Melting colt

I decided to try my 1st colt coral. Big and beautiful, yellow. Put him good flow as instructed on the bottom of the tank. Looked great for about a week, then started turning white. Now another week later, and he is mush and falling apart. I have the new Solaris lights and think maybe I had them set to high, plus my water temp was close to 83. So I have turned down the lights from 100% to 70% and put a fan on the sump. Water temp is down, ranging between 78.5 and 79.6 for the last several days.

Is there any point in leaving what is left of him in the tank? It is mainly his base that has melted and then the branches just come off. I guess I was hoping that there may be a chance that some of the branches could root, or amy I just dreaming?

ph 8.0, nitrates a little high, phosphate .20, alk/kh2.17/6.1, mg 1110, sg1.023. this was before I did a water change yesterday. will check all again today. I realize these are low, and have been bringing them up slowly, maybe to slow?

 

It may have been the water temp that got you. I lost a few leather corals to the same problem this year (they were 2 year old corals that I grew out from frags :-( ).

Might want to get the s.g up a little bit as well, but take your time with that. I don't think that nailed your coral though(unless you did not acclimate it correctly). If you do a search on salinity you will see that there is a wide range of opinions on 3reef about where to keep it. I'm a 1.025 guy myself.

 

A colt is a pretty durable coral...but my tank took a bit of aging before I could keep one. ---

Do some significant water changes and stay away from any additives. Get everything locked down and stable. Then try another one in a month or so.

(colts are a good - albeit expensive - water quality test)

 

I had the same problem a few months ago. I bought a colt and from the beginning it melted, fell apart and made a mess of my tank. I did an immediate water change as the colts release toxins into the water. I would also run carbon to remove any traces of these toxins.

 

Thanks for the input. I will do more water changes and put in a chemi-pure. When you said no additives, I am guessing that did not include the 2-part alk/ca.

 

I would get rid of the coral or whats left of it quickly! Yes, a water change and carbon dosing will help to ensure your water parameters are in check.
It may be that your lighting was to dramatic of a change from the place you got the coral from and your tank, plus water temp can also have an effect as mentioned!
Sorry to hear about your coral...

 

How big of a tank is it that youre adding 2part?

 

I did remove the remainder of the coral. Wow, how sad.

In answer to your reply MDeth, it is 120 gal, 30gal sump refugium. Inhabitants include Pacific blue tang, yellow tang, midnight pygmy angel, grn chromis, tomato clown with his own 2 rose bubble tips to chose from, hawk fish, snails, emerald crabs, red serpent star, numerous mushrooms, pink and grn ricordea, leather cabbage, colony polyps of different types. oh and of course life rock. These guys are like my kids. I have had them all but the hawk for close to 5 years.

We moved a couple of months back and I went from a 65 gal to this set up using most of the sand and water and all of the live rock from the previous tank.

 

I'd forget even these for a while, till tests show needed. Let Ca in salt do its work. You do not need much for softies...8)

 

That is what I will do. Actually, it was an LFS in Orlando that said I needed to use it.

I appreciate the knowledge that I am finding on this forum and really enjoy the diversity of information.