whats wrong with my brain coral?

[Passinetti2007]

heres pics

it's making my water cloudy, and my xenia is hanging lifeless and limp now. What should I do, my levels are reading fine. Nitrite is zero, nitrate is below 20, temp is 78 and salinity is 1.024. Please someone help me.

 

[jake65]

Looks like RTN but I'm not an expert on that, hopefully Kevin or someone will chime in.

 

[Passinetti2007]

whats RTN?

 

[Jan]

i don't know anything about anything but if it were me, and based on what you've described, I'd take it out of my tank and do a water change pronto. Do you have some kind of QT tank to put it in?

 

[jake65]

RTN...Rapid Tissue neucrosis, google it and see if it resembles what you have

 

[Passinetti2007]

All the pictures of RTN I've seen doesn't look like what I got. What's happening and my camara doesn't do it justice is what appears to be dead coral skeletal remains covered in a spider web looking mucus that is eventually tearing off and floating away in the current making my water cloudy and also killinig off my xenia.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Move the coral to a different part of the tank and blow off the bad parts. Water changes and run carbon asap.

 

[aquarookie]

i don't know anything about anything but if it were me, and based on what you've described, I'd take it out of my tank and do a water change pronto. Do you have some kind of QT tank to put it in?

I second that (NOT the part about Jan not knowing anything :lol. Just for the fun of it, you could try an iodine dip or something similar... I can't imagine it making things worse... Or go to Petsmart, get yourself a 10 gallon tank with a cheap heater and a pump, and stick the brain in it. Maybe someone can lend you some lighting for it, or you can get one of those small PC strips for relatively cheap... Good luck

 

[tike]

Okay..........what's your system setup?? Tank size,lighting,flow. Calcium and Alk levels....how long have you had the brain??

With this info a lot of us can give you better suggestions.

Oh and......Welcome to RF!!!

 

[Passinetti2007]

brains pretty much dead. the infection or whatever it was doubled in the last hour so now its up about an inch and a half on all sides heading towards the middle. he's out of the tank now. as far as system set up. I got a 12 gal nano with t5 lights and the flow sucks. i bought a new powerhead this week but it was way too powerfull for the tank. I have no idea what my cal or alk is at. Wasn't suggested to buy testing kids for that. And I got my brain last wednesdsay.

 

[tike]

First I would buy quality test kits (salifert) for calcium and alkalinity and make sure you are in a good range with both of them....around 370-400 cal and 8-10dKh alk.
How many and what wattage are the t-5's?? I once torched a brain by giving it too much light.
Because you had it less then a week tells me it is probably a water quality issue.
I would definitely try too get the trates as close to zero as possible.
And like stated before do a couple of water changes......say.... 20%ers

HTH

 

[Passinetti2007]

i got 3 T5s with low wattage not sure but they are cheap lights. and what do you mean by a couple water changes like do them one after the other? I just got done replacing like 80% of my water. Do I need to do more water changes?

 

[tike]

i got 3 T5s with low wattage not sure but they are cheap lights. and what do you mean by a couple water changes like do them one after the other? I just got done replacing like 80% of my water. Do I need to do more water changes?

You should be fine on water changes now. I am thinking about your trates level....how long has your tank been set up?? I have never had my trates more then around 10ppm.
I am going to take a stab and say you have 24 watt t-5's and 3 would be overkill for any lps...... 2 is more the enough on a 12 gallon. I run t-5's myself and i have 4 54 watters over a 65 and i have mostly sps so i think you should tone down your lighting a bit if you plan on keeping anymore lps.

 

[Passinetti2007]

the test strips I got only show whether trates are zero 20 40 and so on in 20 ppm intervals. The test strip is a lighter shade then 20 and I have never been able to get it lower. I got like 17 lbs of live rock in a 12 gal tank what can I do to lower the trates?

I've had it set up for a month and a half now.

 

[tike]

The strips suck. I think you should invest in some good water testing kits they are VERY valuable. Do you have ammonia and trite test kits??Salifert kits are what most people use because they are reliable. Because you're running a nano you can get away with not having a skinmmer but who have to be religious about weekly water changes (about 10-20%)

What other livestock do you have in the tank??

 

[jsmkmavity]

did you let the mixed saltwater age for a day before adding to the tank? dont let the brain be out of the water, put it in some kind of container-even a rinsed out milk jug with the top cut off, and suspend it in the tank so the water is separated if it is dying that fast. this will keep contaminants from reaching your tank but keep the brain warm. what is the temp and sg in the tank now?

 

[Passinetti2007]

I do a 20% water change every wednesday, so being sunday night it's very early to have to do one. I have trite kits and they are also dip strips and its reading zero.

 

[Passinetti2007]

no i never knew to let the salt water age. temp is 78 and salinity is 1.025

 

[joshinjosh]

HEY... it is all porOus, because it just may be a SPONGE!!

 

[joshinjosh]

kinda like this