What is happening to my brain coral?!

[codys21]

Hello, everyone!

I'm new to this forum! I have a 29g that's been set up since February. I first added two clowns at the end of March and then added a brain coral, a GSP, a zoanthid, and a Banggai Cardinalfish in the middle of June. A couple of weeks ago, my brain coral started showing a white spot near the top, almost as if it is bleaching. In the past week, the white has spread as seen in the pictures. I know my LFS had this coral for a few months because I saw it back in February. I have an Orbit Marine IC LED so I doubt it's getting too much light. I try to feed it zooplankton twice a week but I'm not sure it's taking any of it in. The zoanthid and GSP appear to be doing well.

Water Parameters:
Temp: 79.5
Salinity: 1.024
pH: 8.1
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrate: 5-10
dKH: 10

Doing 5 gallon water changes every week.

Any ideas what might be happening?

Thanks!
Cody

The first two pictures are from last Thursday (5 days ago) and the last two pictures are from yesterday morning.

 

[Reeferdood]

First things first.......

So, the brain looks like it was mad before you bought it... It looks like it is unhappy with the lights. Did the coral ever have color or was it always brown?

 

[codys21]

Why do you say it looks like it was mad before I bought it?

29g tank
Orbit Marine IC LED on high for 7 hours
No sump
Just got an Aquatic Life 115 Mini Skimmer about a week ago

 

[Reeferdood]

Why do you say it looks like it was mad before I bought it?

29g tank
Orbit Marine IC LED on high for 7 hours
No sump
Just got an Aquatic Life 115 Mini Skimmer about a week ago

I posted before reading just based on the pictures, sorry. Did this coral ever have color or was it always brownish?

 

[KrisReef]

I think the earlier commenter was looking at the first photo (5 days ago) and thought this is what it looked like when you bought it, maybe?

The brain is bleaching on top and may have some other issues, possibly a bacterial infection so that it appears to be slowly dying in the pictures. The coral polyps are not inflated, the skin is clinging to the skeleton, losing color (bleaching) and has reddish discoloration around the bleaching area similar to some biotic (bacteria, probably?) infection at the top.

Sometimes this is caused by light issues? Do the clowns pick at the coral, or did they try to host in it?

Do you have reasonable water circulation in the tank among those rocks?

just guessing, gl

 

[codys21]

The coral was purchased in good condition and looked good at the LFS the couple of times I went there before I got it. The clowns don't pick at it and have never tried to host in it. Yes, there is good water circulation.

Any idea on how to fix it? Could it be that it's not getting enough light?

 

[codys21]

Also, calcium is 440. Don't have a mag test kit.

 

[Reeferdood]

Also, calcium is 440. Don't have a mag test kit.

If you plan on keeping SPS you need to know what your magnesium is.. I’m still leaning towards some issue with light since the bleaching is on the top of the coral...

 

[codys21]

So you think there's too much light?

 

[Christopher Davis]

Oh no, the dread black sand! Check for heavy metals. We had it in our shop in 4 tanks and couldn’t keep corals alive switched back to aragonite and boom corals recovered and systems much better off! Watch that sand man!

 

[Reeferdood]

Oh no, the dread black sand! Check for heavy metals. We had it in our shop in 4 tanks and couldn’t keep corals alive switched back to aragonite and boom corals recovered and systems much better off! Watch that sand man!

I was going to say that soon.. I am not a fan of it either, I have never seen a successful tank using it..

 

[codys21]

I posted before reading just based on the pictures, sorry. Did this coral ever have color or was it always brownish?

The coral was always brownish but didn't have these white areas.

 

[codys21]

Oh no, the dread black sand! Check for heavy metals. We had it in our shop in 4 tanks and couldn’t keep corals alive switched back to aragonite and boom corals recovered and systems much better off! Watch that sand man!

I was going to say that soon.. I am not a fan of it either, I have never seen a successful tank using it..

For real?! Interesting. I looked up some pictures of reef tanks with black sand vs white sand and liked the look of the black. I also read posts by people with black sand and it was fine. I never particularly searched for bad news with black sand but didn't stumble upon any, either. What kind of heavy metals should I look for? And I suppose I would need additional test kits for them? Also, my other two corals seem to be doing fine.

 

[Reeferdood]

The coral was always brownish but didn't have these white areas.

So,
If that is the case it was likely not well when you got it. It likely has declined since.. I would see about removing the black substrate and use a different one. These are all learning curves that we all go through along the way...
When you buy corals, make sure they are colorful, happy and healthy so they have a better chance of survival when you bring them home..
Hope this helps.

 

[ZoWhat]

Ime..

It's one of 3 things in order of my opinion:

1) your black sand has heavy metals in it. Buy a salifert metal testing kit

2) lights PAR too high, bleaching it. Move it into the shadows

3) dKH killing it. How old is your Alk testing media? It could be readng 10 but in reality its 13+. i have a Hanna Alk checker (p.o.s.) that read +3dKH higher than all drip tests. Your method of testing might be -3dKH off

 

[KrisReef]

Black sand issue is news to me also. If it is metals, or other water contamination, maybe use a Polyfilter to filter the tank water.

It might not be anything in the tank, just a sick specimen that you purchased?

What other corals do you have that are doing Ok?

 

[codys21]

Ime..

It's one of 3 things in order of my opinion:

1) your black sand has heavy metals in it. Buy a salifert metal testing kit

2) lights PAR too high, bleaching it. Move it into the shadows

3) dKH killing it. How old is your Alk testing media? It could be readng 10 but in reality its 13+. i have a Hanna Alk checker (p.o.s.) that read +3dKH higher than all drip tests. Your method of testing might be -3dKH off

I know that favia require low to moderate light but my light isn't that powerful. This is what the light's website says for PAR values:



The coral is under 12-14" of water so should have about 110-120 PAR.

Alk testing kit is about five months old. It's an API drip test kit.

 

[codys21]

Black sand issue is news to me also. If it is metals, or other water contamination, maybe use a Polyfilter to filter the tank water.

It might not be anything in the tank, just a sick specimen that you purchased?

What other corals do you have that are doing Ok?

I have a GSP and some zoanthid. The zoanthid is near the top (under about 6" of water) and seems to enjoy it.

 

[ZoWhat]

I'd buy a test and test for heavy metals, known to be in black sand, including fragments of magnets (yikes)

 

[ZoWhat]

Time for this:

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/icp-oes-testing-kit-triton-1.html