Struggling coral

[Joe Pulliam]

hey guys. A buddy of mine gave me this tree branch looking coral a week ago. It was looking great and now it looks like crap. Anyone know what's going on?

Before and after

 

[twilliard]

By looking at the rock how old is the tank?
It could be a hundred different reasons why it is unhappy
What's you no3 and po4?

 

[Joe Pulliam]

About a month and a half. I got it for free but it's still bothering me that it seems to be dying. My nitrates were a little less than 5ppm before a water change yesterday and my po4 was less than 1

 

[twilliard]

Lighting?

 

[Tahoe61]

Oh just go ahead and throw in SG value, and temp while your at it. Anything you're dosing?

 

[Joe Pulliam]

Aqua illumination 26

 

[Joe Pulliam]

My sg 1.025 and temp is 78. I dose calcium from my LFS every time I do water changes

 

[twilliard]

I would be looking at your intensity and color mix.

What's your ALK ?

 

[Tahoe61]

Since it's a soft coral I would move it all the way down.

Are you testing the calcium level? If not than do not dose it, a water change should be all you need in such a young system.

Thanks for the values.

 

[twilliard]

That coral can handle any light you give it as long as it was acclimated to your lighting over time
Looks like light shock

 

[D maul]

Try to get some good water flow to see if it helps.

 

[Joe Pulliam]

Okay should I turn off the lights and try and re-introduce it to light a little bit and a time and adjust my power heads?

 

[D maul]

Okay should I turn off the lights and try and re-introduce it to light a little bit and a time and adjust my power heads?

Like Tahoe said move it down till it looks better and then if you want move slowly up and water flow just make sure it has some not blasting gl.

 

[sevens_up77]

Hey can anyone tell me what's going on with my acan. I did a water change today and now it has closed up and has this film on it. My acros are fine and I've checked my ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-2, ph-8.2, and alk-10. Is it the high alk? But shouldn't the acros be effected?

 

[twilliard]

0 nitrates with an ALK of 10 can lead to problems

 

[twilliard]

Like Tahoe said move it down till it looks better and then if you want move slowly up and water flow just make sure it has some not blasting gl.

Depends on what the current lighting setup is.
If that tree came from a tank with something like pc lighting that led fixture would blast it away

 

[sevens_up77]

But wouldn't the other corals be showing signs of stress?

 

[Joe Pulliam]

Okay I'll give it a shot. My branching hammer coral looks great thats why Im so confused haha. But moving it down makes sense. I'll do it now

 

[D maul]

Depends on what the current lighting setup is.
If that tree came from a tank with something like pc lighting that led fixture would blast it away

Ai 26

 

[Joe Pulliam]

I got the AI26 from the same guy. Same lighting he uses