brain coral growth and skeleton questions

I bought this brain coral (discounted) at the LFS because half of its skeleton was showing. This was a couple months ago. One of the employees said "in time, it'll grow over the old skeleton". I'm wondering... how long is "in time"? And would it be better to just cut it off? I'll admit, right now it makes a nice handle for moving it around the tank, and I did trim off the old vertical pieces of skeleton, but it also makes a nice place for algae to grow, as you can see in the pics. Aside from the skeleton showing, it's been just fine. It eats well, seems to enjoy its place in the tank, etc. Suggestions welcomed.

 

Looks like a wellso brain to me,i would say in about 6 months or so, feed it about it about twice a week with mysis shrimp.

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Well, the fine sand isn't helping, you need to keep the skeleton clean and free from debris. The acan or favia in the lower left doesn't look real happy, either. The brain doesn't look bad around the rim, though. If your water is good, especially the alk, I would say keep the sand off of it, and move it to a lower light area to discourage algae growth. Tip the scale in favor of the coral.

 

I think the corals is much more likely to grow new skeleton than grow back over the area of exposed skeleton. IME if algae is growing on the skeleton it out competes the coral.

If it was mine I would probably cut back the old skeleton, just for appearance reasons.

Nice job on bring it back, though.

 

So would you leave the old skeleton or remove it?

 

It's a constant battle keeping debris off the old skeleton. That's why I started removing some of the old. The acans don't look so hot because they had JUST come out of shipping bags they had been in for 24 hours (spent 9 hours in the FedEx truck at 55 degrees, yes there was a heat pack in there, but what does "overnight priority" actually mean?) I could potentially slide it under some rocks.

There was a ton more algae on the skeleton when I bought it. I take it out every couple weeks to remove the new growth. The only place I have difficulty getting to is the place by the actual coral tissue. I don't mind leaving the old skeleton if it'll grow over it again, but if that isn't really going to happen (say new skeleton grows over the old, instead of the coral using it) then I may as well just cut it off so I don't have as much concerns over the fine sand and algae. Plus, then I could tuck it up by a rock and save some space. It's grown a fair amount since I got it. It wasn't looking happy at all in the LFS tank.

 

I would remove it,just be careful when cutting it,you dont cut the brain or damage it

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Would you leave the skeleton that's vertical? I realize the brain coral is using part of it, but I could sand off the ridges on the open side to limit surface area for algal growth. The only thing I worry about is the skeleton getting hot and hurting the coral that way. The horizontal skeleton should be no issue cutting off. Dremels are wonderful tools.

 

I'd still say the sand is the biggest issue. It's all over the skeleton and even on the algae. I would raise it on a piece of PVC or get it in an area protected from the sand before trying to cut through the vertical section. Gently use a baster to blow the sand and debris off. It would be easier to cut if it receded further.

There would be issues with a healthy brain if it had that much sand on it.

 

It isn't receding at all right now, and I certainly don't want to do anything to make it recede. These things are supposed to like sitting on the sand, which is why I set it there. The sand catches on the old skeleton and algae when I'm messing around in the tank (like placing the acans just to the right of it). Any time I lift it out of the tank, I make sure to get rid of as much sand as possible, and sanding the old skeleton smooth would certainly help that as the grooves in it trap sand like no other.

Could I smooth the back of the vertical skeleton to help with that as well? Or is that too risky?