Hollywood Stunner Bailing on Me

[RBuchetto]

Over the past week, my 3+ year old stunner has started to brown-out. While this is happening the CUC has taking the opportunity to pick off the flesh.

I have other chalice in the tank with no visible issues. Any thoughts? It’s frustrating to see after having propagated this from only two “eyes”.

water conditions are as follows:
PO4 0.5
PH 8.3
Ca 450
KH 7.7
Mg 1325

The tank’s values have stay within these parameters for most of the time. I did have the take dip down to a 6.1 KH a few weeks ago as I switched from Seachem 2-part to Brightwell’s A&B and was trying to get the dosing straightened out.

 

[jeffchapok]

Mine did that too. It started in the center and all the flesh seem to rot away. I was afraid I was going to lose it completely. But then after a few weeks, it started to grow back in again and now looks better than ever. I haven't had any change in water quality that I'm aware of and no other coral else seemed amiss. I wonder if this is just part of their life cycle?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

If there is any completely healthy tissue, I might try fragging off that piece just in case you lose the whole plate.

 

[RBuchetto]

Just an update…about seven days later and the main plate is almost completely picked clean of skin by the CUC.

Managed to frag-off four large chips…seen in the image to the right. Fingers crossed the chips will recover after the fragging and dip. They at least look better than the main plate. I tried to lift it completely off the rock, but it has become brittle to the point of collapse. So I cut what looked to be the greenest of the plate. Really sad after three plus years of it growing out.

 

[shakacuz]

good luck to the recovery! i am currently dealing with the same issue but with my jf aquaman monti..

 

[Uncle99]

Phosphate at .5ppm?
5 times higher than norm.
That will stunt growth and turn corals brown.

 

[Reefing102]

My stunner did the same thing. All gone within about 4 days. No clue on the cause

 

[MaxTremors]

Phosphate at .5ppm?
5 times higher than norm.
That will stunt growth and turn corals brown.

Was going to say the same thing, also no nitrate test?

 

[RBuchetto]

NO3 is at 25ppm, generally the highest it ever is.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Stunner is forgiving as I found out.
Moderate light and water flow. Even lower light good
Bleaching generally occurs on these guys when Light too bright, water temp too warm, Calcium low, alk high and phosphate above .05

Mine after recovery:

 

[Brian_68]

That alk drop is usually not good on hard corals depending on how fast. Was it over days / weeks or overnight?

 

[RBuchetto]

Photo of the tank last month. This is with the NO4 and NO3 values generally in their highest realm of [email protected] and NO3@25, sometimes 50 if I forgo a water change.

I’ve started using PO4:NO3-X. Was using a few of the bagged Seachem medias, which don’t appear to do much for me.

 

[RBuchetto]

That alk drop is usually not good on hard corals depending on how fast. Was it over days / weeks or overnight?

Happed over about a week. I’ve been using Seachem Reef Fusion for years to manually dose. But BRS and my local LFS stopped carrying it, so I recently switched to a Brightwell’s A&B and Magneson.

This noticeably happened while I was trying to figure out the new dosing - took me awhile to figure out how to keep the Ca, Alk, Mag balanced. I likely attribute this ti “user error” in one of my first posts.

 

[RBuchetto]

Phosphate at .5ppm?
5 times higher than norm.
That will stunt growth and turn corals brown.

Maybe I can’t read the Salifert chart correctly. It’s been like this for years - between .25/0.5. The tank Is approximately 6 years old now. The hammer is 8+ years old and came from my older 32 gallon tank when I switched to the 90.

 

[RBuchetto]

Stunner is forgiving as I found out.
Moderate light and water flow. Even lower light good
Bleaching generally occurs on these guys when Light too bright, water temp too warm, Calcium low, alk high and phosphate above .05

Mine after recovery:

I’ve had mine placed mid-tank for about three years. So I am going to have to lean on the ALK crash I experienced. Hopefully, the chips come back, but the main plate is toast, it seems.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Phosphate at .5ppm?
5 times higher than norm.
That will stunt growth and turn corals brown.

I ran phos 1.? For a while. My stunner was growing slow, but color was KILLER!

 

[RBuchetto]

I ran phos 1.? For a while. My stunner was growing slow, but color was KILLER!

Glad I am not the only one. Seems most chase ULN, and is the recommendation of many. But, I find when I’ve tried to dump the values lower, that it made a mess of the tank.

I can’t get acro to grow and I’m ok with that. But I can get a variety of other LPS, SPS and softies to grow just fine in my tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ve had mine placed mid-tank for about three years. So I am going to have to lean on the ALK crash I experienced. Hopefully, the chips come back, but the main plate is toast, it seems.

I believe it will- very forgiving