Scoly Recession

Treefer32 · Feb 11, 2021

I have a scoly that's receding rapidly. He's been in my tank for 6 months and doing well until this week. I've been lowering my phosphates due them being too high at .56 ppm (ICP Test). Over the last 2-3 weeks I've lowered them from .56 to .39 ppm (Now using Hana ULR Phosphate tester). I've been lowering them very gradually by dosing 2 ml of phosphate -E daily and by cranking my ATS lights to be on 24/7 instead of 14 hours a day. It's growing algae at almost double the pace than it was before. In 3-4 days the canvas was full blocking the primary drain of the scrubber. Before that took 8 days to get to that point.

So, I know the scrubber is sucking phosphates and nitrates out of the water. I'm doing more frequent water changes, I'm running a gfo based resin to remove phosphates, and dosing trace elements Red Sea A, B, C, and D twice a week. I don't know what else to do to help this guy. Alk is 8.2, calc 440, mag 1440, salinity 1.025. temp 76 - 78.

350 gallon display. Any suggestions based on the pic.

DeniableArc · Feb 11, 2021

Treefer32 said:
I have a scoly that's receding rapidly. He's been in my tank for 6 months and doing well until this week. I've been lowering my phosphates due them being too high at .56 ppm (ICP Test). Over the last 2-3 weeks I've lowered them from .56 to .39 ppm (Now using Hana ULR Phosphate tester). I've been lowering them very gradually by dosing 2 ml of phosphate -E daily and by cranking my ATS lights to be on 24/7 instead of 14 hours a day. It's growing algae at almost double the pace than it was before. In 3-4 days the canvas was full blocking the primary drain of the scrubber. Before that took 8 days to get to that point.

So, I know the scrubber is sucking phosphates and nitrates out of the water. I'm doing more frequent water changes, I'm running a gfo based resin to remove phosphates, and dosing trace elements Red Sea A, B, C, and D twice a week. I don't know what else to do to help this guy. Alk is 8.2, calc 440, mag 1440, salinity 1.025. temp 76 - 78.

350 gallon display. Any suggestions based on the pic.

P04 rapid reduction can certainly upset certain corals, how does everything else look? My scoly gets fed directly once every week and I believe that has a very positive impact.

canadianeh · Feb 11, 2021

My scoly is receding too. I read that in the wild they live under overhangs. So I move it under an overhang away from direct sunlight and am feeding it twice a week from (used to feed it once per week). My phosphate is now 0.03. I am running GFO 24/7. Hope it recovers.

Treefer32 · Feb 12, 2021

DeniableArc said:
P04 rapid reduction can certainly upset certain corals, how does everything else look? My scoly gets fed directly once every week and I believe that has a very positive impact.

All other corals are doing well. My Hammers are doing well in two different spots. One set of hammers have 4 new babies that are now growing and getting bigger, it seems when phosphates were higher they were stunted. getting them down by . 15 ppm in the last two weeks, the baby hammers have started growing bigger.

My Acans have more color now and are puffing up more. At night they have their feeder tentacles out and look way more healthy than they were a month ago. Could this recession be a creature eating its flesh? Or does it look like the flesh is naturally dying?

Treefer32 · Feb 12, 2021

canadianeh said:
My scoly is receding too. I read that in the wild they live under overhangs. So I move it under an overhang away from direct sunlight and am feeding it twice a week from (used to feed it once per week). My phosphate is now 0.03. I am running GFO 24/7. Hope it recovers.

I hope yours recovers! They're beautiful creatures. I was target feeding it 2-3 times a week, but stopped with the massive surge in phosphates. Wanted to get them under control before I went back to feeding it and the acans in a targeted manner. I still broadcast feed a lot. I have 17 fish which 4-5 of them are large. They eat almost a whole cube of food by themselves a day. Plus a sheet of Nori.

canadianeh · Feb 12, 2021

Treefer32 said:
I hope yours recovers! They're beautiful creatures. I was target feeding it 2-3 times a week, but stopped with the massive surge in phosphates. Wanted to get them under control before I went back to feeding it and the acans in a targeted manner. I still broadcast feed a lot. I have 17 fish which 4-5 of them are large. They eat almost a whole cube of food by themselves a day. Plus a sheet of Nori.

I limit my fish feeding. I try to keep them a bit hungry but not too full.
Don’t broadcast feeding if you can. Lots of them will go to waste which equal to more phosphate. I direct feed my scoly by giving it a small pinch of LPS food pellets.

YandyRiv · Feb 23, 2021

Good afternoon,

Have you had any luck? Im currently going through the same thing with my bleeding apple scoly. I placed mines a shaded area. This morning it had the feeders out so si i fed it some oyster feast with some reef roids.

Treefer32 · Feb 23, 2021

I did the same, except fed some pellets. But, the outside recession has continued, the inside mouth and feeders are 100% intact. Phosphates are still high though at between .22 and .32 ppm. So, trying to get that under control, one thing at a time. I don't know if that's the cause or a fish is nipping at the scoly. No idea.

1guydude · Feb 23, 2021

The lowering of.phosphates could have increased your alk and clarity of your water. It could be a conbination of bright light and a spike in alk. Hopefully it will all stabilize and pull through. Those are beautiful and spendy corals.
A little shade and lower flow and time and stability friend
U got this.
D

Robert123 · Feb 23, 2021

I have the exact same issue with my mine and all my other scolys are fine. For misbehaving I have put it on Death Row on the side of my tank that has a bit less flow and light.
Not changing my entire tank for one piece.

Treefer32 · Feb 23, 2021

1guydude said:
The lowering of.phosphates could have increased your alk and clarity of your water. It could be a conbination of bright light and a spike in alk. Hopefully it will all stabilize and pull through. Those are beautiful and spendy corals.
A little shade and lower flow and time and stability friend
U got this.
D

yeah, it's mouth seems very health. I don't know what it is, but I came down yesterday and saw a fish had piled a pile of sand right over it's healthy tissue. I don't know if a fish doesn't like it or thinks there's something wrong with it or if it was trying to feed it maybe? I don't know, it was so weird, the sand was a neat little pile right over the center of the scoly. No sand around it or anything, literally dumped on the healthy tissue. I cleaned it off with a turkey baster and the scoly looked all puffed up then like it was happy. So, I don't know.. I just hope it survives and heals.

canadianeh · Feb 23, 2021

YandyRiv said:
Good afternoon,

Have you had any luck? Im currently going through the same thing with my bleeding apple scoly. I placed mines a shaded area. This morning it had the feeders out so si i fed it some oyster feast with some reef roids.

Nothing yet. It is not getting better. So I moved it back to the centre away from shade. I try to feed it more than two times a week but not getting better. I had high phosphate before and now I am down to 0.03ppm. I don’t know if the high phosphate really did it. But I also read that many people experienced scold dying on them for no reason. It could be one of those corals that die off for unknown reason.