Coral showing its base.

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I have this LPS, I believe it is some kind of open brain, sorry I forgot, I have noticed lately that the coral is showing its base, any ideas of what causes this? Thanks in advance

 

[DanyL]

There is more than one reason this could happen.
- Imbalance or instability in your water chemistry
- Pests or coralivores
- Stung by nearby corals

What are your water parameters?

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

For starters until I get my numbers it is a 7 gallon tank, I use Tropic Marine Salt, and I dose daily All For reef, I have a Kessil 360X it is 30" off the water.
My PH 8.1
Salinity 1.025
More to come tomorrow.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

So I did some more testing using Hanna Checkers
Phosphate 0.30
Salinity double checked with Hanna 1.026
77 deg
Alk 11.2
When I find my new liquid for my ALK test I will re test, it is exp.

I also did a 1 gallon water change tonight and one gallon 3 nights ago.

 

[DanyL]

Your are missing tests for Calcium, Magnesium and Nitrate.
Also, while your Alk test may still be fine, it can also be vastly different than the actual value is.
How often do you test your water?
To be able to follow trends and uncover instability issues with water parameters it is essential to routinely test your water at least once a week, sometimes even more.

Also, your phosphates are high, what are you feeding with and how often?
Did you wait at least 6 hours between feeding and testing your nutrients? This is essential to prevent the results from being skewed.

What is the age and size of the tank and are there any additional inhabitants?
How often do you change the water and at what percentage?

 

[Dburr1014]

High alk and high po4.

How is the flow there? Looks like it's going to blow away.

 

[DanyL]

High alk is fine as long as it's stable and in balance with the other parameters.
It'll also somewhat make it easier for corals to accept higher nutrients, however phosphates are still off the charts..

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

So the tank has been running for years, I have two small clowns in it, The tank is 7 gallons, Fluval Aqua Clear 20, the power head is the smallest Since non programable type, I have moved it so it bounces off the rear corner so the current is great reduced.
I do not feed very much in this tank but probably more than others. Water changes used to be slower but they have been speed up since adding the coral about a month ago. My IM Lagoon 25 is my coral tank but I have an infestation of aptisa and I have Berghia in there so I put these corals in this tank.

Feeding wise I feed the 2 baby clowns Marine Krill by New Vision, for the coral I feed a combination of Reef roads Reef Chili and Benefits, and just a drop of Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast. Sounds like a lot buy only the fish get feed everyday, the coral maybe once or twice a week. Maybe nothing in the beginning but more now.
I did not wait to test the water after feeding.
Water changes are about 1 to 2 gallons more lately and non before I noticed the problem. Prior to putting the corals in I did a 70% water change using Tropic Marine salt.
The tank has sand and live rock in it as well.
Lighting Kessil 360X biggest problem with this was I was setting the light intensity every morning trying to figure it out, but finally but maybe too late I set it and put a light timer on it, the light is 32" off the water. Stability Stability Stability I know and I have not done that.

As house keeping and testing no and not very much. So this represent the tail of the dragon. I will do the nitrate test today.
Calcium and Magnesium test are super old Red Sea.

I will re read the questions and comments so I can answer everything asked.

I have added Precision ph Buffer to my gravity ATO contanier, I am trying to boost my PH slightly and slowly, adding a little more every week.

Thanks again

 

[Dburr1014]

So the tank has been running for years, I have two small clowns in it, The tank is 7 gallons, Fluval Aqua Clear 20, the power head is the smallest Since non programable type, I have moved it so it bounces off the rear corner so the current is great reduced.
I do not feed very much in this tank but probably more than others. Water changes used to be slower but they have been speed up since adding the coral about a month ago. My IM Lagoon 25 is my coral tank but I have an infestation of aptisa and I have Berghia in there so I put these corals in this tank.

Feeding wise I feed the 2 baby clowns Marine Krill by New Vision, for the coral I feed a combination of Reef roads Reef Chili and Benefits, and just a drop of Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast. Sounds like a lot buy only the fish get feed everyday, the coral maybe once or twice a week. Maybe nothing in the beginning but more now.
I did not wait to test the water after feeding.
Water changes are about 1 to 2 gallons more lately and non before I noticed the problem. Prior to putting the corals in I did a 70% water change using Tropic Marine salt.
The tank has sand and live rock in it as well.
Lighting Kessil 360X biggest problem with this was I was setting the light intensity every morning trying to figure it out, but finally but maybe too late I set it and put a light timer on it, the light is 32" off the water. Stability Stability Stability I know and I have not done that.

As house keeping and testing no and not very much. So this represent the tail of the dragon. I will do the nitrate test today.
Calcium and Magnesium test are super old Red Sea.

I will re read the questions and comments so I can answer everything asked.

I have added Precision ph Buffer to my gravity ATO contanier, I am trying to boost my PH slightly and slowly, adding a little more every week.

Thanks again

Just so you know, ph booster is adding more alk.
You may be better off adding an airline from outside to boost ph.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Nitrate with a Nyos test kit
160 PPM
Making water now.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Ok I will pull the PH Buster, I will have to think on how to get the airline outside, I am in a hot state so the heater for the house only comes on in the AM.

 

[Dave1993]

Nitrate with a Nyos test kit
160 PPM
Making water now.

yeah 160ppm nitrate is pretty high lol

 

[DanyL]

OK, there's a lot to unpack.

You mentioned you have another reef tank.
Aiptesia does sting coral, however I'm sure you can either find or make room for the coral.
It is a slightly larger tank and as such will be more stable, and hopefully the parameters are bit more sane.
Please test the parameters of the other tank and we'll see if it'll suite the coral needs better.

Stop feeding anything that isn't fish food, and when you do feed your fish be very conservative with the amounts.
Corals don't need to be fed, it isn't a requirement for them to live unless they are of the NPS (Non Photosynthetic) type, enough light is well enough for them to flourish.

It's a pico tank and as such you generally in an endless fight against fouling the tank with nutrients, if you do want to give your corals some food do so with spot feeding, a few hours before a water change. No more than once a week.
That being said, I do not advice doing so at the moment.

As was already mentioned earlier, boosting your ph will essentially increase your dKH as well, you do not want to do this. Is there any real need to increase your PH? Have you done periodic tests multiple times a day to determine it was necessary in the first place?

Due to the extremely high nutrients, and possibly elevated alkalinity my advice for you would be to make a 35% water change, twice a week and siphoning any detritus found on the rock work or sand.

 

[DanyL]

I would also like to add - check your parameters after every water change and write them down, as well as share them here so that others could guide you. You might need to do larger water changes or make them more frequent but I don't want to rush things at the moment, let's see how we progress first.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

All of my Chicago Sunburst anemone's are shifting away from the Aptisa in my other tank.
I will do the test there as well.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Have ordered new reagents so hopefully they will get her by Sat.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I have some pictures of the coral through out the day, I notice at 7PM the coral started to go down, maybe too much light, it gets 8 hours of light. The pictures will show from the early too

now.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

High alk and high po4.

How is the flow there? Looks like it's going to blow away.

Agree -- the flow is blowing the flesh off the skeleton.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Here is when the coral is happy.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Picture with a filter on the lens