When your coral looks sick do you take action or hope for the best?

[robert teseo]

cut the bad part off. usually helps.

 

[Rjmul]

Being SPS dominant, I run daily test so it allows me to spot a trend up or down before it causes major issues. Not everyone has that time or needs to test that much but it does help out when a problem pops up.
If the coral was newer, I'll take actions. I may frag it, dip it, or move it.
One that is established is up to the Reefing Gods

Agreed. I test something every single night.

 

[BigSkyRich]

We all know that sinking feeling of walking into the room to view your reef tank and seeing a coral that looks to be sick or getting sick! It has happened to us all and it doesn't feel good. Obviously some coral can "look" sick but not really be suffering from sickness. But there are certain coral that you know without a doubt when they are looking bad! So when that happens what do you do? What's the steps you take? Let's talk about it!

1. When you see one of your corals looking sick do you take action or hope for the best?

2. If you take action what are the steps you take to try and save the coral?

image via @Zero Nitrates

You mean after I call my therapist?

 

[jasonrusso]

I have yet to save a coral. If I see STN or RTN, I have tried cutting off the dead stuff, I have dipped in iodine, I have moved and overfed. Never works. This is for corals that had been growing like a week for months, all of a sudden they die while everything else is fine.

 

[arussellnsg]

1. When you see one of your corals looking sick do you take action or hope for the best? Take action

2. If you take action what are the steps you take to try and save the coral?
Check parameters, inspect all corals, note those that are looking sick. Change filters, water change as needed. Begin reading more articles on here and other groups for an indication of possible causes

 

[stephen wyard]

I do all the basic tests and then look for other causes.I observe every day and try to catch it before it gets out of hand.

 

[Jshoji]

First observe closely, then take action

 

[Treefer32]

I've probably lost more corals than have successfully grown in my current tank, but, that said, the ones that are growing are growing well for the most part.... I have a hammer that grew 4 new heads at the same time this summer. Now, I see 3 more tiny heads growing from it. It's doing awesome and very happy with it's growth. The only Scoly I have was splitting at it's edge. I reached out to the coral company I got it from, their first question was have you check salinity and calibrated your salinity tester. I did both and discovered my salinity had hit 1.027. He said Scoly's hate high salt levels. I reduced the salinity to 1.025 over a couple days and waited.. Now, 3 months later, the split is 80% healed and continuing to heal! It's not often I get that level of success using a quick reaction. . .

That said, I love Acans, I don't like their prices. So, I have three tiny 1" frags that I got 2 years ago. I didn't target feed them initially for the first year, but did a lot of broadcast feeding of reef roids, reef chili, and heavy feed selcon soaked frozen food. no growth in the acans, in fact the flesh was receding. They didn't die, they didn't bleach, but, but not puffy at all...

For the last 3 months I've implemented a twice a week feeding schedul at the same time, which includes selcon soaked frozen, some pellets, reefroids, and coral aminos all mixed together target fed using a turkey baster. I make sure they're each soaked in gentle spray of the aminos and reef roids, and try to get the frozen to stick to them. When each frag has a small piece of frozen food stuck to it I let it be. I've been doing this religiously for the last 3 months. I've seen massive color improvements in the flesh, but they're still not puffy, not growing, just having prettier colors as a tiny 1" frag in a 350 gallon system. I'm not expecting them to double in size in a month. But, get puffy like Acans are supposed to be would be nice to make feeding easier. . .

I'll continue, patience and consistency is key, just trying to figure out if there's something wrong with the water that they won't grow, when I have Acros and Hammers starting to grow not quite like weeds!

 

[jesspal]

I try to figure out what I did differently and correct that issue. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out.

 

[Island Reef 242]

I will just do a water change, maybe a couple, and observe. If it doesn't get better, test, research, take notes. If I cant find a reason and solution, then its on to practicing my fragging skills.

 

[[email protected]]

I don't know why but there is usually one coral no matter what I do at any time that is mad when everything else is happy. I usually leave it be and watch for necrosis and stuff. Often times the coral just got trampled by one of my various massive hermit crabs and it perks up the next day. If I can tell something is seriously wrong, I do research and in extreme situations just dump the coral.

 

[Creggers]

Water changes are my go to... I also post here

Shameless plug for folks looking for a challenge - have a post up in the SPS forum looking for help with a slow tank crash I'm experiencing right now:

Base up STN on acropora frags following stray voltage event

Hello R2R, Unfortunately all of my Acropora frags are STNing from the base up. I noticed less and less PE over a few weeks and starting yesterday I noticed some white appearing along the bases. The PE is basically completely gone at this point and has been for a few days. Yesterday I found...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Fishboy-1970]

I actually just encountered my first sick coral. Got a hammer in and about 1 day later one of the heads started to peel. The other head was doing fine so I tested and my Paramus were in check. I then decided flow was the problem. Moved it and it is doing excellent. Only problem is one of the heads has peeled to the point of no recovery. What should I do with it.

Remove it.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’m afraid my brand new elegance coral retracted ECS. Not sure there is much I can do except hope for the best......

 

[MnFish1]

Just had this problem - I had a coral that had grown from a quarter to more than 7 inches across and 5 inches high - I accidentally broke a couple pieces off it and put them elsewhere in the tank - and they did fine. All the sudden one day - there was a white area on the large piece - and a small white area on the small ones - the next day there were huge white patches - I checked my parameters - and everything was fine - but my alkalinity was 12 - (normally 8) - I had just changed my alkalinity from Na bicarbonate - to Na carbonate - and forgot to change the dose. I turned down the all, the death stopped. What is weird to me - that species was the only one that showed any damage... But - it does pay to know whats happening in your tank -and act. On the other hand - I tend not to react to 'tests' i.e. if the alkalinity was high - I would first recheck and check again - to be sure it was correct (assuming no problem in the tank) - and if high - would just turn down the dosing. To me more problems are started trying to quickly get PO4 or nitrate or alkalinity down or up - than just being patient - and waiting....

 

[Melanie D]

I take action by testing my parameters, looking for parasites n such, if it's a frag I dip it. I've cut out diseased parts and fragged healthy parts when treating the whole coral isn't possible.

 

[disdareef]

I have tried several different dips and methods to try to save corals. It seems to make it worse when try to help

 

[Carl C]

I move straight into action.

Actually I noticed my Green Lobophyllia turning grey on the edges the other day. I feed it mysis shrimp and it got its color back in 2 days.

My lobo died a while ago it was one of my 1st corals ; and it lived a good while was always healthy would eat reef roids; then seemingly it starts to die then died ; every thing else seemed fine and I don’t remember any changes... mystery!

 

[Jeffcb]

My lobo died a while ago it was one of my 1st corals ; and it lived a good while was always healthy would eat reef roids; then seemingly it starts to die then died ; every thing else seemed fine and I don’t remember any changes... mystery!

it happens

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I recently attempted my first sps coral (monti cap) after having great luck with softies and some lps. Things started out looking great, it was growing, polyps always open, and then...not so good. Loss of color, growth pretty much stopped, for a bit the polyps wouldn't hardly open. For me, action meant the following:

1) New test kits - I was relying on API for calcium and alkalinity, now Red Sea and Hanna
2) Par meter - no more guessing whether or not this coral is getting the right light
3) New heater - I was getting up to 5 degree temperature swings, we're now down to rarely more than 0.5 degrees

I can't realistically even ask for help if I can't provide key pieces of information. Hoping once I have all my numbers we can save this little coral before it's too late!