Sun Coral Help/Dying

[Kiui1849]

I bought this sun coral on the 31st from a local petstore. The workers said they've been eating and healthy. They also said they've have been hardy and easy to handle.

When I bought the coral it was closed and in a cave with what appeared to be very low flow.

I originally placed it in the shade of my live rock on the bed of the tank under the power head with the lights on. Almost immediately it began opening up but closed about 15 minutes later.

I left it on the sand bed for roughly 3 days before it became really irritatated/shrank way back (The rock giving it shade kept falling off despite gluing it down and the polyps were FILLING with sand.) I moved it to a legdge that gets moderate lighting and flow.

It has not fully opened since the first time to my knowledge, however the mouths have constantly been exposed since I've bought it. Time and lighting doesn't seem to affect the coral. I've left the tank in complete darkness for 24 hours and it hasn't changed anything, the mouths have been exposed in all lighting, and I've checked on it in the middle of the night several times.

I've been blasting it with a mix of shrimp, fish flakes, and planktons once to twice a day since I've gotten it.

I thought it had finally began adjusting to my tank because for the past 2 or so days it's been extremely puffy and the mouths have been really exposed until this afternoon when dark spots appeared on two of the polyps. I gently "blasted" the spots with a pipet and they didn't move. So I've left them alone since. A few hours later the red spots have turned into stringy yellow stuff and the skeleton is exposed if the yellow falls off. I'm worried it's dying.

I'd like to fix the issue but I'm not sure what else I can do to help the coral especially if it won't come out to eat and it's slowly starving.

I've tried putting it in a blacked out bowl with some mysis sitting directly on the polyps for 30 minutes and it didn't do anything.

The tank is a 13.5 fluval:

The last time I checked all of my parameters was last week and it all seemed fine. PH was a little low amd calcium is high but the water is naturally like that where I live so it's an uphill battle.

I did a deep scrub and siphon in the back chambers to remove a lot of gunk that's collected last night. I also replaced the carbon + biomax bags since those were due.

I also moved two leather corals to the tank today from my PICO. Could all the leather corals be irritating it? I've never had a problem with them before but it definitely could be an irritant.

Current Inhabitants:

X1 Clown
X1 Yellow watchman goby (juvenile)
X1 Conch
X3 blue legged hermits

X1 Finger leather (added today)
X1 Kenya tree
X1 Toadstool Coral (added today)
X2 clumps of red macro algae
X1 Isolated rock of anthelia

When I first got the coral::

The corals behavior for the past few days::

The red spots that appeared on the coral::

The yellow strings in question::

 

[thebigfryfry]

What are your parameters at? have you recently dosed anything. You could try a half bottle trick to target feed them.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The yellow things are the polyps, you want them to come out, it means the coral is happy. It can only feed if its polyps are out. Don't shoot food at it if its closed, that will only foul the water, wait till you see the polyps then feed.

It likes higher flow, so make sure there is flow, also make sure the hermits are not picking at it.

Leather toxins can bother corals, but if your running carbon it should be ok, just change out the carbon every couple of weeks or so.

You don't list your parameters, but they are picky, so ensure good reef parameters.

 

[thebigfryfry]

Dosing aminos could help too. I've heard some people fufill the nutritional requirements of these corals with just aminos

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

The yellow strings are probably mesenterial filaments, which are orange in sun coral are a part of the digestive system and are deployed when irritated, damaged or feeding (which is unlikely IMO) something probably scraped it, could the brown spots been flatworms? Anyway I'd maybe dip it and continue feeding as normal, sun corals are really tricky, just keep parameters stable, watch for pests and continue feeding. They also like larger meaty chunks like mysis when fully extended.



EDIT: spots look like cyanno but if they couldn't be blown off then maybe bacterial or mucus. It looked happier in the shade, maybe just glue it to a small rock and put that on the shaded area of the sandbed? Also try an iodine dip in case the spots were an infection, leather toxins from moving could have also irritated it, but carbon and maybe a water change should take care of that

 

[Kiui1849]

What are your parameters at? have you recently dosed anything. You could try a half bottle trick to target feed them.

