I've got a bit of a problem with my brain coral - it's developed some tissue wounds and bits of flesh are losing all their color. I've had no fish in the tank for 2 months, so I'm pretty sure it's not being nipped at.
I'm looking for some advice on how to cure the coral - I've been told to use Lugol's, but I've also heard that with LPS corals, it's sometimes better to just leave them alone.
Can anyone help me figure out what's going on and how to fix it? Sorry again for the poor photo quality - I only had my iPad handy to take it with.
Lobophyllia tissue recession issues
Re: Lobophyllia tissue recession issues
Pure actinic photos really don't make it easy to give good advice. That coral of yours looks fine to me, except for that little white tissue area - it's at about 9 o'clock, can't tell if it's bleached or just damaged, though.
I'm wondering if something might have fallen on it - a snail, maybe, or some salt creep/crust from the lip of the tank? It doesn't look so bad that I'd consider dipping it in anything just yet - I'd probably just keep an eye on it, see how it goes.
You mentioned no fish in the tank at all - what's the reason behind that? Have you dosed something in the tank? Just trying to figure out if there's something else going on that might be bothering the coral.
I'm wondering if something might have fallen on it - a snail, maybe, or some salt creep/crust from the lip of the tank? It doesn't look so bad that I'd consider dipping it in anything just yet - I'd probably just keep an eye on it, see how it goes.
You mentioned no fish in the tank at all - what's the reason behind that? Have you dosed something in the tank? Just trying to figure out if there's something else going on that might be bothering the coral.
Re: Lobophyllia tissue recession issues
I appreciate the advice, I'll take a better photo with my reflex camera and adjust the color temp to make it more visible. Every bit of white tissue is new and was transparent before, so I'm a bit concerned. I've had no fish in the tank since a couple died and I moved them to a QT, and I haven't dosed anything.
I've been struggling with precipitation and my Alk has dropped to 5.2 dKH, so I'll do a large water change today and bump up my Alk dosing slowly to correct this. But here's the thing, the tissue wounds appeared before the Alk dropped below 8.0 dKH. I was dosing 50ml of Red Sea Buffer daily, which should've been a 2.0 dKH boost, but I was still not managing to increase Alk due to the precipitation. The more I dosed, the higher the precipitation, so I stopped dosing and that's when my Alk dropped to 5.5 dKH in a week.
Going back to the Lobo, it was looking fine before these white patches appeared, then one day it just sulked and stayed that way for two weeks. When it finally became fleshy again, it had these white patches in the flesh. To be honest, I suspect those electric blue zebra hermits I added recently might be the culprits. They're pretty aggressive and have eaten my cerith snails, and I've seen them trying to nip at the skeleton of my elegance coral.
I've been struggling with precipitation and my Alk has dropped to 5.2 dKH, so I'll do a large water change today and bump up my Alk dosing slowly to correct this. But here's the thing, the tissue wounds appeared before the Alk dropped below 8.0 dKH. I was dosing 50ml of Red Sea Buffer daily, which should've been a 2.0 dKH boost, but I was still not managing to increase Alk due to the precipitation. The more I dosed, the higher the precipitation, so I stopped dosing and that's when my Alk dropped to 5.5 dKH in a week.
Going back to the Lobo, it was looking fine before these white patches appeared, then one day it just sulked and stayed that way for two weeks. When it finally became fleshy again, it had these white patches in the flesh. To be honest, I suspect those electric blue zebra hermits I added recently might be the culprits. They're pretty aggressive and have eaten my cerith snails, and I've seen them trying to nip at the skeleton of my elegance coral.
Re: Lobophyllia tissue recession issues
Here are the better pictures of my brain coral. The white tissue areas are more visible now. As I mentioned before, these white patches weren't there before and the tissue is transparent. No fish in the tank still, just waiting for my QT to clear up.
I did a large water change today and I'm bumping up my Alk dosing slowly to correct the low levels - it had dropped to 5.2 dKH. The tissue wounds appeared before the Alk dropped below 8.0 dKH, so I'm not sure if that's the cause. I was dosing 50ml of Red Sea Buffer daily, but I was still struggling with precipitation and the Alk wasn't increasing as expected. I stopped dosing and that's when the Alk dropped to 5.5 dKH in a week.
Before these white patches appeared, the coral was looking fine, then it sulked for two weeks. When it finally became fleshy again, it had these white patches. I'm still suspecting the electric blue zebra hermits I added recently - they seem aggressive and have eaten my cerith snails. I've seen them trying to nip at the skeleton of my elegance coral too.
I did a large water change today and I'm bumping up my Alk dosing slowly to correct the low levels - it had dropped to 5.2 dKH. The tissue wounds appeared before the Alk dropped below 8.0 dKH, so I'm not sure if that's the cause. I was dosing 50ml of Red Sea Buffer daily, but I was still struggling with precipitation and the Alk wasn't increasing as expected. I stopped dosing and that's when the Alk dropped to 5.5 dKH in a week.
Before these white patches appeared, the coral was looking fine, then it sulked for two weeks. When it finally became fleshy again, it had these white patches. I'm still suspecting the electric blue zebra hermits I added recently - they seem aggressive and have eaten my cerith snails. I've seen them trying to nip at the skeleton of my elegance coral too.
Re: Lobophyllia tissue recession issues
Looking at the new pics, I can see there are some areas where the tissue's completely gone and the skeleton's exposed - bottom left, for example. And there are these patches all over where the color's just vanished. I'm getting a bit concerned, to be honest. Should I be? Is there something I can do to fix this or is it just a case of waiting it out?