Basic trumpet coral receding but why?

[Decades]

We got this guy over 4 months ago and it’s been super puffy and even sprouting new heads. Then Thursday it started to shrink up and expose some skeleton. Dipped it and my Duncan because they both looked bleak. Duncan looks great but this guy still is not looking good. Is it a pest that I cannot identify? Water parameters are great, except I did mix up a tiny amount of kalk with my ato. Any ideas?

 

[ScottR]

What are your parameters? I’m sure you’ll get the help you need if you post them. If they are indeed perfect and lighting is right then I’d assume it’ll improve and you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Hermie]

Do you ever feed it? Mine looked like that when it was in a 2.5 gallon "QT" tank with low light and not really being fed
Now that I've been feeding mine meaty foods and giving it good light, it's gotten huge. It could also be a poison in the water such as soft corals (that's what happened in my QT tank) and I also had some invertebrate killing medicine (piperazine) which may have affected the coral... basically when they look like yours, they are in rough shape, but definitely recoverable.

April 10:

Now (mid-June):

 

[ot7]

in my case, duncans and candy canes are the first ones to react to high nitrates/phosphates. Could also be lighting, did you possibly tweak your lighting in those 4 months? Is it possible the kalk might've caused some type of parameter swing?

 

[Decades]

I’ll retest now but these were the parameters a few days before.
Phosphate 0.0
Nitrate 0.0
Ammonia 0.0
Calcium 440
KH 10.5 / 161

I feed reef roids, reef chili and mysis.

Lighting is bottom of the tank under Cobalt Aquatics C-Ray 200 on LPS settings.

 

[Hermie]

I’ll retest now but these were the parameters a few days before.
Phosphate 0.0
Nitrate 0.0
Ammonia 0.0
Calcium 440
KH 10.5 / 161

I feed reef roids, reef chili and mysis.

Lighting is bottom of the tank under Cobalt Aquatics C-Ray 200 on LPS settings.

probably the kalk, I would give it 4 or 5 more days before being too worried

 

[Decades]

I’ll retest now but these were the parameters a few days before.
Phosphate 0.0
Nitrate 0.0
Ammonia 0.0
Calcium 440
KH 10.5 / 161

I feed reef roids, reef chili and mysis.

Lighting is bottom of the tank under Cobalt Aquatics C-Ray 200 on LPS settings.

Ammonia is a little higher than I expected. I still test because it’s all relatively new system. I’ll see if it tries to feed.

 

[ScottR]

How old is your tank? You shouldn’t have any ammonia in your tank. That’s a big problem.

 

[Decades]

Tank is 6 months, not sure where this is coming from. I feed extremely sparingly and there is only 3 fish 8 snails and about 7 hermits. Everyone is accounted for. Maybe a bad test?

 

[Hermie]

honestly, something is off if you have zero phosphates, zero nitrates and a 6 month old tank, maybe you are not feeding enough... I don't know, either something is absorbing up your nitrates and phosphates or you aren't putting them in, but you said you feed the corals. Basically your "hungry" organisms shouldn't be limited by a lack of nutrients in the water (phosphate and nitrate) which is why many people run their tanks with more than zero phosphates/nitrates at any given time (besides also some of us being lazy).
The extra nutrients act as a buffer so the coral doesn't "starve" at any given time.



What is your setup like? Refugium? Sump etc

 

[Decades]

Bad test. Rechecked 2 times, 0.0, 0.0. I’m thinking I might be under feeding. Have a Refugium skimmer live rock in a 29 gallon sump. Main tank is just a 38 gallon bow front. Filter socks and auto top off. Every time I feed the hermit crabs act like they’ve never seen food before! I’m working on the 75 gallon and not ready to go with an apex until I have both running.

 

[Decades]

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I’ll retest now but these were the parameters a few days before.
Phosphate 0.0
Nitrate 0.0
Ammonia 0.0
Calcium 440
KH 10.5 / 161

I feed reef roids, reef chili and mysis.

Lighting is bottom of the tank under Cobalt Aquatics C-Ray 200 on LPS settings.

My guess is that your nitrate and phosphates aren't really 0 ppm if you are running a refugium. However, those levels are very low, especially with your ALK levels.

It looks like you are using API test kits. If you are going to run nutrients that low, I would get more sensitive test kits so that you know you aren't bottoming out on your nutrients. Most LPS corals like water that has a little more nutrients in it. You could raise your nutrient by dosing or by removing about half of the algae in your refugium.

I would also suggest lowering your ALK to around 8 dKh.

 

[Decades]

Took out most of my Chaeto and started to feed on a more regular basis. Still no Phosphates or Nitrates, and so far no algae or dino bloom (fingers crossed) and most everyone is perking up. Trying to find the thin line between high nutrient and low with the tools I have seems almost impossible. Should I invest in some hanna checkers or find a reef keeper lite?

 

[Hemmdog]

Took out most of my Chaeto and started to feed on a more regular basis. Still no Phosphates or Nitrates, and so far no algae or dino bloom (fingers crossed) and most everyone is perking up. Trying to find the thin line between high nutrient and low with the tools I have seems almost impossible. Should I invest in some hanna checkers or find a reef keeper lite?

No you don’t need any fancy equipment at all. Feed a cube of mysis a day. Reef roid once a week. You will be perfect. You were feeding next to nothing and exporting those few nutrients with macro algae and a skimmer. Feed more, let it dirty up a bit. Most people run over 10+ nitrates and 0.03 phosphates on here and have been very successful. If your nitrates go above 50 your feeding to much, shoot for 10-25.

Edit. Hanna phosphate checker would be a worthwhile purchase.

 

[Decades]

Thanks!