1. Haven't dosed anything in a long time.

2. I'll give the 1/2 bottle trick a shot tmrw and move it back down to the sand bed. Do you know if they can push sand out of the polyps themselves? I moved them onto the main rock because they were completely filled with sand within an hour.

3. Just retested my params and doing a 10% water change tmrw now that my RO/DI is refilled;

Salinity: 1.024
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: < .25
No-2: 0
No-3: 10 (a large spike from last week where it was untraceable. I think that's the problem)
Phosphates: 0
KH: 6 (any tips on raising? It sits at 6. I've tried red sea and coralife products and neither work for me)
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: 1200

 

[Kiui1849]

Dosing aminos could help too. I've heard some people fufill the nutritional requirements of these corals with just aminos

I'll get some ordered tomorrow then. Thanks

 

[Kiui1849]

The yellow strings are probably mesenterial filaments, which are orange in sun coral are a part of the digestive system and are deployed when irritated, damaged or feeding (which is unlikely IMO) something probably scraped it, could the brown spots been flatworms? Anyway I'd maybe dip it and continue feeding as normal, sun corals are really tricky, just keep parameters stable, watch for pests and continue feeding. They also like larger meaty chunks like mysis when fully extended.



EDIT: spots look like cyanno but if they couldn't be blown off then maybe bacterial or mucus. It looked happier in the shade, maybe just glue it to a small rock and put that on the shaded area of the sandbed? Also try an iodine dip in case the spots were an infection, leather toxins from moving could have also irritated it, but carbon and maybe a water change should take care of that

Parameters aren't out of normal which is good. KH could be higher and No-3 spiked but I'm doing a water change tomorrow anyways.

I'll try a dip, 1/2 water bottle when feeding, and moving them back to the sand bed. Do you know if the polyps can clean themselves of sand? When on the sand bed they fill up quickly and I worry they'll get super irritated or worse which is why they're higher in the tank.

I haven't noticed anything touch them except maybe a hermit crawled on it. The yellow reminds me of this post:

Yellow stringy stuff on sun coral

Hey, anyone have any idea what this is? I'll find it on my sun every now and again, but I don't know what it is. My sun is usually open and eats well (and has grown quite a bit since I got it).

www.nano-reef.com

 

[twentyleagues]

Sun polyps do not like light or sand on them. put them in a cave away from direct light off the sand bed. Dendros can deal with low to moderate light and be happy, sun polyps will not. They are finicky corals but usually if you give them the correct home and get them feeding on your schedule they can be quite hardy. I've grown hundreds of them, orange, yellow, and black ( black ones are tricky).

 

[Lavey29]

Sun corals need to be direct fed multiple times per day.

 

[DJC]

Sun polyps do not like light or sand on them. put them in a cave away from direct light off the sand bed. Dendros can deal with low to moderate light and be happy, sun polyps will not. They are finicky corals but usually if you give them the correct home and get them feeding on your schedule they can be quite hardy. I've grown hundreds of them, orange, yellow, and black ( black ones are tricky).

You got a picture of the black ones ?

 

[twentyleagues]

You got a picture of the black ones ?

Not any more that was almost 14 years ago. I've been back in the hobby for a year now and have no nps.....yet. I will again. I had two reef tanks upstairs 120g mixed and125g sps running to a basement sump system. in the basement I had a 90g with lps nps corals mostly dendros and sun corals I also had 3 rhizos in that tank. I fed the mixed reef heavy and that drained directly to the 90 then to the rest of the sump 3-100g rubbermaids. I would feed the reefs upstairs and about an hour later go down and feed all the nps they'd be waiting. Most of my nps had polyp extension most of the day anyway. I only had a 4' t5 actinic on the 90. I wish I still had pics I miss them more then the ex...lol

 

[thebigfryfry]

1. Haven't dosed anything in a long time.

2. I'll give the 1/2 bottle trick a shot tmrw and move it back down to the sand bed. Do you know if they can push sand out of the polyps themselves? I moved them onto the main rock because they were completely filled with sand within an hour.

