Elegance coral - freshwater dip fail?

[mdpitts]

Plus one for this take on elegance with the magnesium and everything else. Also, the picture of a beautiful and healthy Elegancia! I call my favorite Cataphyllia jardinei Elegancia! Look how it’s set up to catch food and opened up to the flow.
This is the dipped look.

WOW!! The beautiful mint green with blue tips! So lovely.

 

[mdpitts]

IME Elegance coral should be introduced to a tank that is at least a year old. Also, the stability of alkalinity is next.
I killed three before I got these two about two years ago. They need a decent flow, and they should be fed. Mussels are their best treat (IME).

Beautiful tank. Wow, those look really big and happy. I love them on either side of the tank. Holding down the fort. I didn't know they were one of the things to wait on. After a showpiece BTA (white with pink tips) died on me I always ask where I buy coral frags "Is this easy to grow". Sounds dumb now that I'm repeating it here but I understand now I should be asking "Is this ok in a new tank or should I hold off". Or something like that Thanks for sharing your tank - it is gorgeous.

 

[mdpitts]

It might be the number of dips in a short time. I tried keeping elegance on and off for 15 years with no success, they all seem to die the same way, squished up and waste away. The last one I had I did the FW dip and by gosh it survived and that was a couple years ago. I am a big fan of FW dips for elegance but perhaps it was too many dips or something else is off.

I worried about that but I went ahead and did it out of desperation. I don't think I'll dip a coral 3 times in one week ever again.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Elegance just need good flow, direct light, and clean water. Everytime I had an issue it was one of those 3. Usually I knew to do water changes when my elegance would look a bit off. See post with pics that looked same as your elegance in beginning.

Elegance coral

I lost an elegance coral about a month or so ago from elegance coral syndrome. Does anyone know how long to wait before adding a new one.

www.reef2reef.com

Edit, they also sometimez go tgrough an adjustment phase as well.

 

[mdpitts]

I can’t remember the details, but a long time ago someone explained to me why it was better to buy Australian Cataphyllia and I always tried to stick to that.

Stunning!! Wow. You sure are doing something right. I watched a number of YouTube videos where someone said Elegance was their favorite coral and I can see why.

 

[mdpitts]

Elegance just need good flow, direct light, and clean water. Everytime I had an issue it was one of those 3. Usually I knew to do water changes when my elegance would look a bit off. See post with pics that looked same as your elegance in beginning.

Elegance coral

I lost an elegance coral about a month or so ago from elegance coral syndrome. Does anyone know how long to wait before adding a new one.

www.reef2reef.com

Edit, they also sometimez go tgrough an adjustment phase as well.

Holy smokes that one picture someone posted looked exactly like mine did. Identical even. OK, this has made me see that I didn't have it in good enough flow and probably could have given it some more light _ but especially flow. Thank you!

 

[mdpitts]

If your LFS can’t help you test your water and show you they know how to rehabilitate a coral, I think that maybe they shouldn’t be selling coral in the first place.

I wonder if they would help me if I asked them to keep it until I get better numbers on my tank. I could ask. I am going to ask them - "If I ask you about a coral remember I am a beginner with a beginner tank so don't beat around the bush". Because I typically don't beat around the bush I just expect everyone else to tell me like it is. Or, maybe I didn't ask the right question. I think I asked - is this easy to grow. Lesson learned.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Holy smokes that one picture someone posted looked exactly like mine did. Identical even. OK, this has made me see that I didn't have it in good enough flow and probably could have given it some more light _ but especially flow. Thank you!

That was my elegance and recovery. Also showing the shading issues. They also will look funny after being fed sometimes for a couple days.

 

[mdpitts]

That was my elegance and recovery. Also showing the shading issues. They also will look funny after being fed sometimes for a couple days.

Ok, got ya. This morning he was looking a tiny bit better, a little more open, not slimy, tiny nubby tentacles instead of smooth, had a tiny mint green color. The other night there was no hope I thought but now -- we'll see. I'm going to set up a wave maker when I get home or see if I can do something to increase some flow.

 

[Fishy888]

The most important element of this hobby.......patience.....took me awhile to grasp this also

Me too.

 

[mdpitts]

Follow up on how my Elegance is doing - I moved him up on top of my rock work and put in a really crappy sunsun wave maker (that thing has been a problem since I opened the box but it’s small and doesn’t make a hurricane in my tank) and it seemed to perk up a little more. That wave maker fell off the tank wall twice and pointing at the sand made a big mess so I took it out again. Right now just my tank nozzle are creating flow but I have an upgraded pump and random flow attachments on the nozzles. Here are 2 from tonight and the sad one after the dip last night plus a short video to show it has a little more flow than it had at the bottom of my tank


I

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Just so you can see, mine this morning decided to retract. My issue is I have a heater but dont usually use. This is located in different room and setup. Temp gotto 67 68. In other room i. Smaller tank it stayed at 77 most time and only dipped to 72 or 73. Have to lookup. Once warmed and everything on. Track itll perk.

