentioned in the first post? In the first picture the polyps don't look fully expanded they look kinda like they are trying to reach higher to me. The coral itself was also missing a lot of polyps when you obtained it, so I am not sure it was in the best of health to begin with and turning it around is harder than acclimating a healthy growing coral.

 

[VVolfe]

They had the same numbers I did except for the Calcium which was 10 higher but he did say that was an API test but with it as close to what I got from the Red Sea test it’s enough to say my calcium is ok.

They have a mix of Red Sea and Hanna tests there and with all the customers I wasn’t really able to stand there the whole time.

I have a Hanna nitrates checker that I think I will try to figure out this afternoon. When I first got all the Hanna checkers I went Straight for he phosphate and calcium since I hadn’t been able to test any of those.

Ok, so nvm the Hanna nitrate checker. I just realized it doesn’t read anything above 5 ppm. So that makes it basically pointless for me.

 

[Shirak]

Ok, so nvm the Hanna nitrate checker. I just realized it doesn’t read anything above 5 ppm. So that makes it basically pointless for me.

If your nitrates are over 5 and you are using the low range NO3 tester, you need to follow the directions for a dilution step and then multiply the resulting number

 

[VVolfe]

If your nitrates are over 5 and you are using the low range NO3 tester, you need to follow the directions for a dilution step and then multiply the resulting number

Yeah, I don’t have fresh mixed salt water on hand and don’t trust my skill to mix just a tiny amount to dilute with. I guess I could try mixing up a single gallon to leave sitting around for this.

 

[VVolfe]

If your nitrates are over 5 and you are using the low range NO3 tester, you need to follow the directions for a dilution step and then multiply the resulting number

I just mixed up some saltwater and ran the diluted test. It shows 2.62 so 26.2 ppm on Nitrates.