Whats causing this?

quickgranite · Aug 1, 2021

Trumpet decaying.
I have made alot of changes and noticed this while cleaning. I have had it for 8 months growth was good. Worked though some issues but not sure if it was b/c of chemistry or a nuisance. Please let me know your thoughts. The left branch is decaying the most as seen in the pic. The heads seem to be fine?

KrisReef · Aug 2, 2021

Trumpet SKELETON decaying?

I don’t know what would cause that erosion? Kind of looks like something is picking at the exposed (calcium ) skeleton, a crab or a parrot fish are the two animals that I might suspect with out any other knowledge of your tank?

That part of the trumpet is dead already. You can cut the living parts off the branches and attach them to your rock. If you cut too close you might damage the living tissue but if you just get close the animal may grow over the glue and encrust the rock. Then there will not be any dead branches until the coral gets large enough to shadow out the lower surfaces..

Jekyl · Aug 2, 2021

Loss of skeleton can also be attributed to calcium or parameter issues. Have you tested yours? Where are they currently?

quickgranite · Aug 2, 2021

had a huge ca swing went from 450 to 290 slowly bringing it back up when a DOS pump got stuck on during an update. hit 666 currently at 615 with swings in alk, cant seem to get alk steady.
alk7.04 current , yesterday hit 8.2
ca615
mag1380
ph7.83

I use a kalk reactor and dos soda ash 1 hour after. My local guy told me not to use soda ash but I was also working on my ph during the summer time. What are your thoughts on this. Would this be a cause?

brmreefer · Aug 2, 2021

First, welcome to R2R.

Second, it was written that many changes were made. Was this parameter changes? At this juncture it would be hard to say which change implemented was a potential cause. As far as parameters go, I would lay off doing any further changes and let the system equalize and become stabile. On the other hand, if routine testing indicates a parameter needs to be adjusted, then I would take a slow approach to those adjustments.

One change at a time would be better than many changes made at once. This would help in identifying the source of any detrimental causes to live stock.

Pursue observing the tank's inhabitants as potential suspects with coral nipping as KrisReef as well, just to be sure.

A lot of variables exist. Best advise is to take things slow and steady in reef keeping. Best of luck and hope the source issue is found.

brmreefer · Aug 2, 2021

quickgranite said:
had a huge ca swing went from 450 to 290 slowly bringing it back up when a DOS pump got stuck on during an update. hit 666 currently at 615 with swings in alk, cant seem to get alk steady.
alk7.04 current , yesterday hit 8.2
ca615
mag1380
ph7.83

I use a kalk reactor and dos soda ash 1 hour after. My local guy told me not to use soda ash but I was also working on my ph during the summer time. What are your thoughts on this. Would this be a cause?

Definitely got to work on reducing those parameter swings. Those swings would be like acclimating a new coral to your system, only to make a major change and have the inhabitant go through the stress of re-acclimating. Once the swings are reduced, I think you got it.

Goaway · Aug 2, 2021

quickgranite said:
had a huge ca swing went from 450 to 290 slowly bringing it back up when a DOS pump got stuck on during an update. hit 666 currently at 615 with swings in alk, cant seem to get alk steady.
alk7.04 current , yesterday hit 8.2
ca615
mag1380
ph7.83

I use a kalk reactor and dos soda ash 1 hour after. My local guy told me not to use soda ash but I was also working on my ph during the summer time. What are your thoughts on this. Would this be a cause?

I don't know why you would want to dose soda ash with a kalk reactor. Chasing ph can cause skeletal erosion. There is a balance between calcium and alkalinity. If one gets too high it causes the other to act strange. Messing with alkalinity can cause the calcium in your corals to strip. Kalk is fine as it's both calcium and alkalinity buffer.
Or am i confused?