3. Just retested my params and doing a 10% water change tmrw now that my RO/DI is refilled;

Salinity: 1.024
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: < .25
No-2: 0
No-3: 10 (a large spike from last week where it was untraceable. I think that's the problem)
Phosphates: 0
KH: 6 (any tips on raising? It sits at 6. I've tried red sea and coralife products and neither work for me)
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: 1200

Hi for alkalinity supplement I use food grade bicarbonate soda: NaHCO3. Then i use the brs dosing calculator and it works a treat. Yes 6 is a little low but since your corals are already stressed out I wouldn't swing the alkalinity too much too quickly. Phosphate could be raised a little bit as well but not too much.

 

[thebigfryfry]

Sun polyps do not like light or sand on them. put them in a cave away from direct light off the sand bed. Dendros can deal with low to moderate light and be happy, sun polyps will not. They are finicky corals but usually if you give them the correct home and get them feeding on your schedule they can be quite hardy. I've grown hundreds of them, orange, yellow, and black ( black ones are tricky).

Mine seem healthy but they simply dont open very often. They are under one of my big leather corals so it is dark. Their skeletons look fine tho. Is there any things I can put on the coral to encourage them to open or should I move them to a cave

 

[Kiui1849]

Sun polyps do not like light or sand on them. put them in a cave away from direct light off the sand bed. Dendros can deal with low to moderate light and be happy, sun polyps will not. They are finicky corals but usually if you give them the correct home and get them feeding on your schedule they can be quite hardy. I've grown hundreds of them, orange, yellow, and black ( black ones are tricky).

Do you have any suggestions on where to place it? My scape isn't very accommodating as I originally thought. At the store they were on the sand bed but the flow was extremely low so no sand was kicked up.

I drew over a overall picture of the tank with arrows showing how harsh the flow is, red being the harshest and green being the softest. There's an area behind the isolated rock with orange-red flow.

The light is pretty basic. There's constant shadows in the caves and a small shadow at the end of the second arch where the coral originally was. The light is cast from the side with the chamber and is brightest there.

 

[twentyleagues]

Sun corals need to be direct fed multiple times per day.

Once a day is adequate as long as they all get fed at that time.

 

[Kiui1849]

Hi for alkalinity supplement I use food grade bicarbonate soda: NaHCO3. Then i use the brs dosing calculator and it works a treat. Yes 6 is a little low but since your corals are already stressed out I wouldn't swing the alkalinity too much too quickly. Phosphate could be raised a little bit as well but not too much.

Thanks so much! Do you also have any recommendations for raising phosphates. I know they aren't supposed to be high but also not at 0.

 

[DJC]

Not any more that was almost 14 years ago. I've been back in the hobby for a year now and have no nps.....yet. I will again. I had two reef tanks upstairs 120g mixed and125g sps running to a basement sump system. in the basement I had a 90g with lps nps corals mostly dendros and sun corals I also had 3 rhizos in that tank. I fed the mixed reef heavy and that drained directly to the 90 then to the rest of the sump 3-100g rubbermaids. I would feed the reefs upstairs and about an hour later go down and feed all the nps they'd be waiting. Most of my nps had polyp extension most of the day anyway. I only had a 4' t5 actinic on the 90. I wish I still had pics I miss them more then the ex...lol

Sounds like a pretty cool setup.
I’ve never seen the black ones if you come across any send a pic

 

[twentyleagues]

Do you have any suggestions on where to place it? My scape isn't very accommodating as I originally thought. At the store they were on the sand bed but the flow was extremely low so no sand was kicked up.

I drew over a overall picture of the tank with arrows showing how harsh the flow is, red being the harshest and green being the softest. There's an area behind the isolated rock with orange-red flow.

The light is pretty basic. There's constant shadows in the caves and a small shadow at the end of the second arch where the coral originally was. The light is cast from the side with the chamber and is brightest there.

A lot of the time they are found growing on the underside of the top of arches and caves. The underside of the arch below the clown might be the best spot for it if you can glue it there. But that may cause issues with you feeding it. Moderate flow is best think hammer coral.

 

[thebigfryfry]

To lower phosphates gradually ,you could try lowering the level in your skimmer and removing the collection cup. This way it will still oxygenate/agetate the water yet not strip all the nutrients as it collects.