War Coral Struggling

[Resilient]

I got a war coral about 2 weeks ago.

I mounted it lower in the aquarium away from the powerhead. I didn't have a PAR meter at the time, but since got one.

After about a week, I noticed that the faces of the coral that were facing up started to look like they were losing coloration and the faces pointing down seemed to be holding color alright. So I guessed that I might have the lighting too high. I since lowered it and a week later things are continuing to get worse and it appears some of the green spots recently decayed.

I measured it now, and the lighting is 80 PAR. I tested the prior PAR by changing the lights back to their old settings and it was probably in the ballpark of 130.

I run a 10 hour light cycle with 1 hour ramp up and ramp down with an AI Blade Grow and Glow combination.

Water parameters all seem good.
PH 8.3
KH 8.0
Mg 1280ppm
Ca 410ppm
Nitrates 4ppm
Phosphates 0.02ppm
Temperature 78

Looking on thoughts if there is anything else to try here. No other nearby corals, but there is a zoa and green star polyps up higher in higher flow that both seem to be doing fine. The green hair algae has been getting somewhat worse over the past two weeks, not sure if that could be affecting things.

Attached is a photo of it currently.

 

[KrisReef]

I am guessing this is a young tank. The coral needs stability, but young tanks are not necessarily ready to house coral. With the algae growing on clean rock I find corals hard to keep alive. Sometimes they make it, but often they just decay and contribute their bacteria and flesh to the growing biosphere in the tank.

Cutting back the photoperiod would slow down algae growth, but again you are then messing with a parameter.

Stability, patience, and who knows what else? Can you measure the par in the tank you got this from ?

GL

 

[Resilient]

Yeah, it is a young tank, but parameters are pretty stable. I haven't been struggling with keeping any of them in check so I thought I would give a couple frags a shot. Ill see if I can go by the store in the next couple days to see what the PAR was there.

 

[City_Boy_Jay]

I think it’s young tank boss. It happens. Expect to lose corals in the process. Happy help if you message me

 

[RockBox13]

I don’t really see the decay and by the picture, it seems like a good spot now even if the color got washed out a little. War coral can bounce back quickly. I could be wrong but my eyes tell me there’s probably more nitrate and phosphate in there. Phosphate or a rapid change in light intensity can cause some brown in a war coral. What’s the filtration situation? Is there a skimmer going? The magnesium should be above1300 or it can affect the test results of your calcium and alkalinity and make them less available to coral and makes it harder for them to form new skeleton and grow. How are you testing levels?

 

[Resilient]

I don’t really see the decay and by the picture, it seems like a good spot now even if the color got washed out a little. War coral can bounce back quickly. I could be wrong but my eyes tell me there’s probably more nitrate and phosphate in there. Phosphate or a rapid change in light intensity can cause some brown in a war coral. What’s the filtration situation? Is there a skimmer going? The magnesium should be above1300 or it can affect the test results of your calcium and alkalinity and make them less available to coral and makes it harder for them to form new skeleton and grow. How are you testing levels?

Looking at it now, I actually don't see it either. I think it may have been doing something weird with feeding.

But anyway, yeah, I have a skimmer, floss and chaeto in a refugium. Testing magnesium with the Aquaforest kit, calcium with Red Sea and phosphate and alkalinity with Hannah.

I had read that above 1200ppm of mg was good. Ill look at raising up a little bit.

I think it’s young tank boss.

What will I be looking for to know I am past the 'young tank' phase?

 

[RockBox13]

Looking at it now, I actually don't see it either. I think it may have been doing something weird with feeding.

But anyway, yeah, I have a skimmer, floss and chaeto in a refugium. Testing magnesium with the Aquaforest kit, calcium with Red Sea and phosphate and alkalinity with Hannah.

I had read that above 1200ppm of mg was good. Ill look at raising up a little bit.


What will I be looking for to know I am past the 'young tank' phase?

I think that the magnesium is probably the reason there isn’t any coralline algae showing up yet. In a newer tank I think is especially helpful to keep alkalinity higher but your pH is where it should be. For me, the coralline algae is an indicator thad that the tank can begin to support coral growth. Take a brush to that algae and use a tube to suction it out. If you used just dry rock, cycling takes longer, but you can see if the LFS or someone could scrape some coralline algae off their tank for you to help jump start that action.