Help With Ill Corals!

[connorsbala]

Hey,
I noticed today that my colt was stuck in the filter, so i got it out. The bit that was in the filter has gone all brown, but the rest of it is okay
Here it is before

And after

My other finger coral has sorta lost its strength to hold itself up
Before

Now

What can cause this? Insufficient flow? Will my other corals catch this?

Please help ASAP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[AK77]

Hi,

It's possibly something to do with your water parameters. Perhaps a lack of trace elements maybe? How often do you perform a water change? Do you feed iodine/strontium suppliments?

I have one of these or at least something very, very similar. When mine was stressed from transportation it just retracted down to about a quarter of its extended size. Your's doesn't appear to be retracted, more flopped over as if its in a weakened state. I doubt it would spread to your other corals, unless it is a water parameter that's gone out of whack (IE I wouldn't think its a disease of something).

Since the coral is in the same place, have you replaced the powerheads or moved them / upgraded them?

Have you introduced any corals or rock into the tank recently?

I'd suggest performing a full sweep of water tests from ammonia through to nitrates, ph, alkalinity, sg, temperature etc, to eliminate the obvious.

Hope it pulls through.

 

[connorsbala]

Alls alot better today Added another internal filter near it yestersday and its getting straighter and its colours come back
Did water tests yesterday as i was going to get some more corals, which i did
Ammonia and nitrite was 0. Nitrate was between 0 and 10. pH was 8-8.2

Thanks for the help AK77

 

[AK77]

Just an observation, that may or may not be useful but, mine hasn't had its polyps out for about 4 days now. I'd moved it from one side of the tank to the other, and its been getting a lot more flow around it, from the sump return and one of the Koralia 3's. This is why I was asking if you had upgraded your powerheads.

However, I also had a PH drop from 8.3 down to 7.9 (7.8 at night). I've been adding buffer these past few days (below the recommended level for my water volume). At the moment the PH is at 8.01. The polyps have started opening back up. I'll continue to dose with the PH buffer until the ph is back to 8.3 and has stabilized.

I'm trying to ascertain what has caused the PH drop. I'd thought maybe some largish RO water top-ups had caused it, although this has been considered not likely. I am using GFO in the form of Ultiphos which is basically Iron III oxide. I'm wondering if this is altering the PH of the water due to metals being acidic and also binding/removing other chemicals from the water? I understand that as the GFO remove phosphates and other elements from the water, allowing for increased growth by corals and coralline, drops in calcium, alkalinity and PH can occur.

Have you added any water treatments such as a phosphate remover? What are your CA, ALK and PH values?

One further note, I've also seen corals flopped over like this in a tank when the temperature rose too high. Now that the colder weather is arriving, is your tank situated near to a heat source like a radiator? If so, this coupled with the lighting could be pushing the temps up too high in the daytime, stressing the coral and causing this limpness. The place I observed this was in a friends hair salon in the summer. A reef tank with a lid on, in a full glass front shop, with hair driers, lights and god knows what else lol. Hot, hot, hot.... as a result, the corals didn't look so hot.

*edit* bugger you replied as I was typing out mine. Glad it looks like its on the mend though

 

[connorsbala]

Wow, thanks for the help But, unfortunately for your long post lol all is well