“Sponges” coral skeletons?

[siffuz]

Is it possible for Euphillia skeletons to literally turn to soft sponge-like material if in chronically low mag/Calc/alk water? Or am I dealing with a disease/pest??
Alk 8.1
ph 8.0
phos 0.6
Ca 377
Mg 990
nitrate 41

I’ve since adjusted levels to
Alk 11.0
ph 8.3
phos 0.53
Mg 1360
Ca 480
nitrate > 5 (limit of Hanna)

 

[Spare time]

I don't know how that would be chemically possible unless the pH was drastically low. Do you have pics or anything?

 

[siffuz]

No unfortunately I didn’t think to take a photo. And all my “Googling” hasn’t given me any answers. All I know is that I had a relatively new reef tank and the corals I had were doing great- then I got complacent with testing water because every time I did it was fine so I thought I could get away with water changes.
Then all my coral turned bad, and had huge algae issues. I know my parameters were off and have been adjusting them. When I removed a few torches to dip them to try and save them, I found there was a huge amount of spongey matter around their skeletons.
It really looked like the calcium bases had turned from a rigid structure to sponge.
And it was chunky sponge!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The spongey material IS the skeleton, or is around the skeleton?

 

[siffuz]

The spongey material IS the skeleton, or is around the skeleton?

It was around the skeleton, under the torch colony, around the heads etc.It looked the same as the stony skeletal structure but was completely soft and spongey. Also, my calcium levels have gone >500ppm without dosing since I lifted out the largest Torch colony and unleashed a lot of this debris that was underneath it, about a week ago.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not sure what that is, but it's not a result of faulty water chemistry.

Perhaps others who have seen similar structure can chime in.

 

[siffuz]

I'm not sure what that is, but it's not a result of faulty water chemistry.

Perhaps others who have seen similar structure can chime in.

Thanks Randy, I feel better that it’s not a water chemistry fault, I’d love to know what the heck it was though. Im a relatively new reefer and keeping corals happy is proving to be a challenge. But I’m more than happy to learn

 

[aSaltyKlown]

This sounds similar to one of my frags.
I have a Frogspawn that melted over a year ago, two heads survived. I cut some of the branches off and used what was left and glued it on a small piece of rock. I noticed recently when I moved it for a tank upgrade that the old skeleton is soft and I can push it in with my fingernail. The remaining heads are doing well, but no new growth.