Kenya Tree has "moldy" part that recedes every day

[badluckman]

Hello,

I have a brown Kenya Tree in my tank that has some weird moldy like neon green stuff on it every morning, but as the light hits it the green stuff recedes during the day and then flares up during the night again. I got it mainly as an indicator coral so I could see that my water had changed but I'm starting to like the look of it so I guess it'll be a permanent resident.

I've tried to search for it but I couldn't find something similar on any pictures I saw.
Does anyone know what it is? I've given it about 2 weeks to fight it on its own, but no progress is being made by either coral or the weird green stuff so I'm almost starting to think that it's just part of the coral itself.

Params:
Salinity 1.025
Temp 26 (79 fahrenheit)
Phos unreadably low
Nit unreadably low
Calc 395
KH 6.95
Mag 1300

 

[vetteguy53081]

If its reacting to light, it may be a shaded area lacking light which they respond to.

 

[badluckman]

If its reacting to light, it may be a shaded area lacking light which they respond to.

That could certainly be it! I had it placed in a shaded area before, was told they didn't like MH lights blasting on them so I hid it where only T5 light reached. I moved it about 2 weeks ago when I saw the green stuff into the edge of the MH lights, but nothings happened yet.

Should I try to move it into an even more lit area perhaps?

 

[Tahoe61]

I would wait and watch. I am very curious, the receding with lights on makes me think Comb Jelly. I have seen them on a number soft corals in the past.
But...the image does not look like your commonly seen Comb Jelly.

 

[badluckman]

I would wait and watch. I am very curious, the receding with lights on makes me think Comb Jelly. I have seen them on a number soft corals in the past.
But...the image does not look like your commonly seen Comb Jelly.

I agree that it doesn't look very similar BUT I have seen one of these "strings" on my blasto once, and it's really close by in the tank. Only once though.

I'll leave the tree alone for another 2 weeks and try to keep you updated with pictures.

 

[vetteguy53081]

try

That could certainly be it! I had it placed in a shaded area before, was told they didn't like MH lights blasting on them so I hid it where only T5 light reached. I moved it about 2 weeks ago when I saw the green stuff into the edge of the MH lights, but nothings happened yet.

Should I try to move it into an even more lit area perhaps?

try it. Will likely make a difference

 

[badluckman]

A little update on what happened.

I moved it to the high light area of my sump for a while to see if that would help as I didn't want to risk placing it high on the rock structure. Still unsure if this is the "weed" kind of tree to be honest.

The lighting change didn't do much, so I moved it back into the tank and placed it in an area with lower flow.

The "moldy" part disappeared and became new branches, but the green hue remains in the entire stem of the coral instead of being isolated to the mold area.