Seriatopora dying?

[Brad Coughlan]

I have had it for about 4 months and it has been pretty healthy and now for the past few days I see this

My nitrate has slowly increased in recent weeks from 5 ish ppm to around 10 but I have done 2 water changes this week to help lower

Mag has also dropped a bit from 1400 ish ppm and went to around 1250 but I am increasing it and it is currently at around 1380ppm

Should I do more water changes? I an unsure as to what I should do currently

 

[Dburr1014]

PO4?
Lights?
Flow?

 

[Brad Coughlan]

PO4?
Lights?
Flow?

PO4 is hard to be exact with the test kit I am using, but I believe it has also increased recently. During a time the coral was doing well, my LFS tested it at 0.03, and I believe it has increased according to my salifert kit

Lights haven't changed

Flow potentially changed a small anount due to me cleaning the wakemaker and not moving it into the exact location it was from

 

[Alexraptor]

My own experience with Seriatopora over the years is that they are almost impossible to keep alive long term, without very strong and turbulent flow. They are also seem to be extremely finicky with alk swings and high alk. I've seen colonies spontaneously self-destruct when alk gets up to around 10 dkh.

The only colony I have that has lasted beyond a year, is one that is currently in my 38g tank, which has two Tunze 6040's at each end of the tank, set to asynchronously pulse between 20-100% power, in intervals of 6-10s. All in all that means flow in the tank peaks up at 9000 l/h, during periods when both pumps pulse at full power simultaneously.

 

[Brad Coughlan]

My own experience with Seriatopora over the years is that they are almost impossible to keep alive long term, without very strong and turbulent flow. They are also seem to be extremely finicky with alk swings and high alk. I've seen colonies spontaneously self-destruct when alk gets up to around 10 dkh.

The only colony I have that has lasted beyond a year, is one that is currently in my 38g tank, which has two Tunze 6040's at each end of the tank, set to asynchronously pulse between 20-100% power, in intervals of 6-10s. All in all that means flow in the tank peaks up at 9000 l/h, during periods when both pumps pulse at full power simultaneously.

So would you suggest me blasting them with a wavemaker and just seeing how they do?

 

[Alexraptor]

So would you suggest me blasting them with a wavemaker and just seeing how they do?

What exactly is it that you are calling a wavemaker?

And generally speaking, you never ever want to point any kind of pump directly at a colony, as that can potentially strip the flesh from the skeleton.

 

[Brad Coughlan]

What exactly is it that you are calling a wavemaker?

And generally speaking, you never ever want to point any kind of pump directly at a colony, as that can potentially strip the flesh from the skeleton.

Well the closest wavemaker I have to the birdsnest is a sicce voyager nano which isn't controllable, I got that pump mostly for pointing it at the surface for aeration

 

[Brad Coughlan]

The coral is still receeding and dying

Should I do another water change?

 

[Alexraptor]

If the the necrosis is continuing to spread, you will need to cut away all the branches/sections with tissue loss, if there is to be any hope of saving it.

 

[Brad Coughlan]

If the the necrosis is continuing to spread, you will need to cut away all the branches/sections with tissue loss, if there is to be any hope of saving it.

Ok, will do that tomorrow, thanks

I did another water change today, should I do the same tomorrow also?

I am also raising the magnesium every day to reach 1400 ppm