scoly and plate showing skeleton

[BryanM]

What would / can you do here. Noteworthy I have a red dwarf angel, first thought was he decided to nibble, but the smaller plate was placed in jail (I put a mushroom cup over it, and when I came home he was twice as bad as before).

Does this seem bacterial somehow, and should I iodine dip them both? I *really* do not want to lose the plate. For the record, all the little wiggly tentacles on the plate are still happily moving, so he's far from dead, I just am looking for what to do.

TYVM.

 

[ThisIsTheWay]

I unfortunately don’t have a lot of experience with stuff like this but my initial reaction would be to look into dipping the coral and then ensuring it remains undisturbed in good quality water.

Here’s a thread I’ve run across before that may have some helpful info on coral rehab.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-coral-rehabilitation-project.542305/

 

[BryanM]

I also added quite a bit of rock that was supposed to be mature live rock, but it has this brown color to it all now, I just throw this out there in case it is a contributing factor.

Now:

When it was first placed:

 

[BryanM]

Well, I did the iodine dip, we'll see how that goes. Fingers crossed

 

[mcarroll]

IMO these are both moody corals....seems like I've seen a lot go down this way unfortunately.

I don't know how you keep your systems off the top of my head, but low-nutrients and flow issues are the first two things I'd look at just based on the photo.

A cage like you used would make flow issues worse, and you did mention he seemed to get worse in the cage...so maybe flow improvement is possible?

Is the system ≥ 0.10 ppm PO4 and ≥ 5 ppm NO3?

 

[BryanM]

IMO these are both moody corals....seems like I've seen a lot go down this way unfortunately.

I don't know how you keep your systems off the top of my head, but low-nutrients and flow issues are the first two things I'd look at just based on the photo.

A cage like you used would make flow issues worse, and you did mention he seemed to get worse in the cage...so maybe flow improvement is possible?

Is the system ≥ 0.10 ppm PO4 and ≥ 5 ppm NO3?

12-20 nitrates and when I put in GFO it goes down to .13, and then climbs back up to about .4

He's back out of thhe cage, it was temp because I thought the red dwarf angel. might have been nipping at it.

 

[RobertK]

Hope your plate makes it Bryan, it looks like a beauty!

 

[mcarroll]

12-20 nitrates and when I put in GFO it goes down to .13, and then climbs back up to about .4

He's back out of thhe cage, it was temp because I thought the red dwarf angel. might have been nipping at it.

Doesn't seem like a range that would be a problem, but (due to lack of other ideas) maybe lay off the GFO and let things settle to a level – maybe he'll get happy? Doesn't seem like .4 would hurt anything.

 

[BryanM]

I'll add the last three things that have changed to this thread and see if it makes any difference.

1). Film algae on the glass has increased to where I have to clean the glass 2-3x a week instead of once every 5-7 days. Don't know why that's changed, maybe the addition of new rock, that was supposed to be mature/live/etc, but maybe it was only half way there since its now brown.

2). Gorgonian doesn't fluff up right now, its naked, and stays this way most of the time, it gets about 25% fluffed up about every other day, when it used to stay fluffy all the time:

3). This new long tentacle leather was fabulous, but now is mostly like this, basically naked like the gorgonian:

 

[mcarroll]

Leathers are known to do a little chemical warfare every now and again.....does the timing of the problem line up at all with the arrival of the leather? Do you run activated carbon already?

 

[BryanM]

Leathers are known to do a little chemical warfare every now and again.....does the timing of the problem line up at all with the arrival of the leather? Do you run activated carbon already?

I do run carbon and changed it last night before I did the iodine dip.

The leather is 1-2 weeks old, somewhat the same for the new rock.

 

[mcarroll]

Gorgonian is another super-moody coral IMO.

Extra film algae would IMO have to correspond to an increase of nutrients or organics....sorta points more at that rock additions maybe. New corals would also raise organics, but seems like more than that is going on....

Hm....I don't know what your capacity is, but I'd be tempted to pull the rock (maybe the leather too)...to another tank if possible, of course.

I hesitate to read too much into the reactions of moody corals – the rest of the tank is great, right?

Even toadstools do that periodiccally as part of their cleaning cycle – make sure he's getting nice strong flow.

But...how the toadstool looks could also be the same reaction you're seeing from the gorgonian & co. Toxins and other "fouling" things can trigger its cleaning cycle. But so can moving to a new tank. So....

Out of curiosity I'd be tempted to run a little Poly-Filter™ as a cheapie tox screen, but I wouldn't go too far out of my way if I didn't have it on hand. (I always do!)

 

[BryanM]

I have filter cups filled with poly actually.

And interesting, I have not tested nitrates since the new rock. I have tested phosphates. I guess I'll go test nitrates now :)

 

[smitten with ocean life]

try moving them to a very low flow shady area to see if that helps them to recover. @VintageReefer still around? havent seen him in awhile!

 

[BryanM]

.05 phos, and 26 nitrates is what I'm working with today.

 

[mcarroll]

I have filter cups filled with poly actually.

Poly-Filter is an adsorptive media with color indication for what it's adsorbing. Usually it's just brown for nitrogenous ortganics, but it will color up for (eg) yellow aluminum. The package has the whole breakdown...it doesn't "show" everything like an ICP...just some common ones. It's mostly like running activated carbon or purigen, but with the indicator property. (Maybe actaully better than those, but similar.) Good stuff.

.05 phos, and 26 nitrates is what I'm working with today.

Not bad, but PO4 being on the lower side might be edging on unavailable for corals with less-optimal flow or other issues....especially considering NO3 is not low. If you can back off of any nutrient export, that would be a good test as well...it might help if PO4 could creep up a bit. Likewise if you perceive any room to improve flow in the system, that should also pay off.

 

[BryanM]

Not bad, but PO4 being on the lower side might be edging on unavailable for corals with less-optimal flow or other issues....especially considering NO3 is not low. If you can back off of any nutrient export, that would be a good test as well...it might help if PO4 could creep up a bit. Likewise if you perceive any room to improve flow in the system, that should also pay off.

I'm fairly positive my phos will increase overnight, I had just put in about 2/3rds of a large canister of GFO, and it was .46. I'm a little shocked it lowered it that much THAT fast.

That said, the GFO reactor is off now obviously :)

 

[RobertK]

Thats a lot of GFO. I use 2 tablespoons in a reactor and it lowers phos from 0.6 to 0.3 in my 60 gal.

 

[BryanM]

so this is the other scoly that was introduced at the same time, and he is eating and fantastic. It is quite weird (to me). And they were side by side.

This is right now, wanting to eat, and I fed everyone tonight.

 

[BryanM]

FYI, GFO off for a day, phos back up to .32