My coral doesn't look well!!!

[delorean]

hey everyone,

I'm new to this site because mainly I noticed my coral behavior and of course I'm new to reefkeeping. It all started last week. I have been too busy and haven't paid much attention. Since the last 3 days I noticed my coral changing to black on certain parts and it looks very weak. Usually, it looks like its reaching to the light above but since last week it has been reaching the ground.

Here are my param:

PH 8.3
dkH 12.5
calcium 440ppm kinda high
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.0
Sal 1.026

Its a soft coral, not expensive. Actually, I think they are the cheap stuff but still I had it for over 6 month and it had been with me through some tough times. Need help bringing back to life.

here are some pics. I couldn't get a good shot of the black parts.

 

[luke33]

What kind of light are you using. Thats just xenia. Your alk is a bit high but thats the only thing i see from your #'s. Do you use RODI water or tap water?

 

[timberwollf]

mine looked the same way for 3-4 days i added more water flow and it perked right up for me

 

[NaH2O]

Did you make any changes recently before they started to look bad? Water change, new additive, new bulbs? Any thing different in the tank? Anything new (even if you don't think it is the issue)?

I also agree your alk is on the high side. With Calcium of 440 ppm, balanced alk at that level is 11.06 dkH. I'm not convinced this is your problem, though, especially if the coral has been fine with these parameters for 6 months. What test kits are you using? I've noticed my xenia gets puny when I make a change in the tank.

I nearly forgot...

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

 

[G&NSalty425]

Welcome to RF's!!!

 

[delorean]

thanks everyone for the warm welcome

Well I guess I should be more detailed.
Here is what happend. I was gone for 1 month and I had my girlfriend take care of the aquarium. When I got back, everything looked fine. The coral was extended out 2.5" and just beautiful. She did do a water change while I was gone. Anyways, I came back 2 weeks ago. Last week I noticed that the coral didn't look good. It got really thin and then started to change color on some parts. It looked like those parts were going black and dying off. So, I checked the param, the kH was 6 and I Always used to keep it at 12 because it always seem to stay balanced there. The calcium was at 600ppm which it use to be between 420ppm - 500ppm. I didn't understand why this was happening. The Sal was at 1.028 which I used to keep it at 1.025.
I asked the gf if she added to much salt. .... She said no, she made sure the sal was at 1.025.

I got it down back to what I used to keep it at but it did change the behavior of the coral. Oh I also noticed one big thing which was that pretty much all my coraline algae is gone. Usually, I would scrape the glass because there was so much coralline growth which looked really nice but now there is nothing??? I changed my bulbs 3 days ago to see if that was the problem. Nothing so far...... Oh my temp is at 78 and I have good flow.

No i just use tap water. Its a very small setup 25gal tall. I live in Surrey, BC Canada and the water supply here is really good from what i was told by all the local fish stores.

 

[delorean]

ok now the black parts of the coral are somewhat melting off.

 

[apollothesun]

so everything was fine when you got back and then a week later the xenia started to melt. what changes did you do within that week ? did you change the salinity from 1.028 to 1.025 in one day or gradually decrease the salinity over several days?

 

[Rod Buehler]

FWIW, Its anthellia, not xenia, but close enough.
Can you get a better pic of teh black stuff. If its "melting off" it sound like it may just be some cyano, or some algae.
Were some calcium supplements were added (without adding alk suppliments) which crashed your alk and maybe allowed for some algeas to grow on it?

Or Maybe have your phosphates checked with a colormeter. When coraline stops growing and other algaes are present, po4 is usually the culprit even though they show 0.0 on a standard test kit

 

[jadeguppy]

I have found low magnesium levels to be the problem when my corals started to look bad. The good news is that they started responding as soon as I started dosing.

 

[mcvicker]

My anthelia and xenia always "drooped" when I changed any parameters too quickly, such as addition of calcium or carbonate, salinity, temp, or just about anything. It sounds like you made a bunch of changes to salinity, alkalinity, and calcium in too quick a time frame. I would be patient and test daily to see if there are any swings. Your current parameters look okay and it should just take a few days for the coral to recuperate from the changes. I hope that helps?
-chris

 

[delorean]

yah, well I did change the sal fast but that is not the problem. Its been looking like that before the water change.

here is an old picture. around 3 months ago look its reaching up. looks great, nice pink in color.

now look at it.... although, its looking much better then yesterday.

Here is a picture of the original colony. It separated into two colonies just over 3 months ago when everything was going well. This one doesn't have any problems except that it hasn't been reaching up and looking all pretty either.

See that pink stuff. Well I was told its some sort of sponge. Well, looks like its dying too. here is a pic i took last week of it.

 

[jadeguppy]

Those look like sting marks, but I don't see anything near it. Is there anything that can reach out at night and get it?

 

[delorean]

Sting marks?? Corals can get stung. .... interesting, well not that I know of. I mean its on I big piece of live rock. There are all sorts of things that come out at night, some things which which are so hard to see. I know I have a worm looking thing that is multi-colored and is fuzzy. I don't know what would sting??? Do you know??

 

[bingme]

Anthelia die off sometimes.

Sting marks?? Corals can get stung. .... interesting, well not that I know of. I mean its on I big piece of live rock. There are all sorts of things that come out at night, some things which which are so hard to see. I know I have a worm looking thing that is multi-colored and is fuzzy. I don't know what would sting??? Do you know??

I love your pink sponge under the anthelia. It looks pretty darned healthy to me. The little feather duster worm is cute too.

Personally I view anthelia as a pest and was grateful the month it died off in my previous tank (OK I stopped all iodine supplementing to try to cause this event but not sure if it did any good). Now Anthelia is banned from my 150g tank. It spreads like crazy and marches right over and kills just about any coral in its path towards the light.

 

[delorean]

i Know they are... its just that at the time, I bought that just to have corals in my tank. It was my first coral and I was told its low maintenance. I was out of town quite a bit this year and I didn't want anything that needed too much attention....... My girl friend bought some other corals but they all died. She wanted to surprise me...... One was a colt which died because the temp in the tank went to 87 degrees( the heater malfunctioned). Next was a daisy coral and it died because I didn't have enough nutrients. My skimmer was over skimming. I tried to bring it back but by then it was too late, it just was closed all time and one day just disappeared. So, thats why I didn't want any nice corals. Luckily, I'm going to be home for the rest of this year, so now I can take care of my corals.