suicidal coral help me get him into therapy

[arsoncop4fish]

I recently purchased a coral from a LFS.. the comments from an earlier post are as follows;

"Loks like a lobophyllia brain coral", I see some tissue recession on the front right lobe. This coral will prefer a softer substrate than the LR, like your sand bed, it will prefer med to high light and low to med flow. It should except chunks of meaty foods like chopped shrimp, krill and silversides as well as blender mush .

The key to getting the tissue recession under control is going to be proper placement, good water parameters and feeding.

I have followed the advise to the tee. placed it on the substrate in med flow facing the light. My water parameters are PH 8.4, ammoina 0, NitrIte 0, NitrAte 0, SG 1.023. My lighting is 96 Watts Actnic,
96 Watts 10,000k, 60 Watts normal florescent. My tank is a 58 gallon reef ready oceanic set up approximately 4 months old. My water flow is 500 GPH sump moving water at the surface for air exchange, and a 325 GPH powerhead for cross circulation approximately half way down in the tank angled from corner to corner. I feed 2-3 times a week with a syringe a strong invert food, or blende mush constiting of clams, scallops and shrimp. It eats what is not taken away by the current. But tissue recession has gotten much worse. I will show you the pictures that I have and you will have to imagine the tissue recession working its way to the middile of the coral.

Any Ideas.... On how I can keep this thing alive.. It acts like it wants to DIE Is it suicidal?[/quote]

 

[reefrunner69]

Is that a recent pic? Can we see one where it is at right now? Brains can be tricky, once the recession starts.

 

[arsoncop4fish]

I will update the picture later today if possible

 

[arsoncop4fish]

here are the updated pictures... Sorry bout that

 

[arsoncop4fish]

here is another one

 

[steve-s]

Comparing the first pic with these recent ones it looks as if the flesh recession has halted and reversed some. The only issue now is color. Correct?

I would also go one step further in how you've newly located the coral. On the left side of the razor caulerpa, there is a nice clear area. Pile up a bit of the substrate to make a "volcano" shape. Gentley scoop up the brain from the bottom and place it in the sand pile without touching the flesh area's if possible. This will reduce irritation from the CC as it will keep it away from the flesh and also move it into a more directly lit area taking care of the zooxanthellae loss hopefully. Keep up with your fortified feedings a few times a week when the feeding tentacles are out.

Keep water quality optimum and ensure the chem is in line. If the CA gets too far out of babalnce with the alk, the recession may start again. Do you know the alk/Ca levels?

Cheers
Steve

 

[arsoncop4fish]

I will in a couple of days... Last time I checked the CA was 430 ALK?

 

[steve-s]

In itself the Ca number is fine but you need to know the alk level to guage http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk/caalkcalc.htm]the balance[/url]. I would suggest you get an alkalinity test kit so you can properly monitor the chemistry. With stoney corals, the chemistry is quite important.

Cheers
Steve

 

[arsoncop4fish]

will do and thank you.. I will keep you updated