Scolymia receding. Help please.

Taxman20

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I have this posted in the SPS forum by mistake so posting it here.

I bought this Scolymia about 1.5 weeks ago and it looked great at the LFS. Its never looked happy in my tank and is getting worse. Its receding and thats not good from what Ive seen and read. Its never opened up for feeding which has also concerned me and I do what it after the lights go off which is when they try to feed. My water parameters are good other than Ive been chasing Alk for about 2 weeks now for some odd reason but its getting under control now. I just did a 10g water change the other day and will do another tomorrow. Ill do another full battery of test tomorrow to see if something has gotten out of line. I normally check Ca, Alk every few days. PH is constant with a probe and salinity is always 1.025. I have moved it a couple times now thinking it may be the lighting. I run a Reefbreeders Photon V2 LED. Had it under low par around 87 and it never expanded like it should. Moved it to about 150 and it kept getting worse. Now moved it tonight to about 115. I dont like to move corals rapidly, but this one has me worried and it did cost 180.00 . So I dont want to lose it.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Scolymia.jpg
 

Dsnakes

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It is looking rough, but there is still hope. Keep the water clean and keep it from too much flow.

I had issues with a couple scolys previously. They seemed to get worse and worse until I realized they couldn’t heal in the higher flow areas.
 
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Taxman20

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Its been in some decent flow. May be the issue. Where I have just placed it, its between a couple of rubble rock pcs so Im hoping that will help get much of the flow off of it. I have some Acros and other sps that need the higher flows so its hard to get them enough while not blasting the sand bed too bad.
 
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Taxman20

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Looks better today already. I also got my Sailfert test kit in this am for Magnesium. Ive been using the Red Sea kit and showing 1600 each time and wanted to double check it for accuracy. Salifert shows 1185, so that might be some of my little issues Ive had with some corals.

Scolymia after move to lower light.jpg
 

Hemmdog

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When are you trying to feed it at night? I feed mine around 2:30am, after its been dark for hours. Feeder tentacles are always out. Give it a few pieces of mysis, it should come back for you. Stop moving it around for sure, they hate that.
 
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Taxman20

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I fed it this morning before the lights came on but its never had much feeding extensions.

As for moving it, I do agree. But if its getting too much flow or light and its kind obvious, Id rather chance the move instead of letting it continue to get beat up by either and end up dead. It already looks better due to the move.
 

Unholy_Rigatoni

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It doesn't look too bad, here's a pic of my rescued scoly before and after. What I did was carefully trim back some of the 'teeth' of the skeleton to prevent snagging, but you probably won't need to do that.

If it's doing better now, more important to just keep it stable and in the same spot, if it's this new to the tank you may not see a feeding response immediately.

Scolys love food, in general. Try feeding it with one or two large LPS food pellets every few days.

Rescue scoly.jpg
 
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Taxman20

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Wow, yea, yours looked much worse, so I know there is hope. LOL.. Good job bringing it back to life.

Im testing water now and will do a water change today as well. Having some issues with my skimmer either overflowing or not producing enough. I adjusted it to a lower water level inside the skimmer to avoid overflows, and its producing nice dark skimate. BUT, My nitrates are now at .5 which I just finished that test. Normally they are 0. So the water change will help.
 

Bbfishb81

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I brought one back from a dime size piece of flesh left on the skeleton which was about tennis ball size diameter, to full and beautiful again. I unfortunately dont have pics, but it took time, patience and about 6 months.
 

Unholy_Rigatoni

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Hmm he doesn't look contracted so maybe it isn't flow.

Are those lps frags next to it? Looks like acans but I can't see em clearly. If the other LPS are doing OK then it should be fine.

Try feeding him every few days with a nice large pellet food or mysis with selcon, scolies love to eat!
 

Wolters_88

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Hmm he doesn't look contracted so maybe it isn't flow.

Are those lps frags next to it? Looks like acans but I can't see em clearly. If the other LPS are doing OK then it should be fine.

Try feeding him every few days with a nice large pellet food or mysis with selcon, scolies love to eat!
He’s very contracted vs what he was just a couple days ago and his sides are higher and not on the substrate anymore. I have tried to feed him and not once has he opened up. Even wake up at 2am trying to feed and he won’t open with me putting poly-booster in first. My whole thing is all the other corals are doing amazing except this one.
 

Unholy_Rigatoni

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He’s very contracted vs what he was just a couple days ago and his sides are higher and not on the substrate anymore. I have tried to feed him and not once has he opened up. Even wake up at 2am trying to feed and he won’t open with me putting poly-booster in first. My whole thing is all the other corals are doing amazing except this one.
Sounds like it could be something physically disturbing it, assuming the parameters aren't out of whack. Are the frags near it of any particularly aggressive species?
 

Wolters_88

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Sounds like it could be something physically disturbing it, assuming the parameters aren't out of whack. Are the frags near it of any particularly aggressive species?
It was actually by itself and I moved it to that location because of the issues. It’s now under the rocks in the lowest amount of flow in my whole tank. There is nothing around it at all. Hopefully that helps.
 

Srh444

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Hello, not sure if I'm posting in the right area - so apologies in advance.

I have a scoly and it's been fine for the past six weeks. Now it has shrunk a little and the edges of it are hard, whereas they were soft before. What has happened? Is it dying? Or ok? It still has its colours, just not sure what to do. Any advice would be great.
Thank you, Steve
 

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