Favia Tissue Receding/Showing Skeleton - Fixes and Cause?

logangeraghty · Dec 4, 2021

Hey everyone! I recently purchased a favia colony and frag as the first additions to my Waterbox 20. I have experience with other tanks that are thriving (except phosphates that are too low haha). I only have two favia species in my other tank, a dragon soul and one unidentified. They are both coming back around after going through a rough patch. My primary issue right now is that the two new favia are showing slight signs of recession and skeleton as opposed to the full flesh they had on arrival. I'm not sure what's wrong and am looking for some help regarding the situation. The new tank has fully cycled and my readings are:
2 PPM Nitrate
0 Detectable Phosphate
0 Ammonia
1.024 - 1.025 Salinity (Checked with Hanna, am currently bringing it back up to stable 1.025)
Alk 7.6
Calc 400
Can do a Mag test if that will help.

I am running carbon and marine pure balls for filtration along with the stock waterbox 2.75" sock. 3D printing a replacement for the sock so that I can use filter floss instead this afternoon. Tried reducing light (AI Prime 16HD mounted 12 inches above waterline with a max output of 24W) by starting an acclimation period, and I've also tried spot feeding last night. No improvements yet. I've attached some photos for reference. All fish and inverts are doing fine.

HuduVudu · Dec 4, 2021

When you feed a weak LPS it takes quite some time for the coral to eat. When I get LPS like this it can take up to 3 hours for the coral to get the food all the way in. You really need to make sure that the pumps are off and no mauraders steal the food. Some people like to use the covers so that the coral isn't disturbed. This is ok but bristle worms can and will get in. Also I use a meaty food like mysis so that the coral gets calories. Here is something similar to what I currently use https://reefchasers.com/products/reef-candy-dry-reef-food-40g?_pos=7&_sid=c313b7884&_ss=r

You want to do this everyday until the coral lets the food sit (this after it taking it in for a few days). When you see this, you can then go to 3x per week. Then after a few weeks go to 2x per week. This entire process can take up to a month to turn a coral around.

Ancient Mariner · Dec 4, 2021

In my experience favia likes lower light levels. It might take a few weeks to see improvement with the light reduction. You might want to shade it for a few days and see how it responds to that.

logangeraghty · Dec 4, 2021

Ancient Mariner said:
In my experience favia likes lower light levels. It might take a few weeks to see improvement with the light reduction. You might want to shade it for a few days and see how it responds to that.

When you say "shade it" do you mean to place it in an area that has no direct light whatsoever? I do have a floating arch that provides a substantial amount of shade, I could put it under there if you think that might help?

logangeraghty · Dec 4, 2021

HuduVudu said:
When you feed a weak LPS it takes quite some time for the coral to eat. When I get LPS like this it can take up to 3 hours for the coral to get the food all the way in. You really need to make sure that the pumps are off and no mauraders steal the food. Some people like to use the covers so that the coral isn't disturbed. This is ok but bristle worms can and will get in. Also I use a meaty food like mysis so that the coral gets calories. Here is something similar to what I currently use https://reefchasers.com/products/reef-candy-dry-reef-food-40g?_pos=7&_sid=c313b7884&_ss=r

You want to do this everyday until the coral lets the food sit (this after it taking it in for a few days). When you see this, you can then go to 3x per week. Then after a few weeks go to 2x per week. This entire process can take up to a month to turn a coral around.

Ok, I'll pick up some supplies today and get that process started. I've only recently received the coral (About 3 days ago) and it seemed ok for the first couple of days but then I noticed some areas with skeleton showing. The acan that I added, on the other hand, is already healing from its frag cuts and settling in quite nicely!

HuduVudu · Dec 4, 2021

logangeraghty said:
Ok, I'll pick up some supplies today and get that process started. I've only recently received the coral (About 3 days ago) and it seemed ok for the first couple of days but then I noticed some areas with skeleton showing. The acan that I added, on the other hand, is already healing from its frag cuts and settling in quite nicely!

Best time to feed is a couple hours after the light goes out.

Good luck.

noobreefer2 · Dec 4, 2021

You may want to raise some of your nutrients, LPS can be happier that way. That's what I'm doing right now, good luck!

(My thread)
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hammer-receding-because-of-algae-thoughts.874333/

EDIT: Raise nitrate and phosphate to around 10 ppm and 0.05

Ancient Mariner · Dec 4, 2021

logangeraghty said:
When you say "shade it" do you mean to place it in an area that has no direct light whatsoever? I do have a floating arch that provides a substantial amount of shade, I could put it under there if you think that might help?

Yes, just to get a quicker hint as how lower light might affect it. I tend to do that when my frags get stressed.

logangeraghty · Dec 5, 2021

Ancient Mariner said:
Yes, just to get a quicker hint as how lower light might affect it. I tend to do that when my frags get stressed.

No luck with the shade today... I fed some mysis last night. Not too much of an improvement if any... Ordered some neonitro and neophos to get the nutrients up. Any other ideas in the meantime?

logangeraghty · Dec 5, 2021

noobreefer2 said:
You may want to raise some of your nutrients, LPS can be happier that way. That's what I'm doing right now, good luck!

(My thread)
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hammer-receding-because-of-algae-thoughts.874333/

EDIT: Raise nitrate and phosphate to around 10 ppm and 0.05

Got NeoPhos and NeoNitro on the way! Haven't had much luck raising nutrients without much too excessive feeding