Burned Lobophyllia Brain

[IndyReefMan]

I purchased a beautiful Lobophyllia Brain Coral online. It was in great condition when it was delivered. Unfortunately, I believe that I messed up the photo acclimation and over exposed it to my MH for too long. I have (2) 150 watt 20,000K MH, 130 watt 10,000K PC, and 130 watt actinic on a 72 gal bowfront. I've never had this happen on any of my other corals before. As soon as I recognized the problem, I quickly backed off on the photoperiod and brought it down to 2 hours per day. I've since been raising it by 1 hour per day and am now to 6 hours per day. The coral is still in it's original position-- about half way down (12 inches or so). At first, I thought it was beginning to bleach, but now I see exposed skeleton so it looks like it has some necrosis and the tissue is sloughing. It appears to have stopped though... it has not sloughed off any more in the past two days. About one-eighth of the coral has exposed skeleton. The rest looks fine. Is this coral doomed? If not, is there any chance that the sloughed off tissue will regenerate or is he going to be like this permanently? Any other suggestions on what I can do to help him? I sure don't want to lose him! Thanks in advance for the assistance.

 

[IndyReefMan]

Anyone?

 

[IndyReefMan]

Bump2

 

[MT79]

Is this coral doomed?

Possibly, but you can probably save it. Brains are fairly hardy.

any chance that the sloughed off tissue will regenerate or is he going to be like this permanently

As long as the lighting "problem" is corrected the coral should recover. I would recommend target feedings of meaty foods such as Cyclop-Eeze, very small pieces of krill if possible, etc. That will help it regenerate the lost tissue. Moving it lower in the tank will also help it adjust. FWIW, my brain coral had a hard time adjusting when I upgraded to MH. I had to shade it from direct light for a couple weeks. Good luck HTH.

 

[IndyReefMan]

Thank-you MT79. I moved him all the way to the bottom and placed most of him under a rock ledge to shade him for a while. I'll try feeding him after lights out tonight. We'll see what happens.