Weird skeleton structure - is my coral dying or growing?

lost66 · Feb 17, 2020

Hi
I noticed on both of my hammers/torches a weird skeleton structure. I used a bad batch of salt and I am low on CA but I am slowly increasing it level. Right now it is around 370. All other params are in the range and quite stable.
I am new in the hobby and I don't know if this is how the coral grows, is it dying or some sort of infection? Please advise.

ScottR · Feb 17, 2020

It does look strange but it looks happy.

NeonRabbit221B · Feb 17, 2020

Looks like tissue recession. How are Nirates and Phosphates?

lost66 · Feb 17, 2020

NeonRabbit221B said:
Looks like tissue recession. How are Nirates and Phosphates?

I don't remember exact numbers but like nitrates around 20 and phosphates .02 or something. Low but not zero.

MrWheelock · Feb 17, 2020

What that looks like to me is the coral was growing but had bad chemistry making that area of the skeleton soft allowing it to crumble away. I had a hammer that I purchased crumble when i tried to remove it from the frag plug. The skeletal structure was extremely soft. Just keep good chemistry and it will continue to grow. When it has a good length of healthy skeleton (1" or better) below the flesh I would consider removing it and cutting off the soft skeletal structure then regluing it to the rock.

lost66 · Mar 19, 2020

This thing is still progressing. That coral is almost on its last hair of tissue. My other hammer has the same thing. I am changing water once a week, testing parameters and everything looks fine from chemistry point of view.
Is it possible it is some sort of parasite or something? Beside cutting this "dead" tissue, is there anything I can do? I wonder if I cut that part is it going to be back again or what?

W1ngz · Mar 19, 2020

Post pics of the progress. From what I saw in your older pics, your problem is not tissue, it's skeletal. Chronically low calcium means the hard part of the coral wasn't hard enough when it was grown, and it's giving away. Weak skeleton at the base like that does not 'grow back', it just becomes brittle dead calcium carbonate holding up the live bit at the top.

lost66 · Mar 20, 2020

Picture taken around an hour after lights turned on.
Both these corals come from the same person (private person, not store). I have them till January or something like this. Calcium has been low, indeed but not extremely low. Around 380 (I had problems with bad salt).

I added a lot of SPS recently and I noticed calcium and alk consumption and I will start dosing tomorrow. I just need to measure consumption to compensate it.

Any ideas what I can do to not lose those beautiful corals? Just cut dead part of skeleton?

W1ngz · Mar 20, 2020

two options:

Fill the break with rock/coral putty to support it, though at this point it looks so brittle that will just break it off anyway.
Cut the stalk at the weak spot and carefully glue down the healthy part.

lost66 · Mar 20, 2020

I will just cut off that parts. What about progression? It looks like its bigger and bigger, is it because of calcium was too low?

lost66 · Mar 23, 2020

I noticed a progression on my bigger corral so I decided to cut that bad thing. That skeleton part was not soft but I was able to crash it in my fingers easily. When I did I noticed some worms.

On the skeleton parts on these corals and on rocks I noticed some weird "funnels". They are hard and I don't know if this is tank maturing or this is the place where this worm born?

W1ngz · Mar 23, 2020

Those are vermetid snails, a common reef pest that can't really be eradicated once it's in the tank. Remove them when you see them on a coral, and control your feeding and avoid broadcasting coral food to limit their numbers. They aren't related to the crumbling skeleton.

The larger one looks like it could be a peanut worm, but I'm not familiar with them.

lost66 · Mar 23, 2020

W1ngz said:
Those are vermetid snails, a common reef pest that can't really be eradicated once it's in the tank. Remove them when you see them on a coral, and control your feeding and avoid broadcasting coral food to limit their numbers. They aren't related to the crumbling skeleton.

The larger one looks like it could be a peanut worm, but I'm not familiar with them.

Thanks!