Brain coral dying overnight, need help

LPS, SPS and all coral chat
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Aquilox
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Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:26 pm

Brain coral dying overnight, need help

Post by Aquilox »

Hey RC, I'm really in a bind here. My LPS frag was doing great, growing like crazy and spreading onto the host LR, but now it's got this weird milky white stuff on it, with some areas that look bleached out, and it's shrunk massively - all in under 12 hours. I've got my water parameters, stock list, and a pic below. Can you please help me out? I'd really appreciate it. The stock in this tank has been getting along just fine since I added the flintix9t, no issues for months.

Tank specs - 70g with a 6g sump. I use Salifert for all my tests, a refrac for salinity, and RODI for top-offs and water changes.
Phosphates are less than 0.1, nitrates less than 2.5, salinity is 1.026 (I also use ATO), temp is 80F, pH is 8.1, dKH is 7.5, mag is 1500ppm, and calcium is 425ppm.

My stock includes:
Corals - a Closed Brain Coral (the one that's having issues), several GSP colonies, a big Zoanthid colony, Toadstool leather, mushroom leather, and two red mushrooms.
Fish - one each of Mandarin Goby, Sleeper Goldenhead Goby, Yellow tang, Black Clown, Green Chromis, and a Firefish.
CUC - 25-30 hermits, six scarlets, 25 snails, and two camelback shrimp.

Check out the pic of the coral.
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Aquilox
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Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:26 pm

Re: Brain coral dying overnight, need help

Post by Aquilox »

Let's try again with the image, hopefully it shows up this time.
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Aquilox
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Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:26 pm

Re: Brain coral dying overnight, need help

Post by Aquilox »

Still having issues with posting the picture, so here's a working link instead: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jmpifm5egupshgb/coral.jpg
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felinxo
Posts: 325
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 3:16 am

Re: Brain coral dying overnight, need help

Post by felinxo »

I think I'd try movin' it down low, almost under a ledge for some shade.
Trailblazer, it's a feeler-spreader at night, so maybe get it fed and see how that goes.
Params look good to me, 'cept maybe it's hungry and needs a change of scenery lower in the tank, just my 2 cents.
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Aquilox
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Re: Brain coral dying overnight, need help

Post by Aquilox »

Thanks felinxo, I appreciate the advice. Turns out I found the real culprit - one of my camel shrimp decided to start munching on the Favia. I caught it red-handed, or should I say, red-clawed.

Spent about 8 hours and built six different traps before finally catching both of them and removing them from the tank. The winning trap was an empty plastic peanut jar. Used fishing line to create a hinged lid and another line to close it from outside the tank, baited with Mysis. Caught both in under an hour with this trap. Their behavior was to partially enter, but never fully commit - that's why the other traps failed. But the hinge trap was too fast for them; once they got just inside the rim, I pulled the line and had them.
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felinxo
Posts: 325
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 3:16 am

Re: Brain coral dying overnight, need help

Post by felinxo »

Aquilox wrote: Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:45 pm Hey RC, I'm really in a bind here. My LPS frag was doing great, growing like crazy and spreading onto the host LR, but now it's got this weird milky white stuff on it, with some areas that look bleached out, and it's shrunk massively - all in under 12 hours. I've got my water parameters, stock list, and a pic below. Can you please help me out? I'd really appreciate it. The stock in this tank has been getting along just fine since I added the flintix9t, no issues for months.

Tank specs - 70g with a 6g sump. I use Salifert for all my tests, a refrac for salinity, and RODI for top-offs and water changes.
Phosphates are less than 0.1, nitrates less than 2.5, salinity is 1.026 (I also use ATO), temp is 80F, pH is 8.1, dKH is 7.5, mag is 1500ppm, and calcium is 425ppm.

My stock includes:
Corals - a Closed Brain Coral (the one that's having issues), several GSP colonies, a big Zoanthid colony, Toadstool leather, mushroom leather, and two red mushrooms.
Fish - one each of Mandarin Goby, Sleeper Goldenhead Goby, Yellow tang, Black Clown, Green Chromis, and a Firefish.
CUC - 25-30 hermits, six scarlets, 25 snails, and two camelback shrimp.

Check out the pic of the coral.
Camel shrimp, not exactly the best reef tank inhabitants. I've learned that the hard way. Peppermint shrimp can be a gamble, some work out, others not so much.
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