Corals sick?

[Winter-huntsman]

So recently my new acan coral has not been expanding to its full size, and recently it's loosing color in the center of one of the heads(turning brown). I started feeding it brine shrimp because I read some where that's what you do if you want corals to grow better. Also my star polyp coral has not been as full as it has been, the little green things (don't know the scientific term) are out a bit but not as fully as normal. I plan on doing a water change latter today, I'll also post a picture of them latter as well. I hope I can get them to recover.

Also could the problem with my Acan coral be placement it it's about 2/3 up high to the light. It's also near my pump, it does not get blasted by it but it's just a little below its flow.

Over all I'm a little worried, though everything else is fine, fish not acting funny, equipment is fine, so I don't know what the problem is.


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[Mr tap water]

Hi there could you tell me what your stats are ,also what's fish you have.


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[bribo12]

Acans (now micromussa) are definitely not high light corals. I seem to get better coloration in lower light. Like tap water said parameters and fish would help too as someone could be nipping it.


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[Winter-huntsman]

1. Type & how long you have had it:acan 6 months. Star more then a year

2. Current lighting & Bulb Age: led I can't find the a page right now.

3. Nitrate:0

4. Calcium:don't have tools to test

5. Phosphate:don't have tools to test

6. Alkalinity: don't have tools to test

7. pH:7.9

8. Salinity:23

9. Temperature:78

10. Liquid or strip test kits:

11. Location in tank:middle

12. Current amount of flow:moderate?

13. Current tank dosing regimen: if that means sleep light on at 2:30-3 pm lights off at 11pm

14. Nearby coral:none

15. Explanation of problem:


My fish are 2 tank breed ocelaris (I know I butchered the spelling) clown fish, one male and female. I also have a zebra crab somewhere in the tank he only comes out for food though. The whole coral system, skimmer, pump lights have been running for about 16 months I believe. I'll post more on my introduction page when I make one.


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[Mr tap water]

Hi there based on the information you gave us can only really guess what might be causing it, and the possibilities are incorrect levels of calcium and Kh .high levels of Phos. Salinity to me is a bit on the low side for corals and with your lighting 8-8.5 hours total is on the low side as well to Substrain coral growth. And last of all your crab yes they're meant to be Reef safe but that can depend on how hungry they are and advised to keep a close eye on it at night.


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[Winter-huntsman]

Thanks I'll change the time when I turn on and off my tank light, how long should the light be on then. Also how would I add or remove calcium to the tank then, make if the water more salty is easy but adding minerals I don't know how to do that. Also how would I change Kh and lower the phos levels, what ever that means. I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to reefs. Also do you possibly know the exact reason for the acan to be turning a bit brown?

 

[54seaweed]

lowering phosphate levels is simple larger water changes , raising up salinity to 1.025.
there is no need to dose anything as long as you do regular water changes . the only time that you would need to dose would be if you are heavily stocked with sps coral.
the salt you use should have all the minerals needed to keep softy's and most lps happy
lighting is important too 2hrs blue turning up slow than 8hrsblue and white turning whites up slow than back to 2 hrs blue no need for lights after dark

 

[Mr tap water]

Hi there sorry I didn't get back to you earlier in my opinion you're lighting should be on between 10 to 12 hours with a peak time of 4 to 6 hours being that you only have a few corals, start off at the lower times and see how you go. As for lowering your phos yes water changes will help how or you can even buy a phos remover product which ever suits your needs as for your salinity 1.025 is thereabouts where you want to be as said above, but to keep things stable you do need to test regular just doing water changes Will not keep things stable in my opinion as different elements get used up at different rates.
And if I was to have a quick guess on why your coral has gone brown ,I found nine times out of 10 it is usually to do with either high Phos . high No3 or insufficient lighting.


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[Winter-huntsman]

It's probably high phosphate levels because it has been fine for a long time before hand, so tonight I'll do a water change and hopefully this will help get everything better.


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[Winter-huntsman]

So it's been a day since the change how long will it take for the change to be apparent. Also read some where that the brown color could be from to much nuetrients, so I'm going to stop feeding it brine shrimp.


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[Sniperhank]

These battles can take a long time. If nitrates are 100, for example, a 50% water change will bring them down to 50.

 

[Winter-huntsman]

My nitrates and nitrites are all down at 0 right now so I don't think that's the problem, I'll just wait it out I think.

 

[Mr tap water]

So it's been a day since the change how long will it take for the change to be apparent. Also read some where that the brown color could be from to much nuetrients, so I'm going to stop feeding it brine shrimp.


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Hi there .
how long will it take can depend on lots of things could take weeks may take months as long as you can keep on top of things and keep things stable you should see the results eventually you just need to be patient until then.[emoji846]


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[Winter-huntsman]

So far everything is fine with my star polyp, it's becoming more full now. But my acan seems to be getting worse and I can't tell if what it's doing is normal or not, it keeps shrinking and its edges are turning white. what I don't know is what to do. I also have a bad feeling that it's dying, but I still don't know why. It could be that there is a feather duster that made a home between the heads of the coral.


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[Sniperhank]

It does look in pretty rough shape. What are the parameters? Though I'd normally look towards LPS coral not inflating to be related to alkalinity, I'd be more inclined to think the nitrates/phosphates are still at hand here if I'm remembering this all correctly.

 

[Winter-huntsman]

I just did a water change last week though, everything else is doing better as well. Could it be getting to much light now that I have the tank light on from 11am to 10:30 pm? I would have thought that if levels were still off that the star polyp would still be having problems

 

[Winter-huntsman]

Here's a update, my acan is doing very well lately and the star polyp is showing more green strands things, still I would like to see it fully extended. Here's a quick question the star grew out onto a fake plant, and when I moved the plant to clean it, it pulled that piece of coral off with it. I have left it attached but have not moved it from the tank, should I get rid of it? I don't want more of this coral in my tank.


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[Sniperhank]

You can remove the fake plant or have to remove the gsp from the plant. Gsp is a fast grower and can even become invasive.


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[Winter-huntsman]

Here's a update. The scan has fully recovered its inflated it center area is a vibrant green I have not seen. The gsp is recovering slowly. I found out the problem was salinity. My meter was off by 4 so when I read 24 it was at 20. My meter now shows 28 which is 24. How long do you think it will take for the gsp to fully recover, it's been about 4 weeks and it's slowly recovering.

 

[Winter-huntsman]

Here's how it looks now again this is after the 3 weeks when I first had the problem with the acan. Also here is a photo of it almost 5 months ago let me know if there is anything I can do to help its recovery.


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