 

[Fishy888]

Follow up on how my Elegance is doing - I moved him up on top of my rock work and put in a really crappy sunsun wave maker (that thing has been a problem since I opened the box but it’s small and doesn’t make a hurricane in my tank) and it seemed to perk up a little more. That wave maker fell off the tank wall twice and pointing at the sand made a big mess so I took it out again. Right now just my tank nozzle are creating flow but I have an upgraded pump and random flow attachments on the nozzles. Here are 2 from tonight and the sad one after the dip last night plus a short video to show it has a little more flow than it had at the bottom of my tank


I

I had an issue like that before I got the wave maker I have now. I think it was a sun sun too. I used some fishing line to hang the circulation pump. I hammered a couple of brads into my stand to hold the fishing line in place.

 

[mdpitts]

Just so you can see, mine this morning decided to retract. My issue is I have a heater but dont usually use. This is located in different room and setup. Temp gotto 67 68. In other room i. Smaller tank it stayed at 77 most time and only dipped to 72 or 73. Have to lookup. Once warmed and everything on. Track itll perk.

It has been really helpful seeing your Elegance. Mine looked like yours in this picture for about a week before getting worse and that's when I started reading up on what to do and starting the dips. Yours is beautiful even in this picture - pretty blue tips.

 

[mdpitts]

I had an issue like that before I got the wave maker I have now. I think it was a sun sun too. I used some fishing line to hang the circulation pump. I hammered a couple of brads into my stand to hold the fishing line in place.

That was a good fix! I'm mad at myself because this one came from Amazon for two for $16 and I put one in a freshwater tank and the other in this little Fluval Evo tank and it has been a pain from day 1. The head wouldn't stay put and would flop around or come apart from the suction base when I tried to adjust and then I set up a return and never took it because the other one was working fine. I just need to find a good smaller one for this little tank. Messing with it last night I found a good spot on the wall that my stock return nozzles are on but midway down and near the front of my tank.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

It has been really helpful seeing your Elegance. Mine looked like yours in this picture for about a week before getting worse and that's when I started reading up on what to do and starting the dips. Yours is beautiful even in this picture - pretty blue tips.

Thank you, but it is grumpy. Once heater comes ill be able to tell if its just adjusting or cold. Im pointing more adjusting stage as the water is now above 72 with the temp heater. Just about all go through this at some point but are exceptions to everything.

 

[Enad]

It is possible for an Elegance to survive a freshwater dip, but the coral typically has to be quite healthy when you dip. As others have mentioned, it didn't seem like your coral was suffering from ECS when you decided to freshwater dip, which unfortunately probably hurt it more than helped.

I had a healthy Elegance get ECS, and I FW dipped it right as minor symptoms started to show. It has been recovering for many months now. Freshwater dips are very brutal and if your Elegance does survive, don't expect it to be back to normal for 6+ months.

As for recovery, I honestly would keep it lower in the tank, under lower lighting. Elegances really dislike high lighting it seems, and flow can be very moderate. I kept mine in the Sump under very low lighting following the FW dip.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

From this morning to now.......they can get quite grumpy and sometimes nothing causes it. You cant have knee jerk reactions with them as usually there is nothing wrong its just doing its thing. I believe mine was just not liking temp but who knows. They do tgis randomly time to time and while adjusting. Theu do this at night as well

 

[mdpitts]

It is possible for an Elegance to survive a freshwater dip, but the coral typically has to be quite healthy when you dip. As others have mentioned, it didn't seem like your coral was suffering from ECS when you decided to freshwater dip, which unfortunately probably hurt it more than helped.

I had a healthy Elegance get ECS, and I FW dipped it right as minor symptoms started to show. It has been recovering for many months now. Freshwater dips are very brutal and if your Elegance does survive, don't expect it to be back to normal for 6+ months.

As for recovery, I honestly would keep it lower in the tank, under lower lighting. Elegances really dislike high lighting it seems, and flow can be very moderate. I kept mine in the Sump under very low lighting following the FW dip.

You are correct and in hindsight I should have stopped at the first dip. I'm really regretting the other ones. My rational was that one was iodine, the other was the Coral RX (don't know what the special sauce is in there) and then the FWD. Poor guy.

Oh wow, so it will be a long recovery. That's good to know - I was expecting a few days or a week. I'm going to stick with it. I hadn't heard of ECS until I read the post about what to do if your Elegance is sick. What caught my attention was someone mentioned that a FWD is a good way to get rid of pests that might be bugging it that coral dips might not "shake loose". And it did have a LOT of little critters immediately jump ship.

I went home for lunch and moved it from on top of my rock to down on the sand in a lower light area. Tonight my goal is to fine tune flow. Thanks for the good advice!

 

[mdpitts]

From this morning to now.......they can get quite grumpy and sometimes nothing causes it. You cant have knee jerk reactions with them as usually there is nothing wrong its just doing its thing. I believe mine was just not liking temp but who knows. They do tgis randomly time to time and while adjusting. Theu do this at night as well

Oh yeah! That is a world of difference from the first photo. I hope mine gets to that point. Are the blue tips a certain variety? I'm wondering if mine will have those one day.