Signs of unhealthy favia / favites / brain coral?

[dtruitt]

Hi all,

We recently added a couple of favia / favites and an open / maze brain coral.

The open brain has had a couple falls. Turbo snails can be a pain, it seems. The open brain has some white lines on it, and some die off / browning where it was cut.

The small favia has good color, and no obvious signs of die off, but its such a hard LPS that I am struggling to tell how it is really doing. I have seen some tentacles out, but not the past night or two.

The large favia (favites?) Has good color for the most part, but has also had some run ins with a snail. There are some white sections along its edges. I'm wondering if these white sections are growing or dying. I havent seen any tentacles from this one at all.

Do these sound like normal symptoms? Anything to watch for?

We have a Monty in the tank that is doing great. I have to figure that if the Monty is happy, the LPS couldn't be in too much trouble, right?

 

[Hemmdog]

Pictures would help
Tank parameters and light info would help too.

 

[dtruitt]

Pictures would help
Tank parameters and light info would help too.

Will get pictures after work.

Sal. 1.025
Nitrates < 10 ppm
Alk 8.6 - 10.2 (tank burns 1.6 kh a day and I don't have a doser yet.)
Ca ? I need to measure ca.
78F
Lighting is so so. Getting a better light soon.

One thing of note, we have a zoa that wasn't getting enough light. I moved it last night and ticked it off pretty badly. Fish seem fine, but im wondering if some of the coral may be hurting from chemical warfare.

 

[Hemmdog]

Will get pictures after work.

Sal. 1.025
Nitrates < 10 ppm
Alk 8.6 - 10.2 (tank burns 1.6 kh a day and I don't have a doser yet.)
Ca ? I need to measure ca.
78F
Lighting is so so. Getting a better light soon.

One thing of note, we have a zoa that wasn't getting enough light. I moved it last night and ticked it off pretty badly. Fish seem fine, but im wondering if some of the coral may be hurting from chemical warfare.

Calcium and magnesium are vital to know. Phosphate too.
If zoas are struggling from low light, stony corals will absolutely be struggling as well. What light are you using?

 

[dtruitt]

Calcium and magnesium are vital to know. Phosphate too.
If zoas are struggling from low light, stony corals will absolutely be struggling as well. What light are you using?

Ca and mg were on the higher end of okay when I checked a few days ago, but I need to check tonight with the increased consumption from adding stony corals.

Tbh, I havent been checking phosphate since the chaeto sucks so much nitrate and there is no algae I figure it's reasonable to assume phosphate is good, but I will verify this evening.

The zoa was in a shaded spot to acclimate, and was starting to look like it wanted more light.

Current light is a Koval something or other I got from chewy. Upgrading to a viparspectra 200w this week.

 

[dtruitt]

Pictures would help
Tank parameters and light info would help too.

First picture there is a tiny frag above the hairy mushroom.

Second picture there is a chunk of favia on the upper left, and a micromussa lord on the bottom right. Also, one very happy torch.

Third picture is the brain that keeps getting harassed by snails.

 

[dtruitt]

Nitrate < 5
Phosphate < 0.5
Ca 480
I need to get a new mg test, the one I have is expired.

I'm guessing everybody is just acclimating.

 

[dtruitt]

Calcium and magnesium are vital to know. Phosphate too.
If zoas are struggling from low light, stony corals will absolutely be struggling as well. What light are you using?

The viparspectra 300w just arrived today. What a huge difference that made. It doesnt look that much brighter, but the ability to run the blue channel and the full spectrum channel at the same time at different intensities seems to make a massive difference for the corals.

 

[Blakjax]

The viparspectra 300w just arrived today. What a huge difference that made. It doesnt look that much brighter, but the ability to run the blue channel and the full spectrum channel at the same time at different intensities seems to make a massive difference for the corals.

Can you share your settings and mount height?

 

[dtruitt]

Can you share your settings and mount height?

I bought some kessils a while ago and I don't remember specifics.

If you got this light, borrow a par meter. That light can really fry some coral. I haven't had any issues with "brain" corals that could be attributed to lighting since switching to kessils which are admittedly pretty dim.