hydnophora in trouble, please help

[carri10]

Hello.
About a month ago, my normally quite bushy hydnophora retracted all its polyps and I’ve not seen them since.
At the base of the coral I can see skeleton which worries me. I don’t remember seeing it before, but given the coral was so bushy and healthy, I never looked.

In terms of parameters and stability, nothing has changed for awhile, although my phosphate has fluctuated from 0.05 to 0.15 and back down to 0.1 within the course of a month.

It’s about eight months old and has doubled in size in that time

Par about 250
NO3 25ppm
Salinity 34-35ppt
Temp 25oC
Alk 8
pH 8.1 - 8.4

 

[Tahoe61]

Is the Hydnophora being stung by Euphyllia sweeper tentacles at night?

Where's you Calcium value?

I found Hydnophora to be one of the hardiest corals I have ever owned. It doesn't need a higher par.

That's an absolutely beautiful system.

 

[carri10]

Thanks for the reply, do you think it’s in trouble, or am I overreacting?

Oh, yes, Ca
Ca was stable at 450 for a long while, but peaked up to 480 for a week about a month ago. It’s now (gradually) back to 450.

I did think about the stinging, but they are a ways away and the flow takes the euphyillia ( generally) in the opposite direction.
I’ll go down at night a couple of times to see what’s really happening, though.


I also thought the Hydnophora was pretty hardy, hence my confusion.

Oh and thanks for the compliment, like all of you, it’s been quite a lot of work.

 

[carri10]

Oh and one more thing, I was dosing trace, and ran out for about week. This was a round about the same time as the pull-up stopped extending. I restarted the trace within a week. It can’t be that can it?

 

[carri10]

Bump

 

[Tahoe61]

Do you have any potential coral nippers?

 

[carri10]

I’ve been keeping a close eye and can’t see any nipping. Doesn’t mean it’s not happening though.
I have a pair of coral beauties. They’re the most likely.

Would you say it’s in trouble, or should I wait it out?

Thanks.

 

[carri10]

Well, I've taken it out dipped in Coral Rx and Iodine, aggressively chopped of anything close to the dead tissue and remouted away from the torches.
Let's see.

 

[carri10]

So some bad news. Dipped in Rx and iodine. Fragged off anything even close to the exposed skeleton (a lot) and remounted. Today, looks like the tissue recession is accelerating. .
Not sure what else I can do, or even why this happened?

 

[Tahoe61]

Very odd. The Urchin is not hanging around it?
I have kept plating and branching under much lower par, around 100.
The fact that the coral just closed up one day and never opened back up is puzzling. If it wasn't just that one coral I would think chemistry.

 

[carri10]

It is odd, isn’t it.
I’ve sent off an ICP ( was doing so anyway), but everything else seems fine.

There’s now no way it can be stung, it doesn’t look at all like a light problem.
The urchin is just doing its thing, near the coral, but not showing any interest.

I’ve only a year’s experience, but from reading it does seem that sometimes corals just die for reasons we can’t work out.
I had a good look on dipping and couldn’t see any visible parasites.

It’s a real shame as it was looking great before.

Oh, and thanks for the reply. I appreciate it a lot.

 

[Tahoe61]

It is odd, isn’t it.
I’ve sent off an ICP ( was doing so anyway), but everything else seems fine.

There’s now no way it can be stung, it doesn’t look at all like a light problem.
The urchin is just doing its thing, near the coral, but not showing any interest.

I’ve only a year’s experience, but from reading it does seem that sometimes corals just die for reasons we can’t work out.
I had a good look on dipping and couldn’t see any visible parasites.

It’s a real shame as it was looking great before.

Oh, and thanks for the reply. I appreciate it a lot.

Yes.

Sometimes we just have to expect some corals to be nope corals in our particular system. Ricordia and Yuma are my nope corals. I never been able to keep them in numerous tanks.

 

[skiergd011013]

I have two of these that are doing poorly as well, when everything else is doing good. All my parameters are good. The only thing that could be better is my par, which is on the low end. Im slowly ramping that up. If they end up withering away, im going to replace them with acro.

 

[carri10]

To close out. Tissue necrosis accelerated after my intervention.
Coral is now dead.

Still none to the wider as to why.