Please help/ brain dieing?

[Kevinalewis]

Why is my brain coral turning white where it is? The coral swells up to twice the size in the pic after feeding the tank. I moved it over to the left side of my tank in case it was getting to much light. The colors still look good. It's just white on the underside and where it looks "pinched". Thanks for all your input and help.

[Kevinalewis]

Looks like a hitchhiker on bottom of my brain. I am new to this so I don't know what it is exactly. Brain has started to turn white on bottom. Is this killing my brain? What do I do? Can I pull it out and dip it in a coral dip? Will this remove anything that may be hosting or living on the coral? Please help, I want to save it if possible. I've had it for a couple months now and just noticed it turning white a week ago. I came home from work a minute ago and noticed the thing on bottom of it. I'm not sure what it is so I'm posting this. Here's the best pics I can get right now. If u need better pics to help identify I can try my best to get them. Thanks everyone!

[Qube]

The third picture looks like a bristle worm, if that is what it is, I wouldn't think it would be a problem. Although, I'm new at this too, so I'm sure there are more qualified people than I...

[kay-bee19]

What type of lighting do you have and how long have you had this coral?

[Kevinalewis]

Metal halide and two 96watt 10,000k bulbs which I replaced two weeks ago. I've had the coral two months. Check my other post to see what's on bottom of coral. Hitchhiker? That may be killing ?

[Kevinalewis]

I've never seen s bristleworm n my tank. Here's another pic. Just now took it

[Kevinalewis]

Another pic

[Sniperhank]

Can't make it out. Have you checked all your parameters? How about lighting? I would put money on the fact that your coral is bleaching due to either to much or not enough light.

[mr_X]

take a tweezer and pull that thing off of the brain, and THEN snap a pic of it in a cup of tank water. it looks like a common bristle worm to me too, but they generally won't bother a healthy coral. if the coral is dying, that's a good reason for the worm to be munching away.


the coral is not bleaching due to too much lighting. if it was, it would be doing so at the top. also, it would have not taken a couple months to see the effects of inadequate lighting.

i would also look to water parameters. have you attempted to target feed it at night?

[mr_X]

i said in your other post that it's not lighting, but then you didn't mention that you changed the bulbs in that post either. what size tank is this and what is the wattage of the halide lamp? what brand and color temp did you change from and to?

[Kevinalewis]

I only changed out two power compact bulbs. They both were coralife 10,000k 96 watt bulbs. The two metal halides are still original odyssea bulbs @ 175w 20k bulbs. I know there not the best and plan on replacing them after the holidays. I don't have any actinic bulbs. The fixture had actinic where I put the two new coralife bulbs. Do I need actinic? Underneath the brain looks like small featherdusters, aiptasia, or something? Should I pull it and dip it? I haven't seen any aiptasia other than the Majano that I zapped a while back when u told me how. Thanks by the way!!!

[melosu58]

Double threads merged together.

[mr_X]

your welcome.
i don't think the lamp changes effected the coral-not just changing the actinic lamps.
i am thinking flow, alk swings, some parameter issue...not the creatures underneath it. i would still like a better picture of them. no sense in killing them if they aren't harming anything.

[Kevinalewis]

Is it possible that the white is the brain skeleton growing? It's only on the bottom side so that's what I'm hoping for. It seems healthy and always swells up after feeding.

[mr_X]

no. that's not skeleton.

[Kevinalewis]

From what u can see n pics does it look to be dying?

[Kevinalewis]

When I get home this evening I'm going to move all my live rock to the back wall to have more surface area in my tank. When I do this I'll pull out the brain and remove what's on the bottom. Then I'll post pics to get your opinion or advice.

[mr_X]

ok. it looks to me like it's losing some zooxanthellae. it even appears to be losing some near the mouths. the first thing i do when a coral doesn't look good is move it. maybe to a place of more flow, maybe less light.

[Kevinalewis]

Ok, I have two powerhead in a 55 dt. How do you recommend I position them? A hydor 3 and 1. 750 and 450 gph. I also have my return pump coming in on the side with smaller head.

[mr_X]

that's hard to say. just make sure it's in an area of moderate flow and light. put it in a different spot than you have it now and observe it.