Green Brain Corals Peeling Back..

Discussion in 'Coral Health' started by verse, Dec 29, 2008.

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  1. verse

    verse Plankton

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2008
    Messages:
    10
    Hello everyone,

    Sorry to make my introdcution in the form of a cry for help.. but desperate times call for action..

    Tank:

    I have a 46 Gallon bowfront tank, 70 gal filter, powerhead, uv light, and protien skimmer/skilter. The skilter is the newest edition (friends influence). I have been running the tank for a little over a year, started with fish, and converted to coral 7-10 months ago. I use 2 tube flouro's, Power glow and Marine glow, each 30 watts. I feed microvert and calcium every other day, in addition to blood worms/cyclops/plankton/krill that i put in for other critters in the tank (gobies, crabs, serpant stars, clown, snails, cucumber, ect) I also have some feather dusters, zooanthids, and polyps. Temp constant 76.

    Problem: I have two brain corals, one is a green open brain, the other is (i'm actually not sure its technical name, but it looks like a "closed" brain) The open brain seems to be peeling back, revealing what looks like a skeleton underneath.. Very sad, I have had this piece for a while, I think it was my first coral.
    The "closed" brain seems to be turning white around the edges, and receding.

    I am affraid for them both, but the water is good, I have done a recent full tank cleaning with no improvements..

    any ideas could be life saving.. Appreciate feedback..

    Thanks,

    -Bill
     
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  3. pgreef

    pgreef Fire Goby

    Joined:
    Dec 6, 2008
    Messages:
    1,344
    Location:
    Algonquin, IL
    Bill,

    How long have the corals been receding like this? Did it start when you added the Skilter?

    Please describe your lighting more. Are you using PCs, T5s or just standard fluorescent bulbs. If you have only 60W worth of lighting for your tank than that is completely inadequate for corals. I would move everything as high as possible and upgrade your lighting.

    Also, what are your water parameters? ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, calcium, salinity, etc...
     
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  4. suckafish

    suckafish Montipora Capricornis

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2008
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    Location:
    monterey...cali
    we need alittle more info [lights and water parameters] to tell you what is really going on mabye a pic or too. but it doesnt sound good... i dont think you have enough light or the NO3 are to high casue it seems like you are feeding alot to the tank.
     
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  5. coral reefer

    coral reefer Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2006
    Messages:
    4,860
    Location:
    Wonderland
    Hi and welcome to 3reef first of all.
    As for your corals, first of all 60 watts of light on a 46 gallon tank is way to low.
    Also, have you tested your water parameters lately?
    The Skilters are no good in my opinion either and you should think about upgrading both the lighting and filtration.
    How much biological filtration do you have also?
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. verse

    verse Plankton

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2008
    Messages:
    10
    Hello everyone, thanks for feedback,

    My lights are 60 watt regular flouro tube, not cfl, not t-5. They are also probably about a year old and ready for a switch, but I really wanted to upgrade the lights (these were reccomended by my local fish store). I was thinking mh, but my friend tells me that i will have algea problems, and i dont need anything more than a t-5...

    The trouble does seem somewhat to coincide with the introduction of the skilter.. dont know how that may effect things..

    water params were good acording to the fish store where I have it tested.. Not doing anything different that i can think of, have been doing very well for the past half year at least.. Thanks everyone for support, trying to find a camera for pictures.