My Beautiful Turbinaria is SICK!!

[starrfish]

The big, beautiful yellow turbinaria that I got at the auction is sick. It has been looking so healthy that I was so shocked to see this. I turkey basted it tonight as I do every few days because stuff tends to collect on it. The turbinaria actually looked really healthy - it has been turning more yellow since I put it under the halides in my new tank. But when I used the turkey baster tonight, a big chunk of the flesh flew right off. There is a big white patch. Is this RTN??? Is there any way to save it??? Do I have to frag it?? My params are as follows and have been stable since the tank cycled about a month ago:

ammonia/nitrites: 0
nitrates: trace (probably 5 - definitely less than 10)
temp: 80
ph: 8.3-8.4
calc: 430
alk: 13 (this has been running high since I made the first adjustment with Randy's 2-part recipe)
phos: 0
mag: 1250
sg: 1.025

I used Randy's 2-part only once right after the tank cycled. I've been dripping kalk 24/7 and the calc, alk & ph have remained constant. I haven't had any salinity or temp spikes. Everything has been very stable.

I can't take pics tonight because the lights are out. Does anyone know why this would happen and is there any chance of saving this coral??? Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Daire

 

[Piscevore]

OMG--- nooooo

 

[nunofs]

Sorry to hear about that, Daire, I don't have any suggestions regarding the coral (I have a tiny scroll that also tends to gather a lot of detritus and I also use a turkey baster to remove them), but wanted to clarify this:

nitrates: trace (probably 5 - definitely less than 10)

5 to 10ppm of nitrates is not really considered a "trace"... my understanding is that a "trace" would be something that's lower than the minimum value the test will detect, but still higher than 0... for instance, less than 0.1ppm... 5-10ppm is a bit high, though I doubt they're the cause for the problem.

Anyway, good luck with figuring out what the issue is and with recovering the coral!

Nuno

 

[Moe_K]

Frag a couple of pieces and farm it out quickly - just in case.
I hate to sounds negative, or sound like an opportunist, but after my tank crashed, I now wish I had farmed out a few more frags for holding.
And none of my corals were very special.

 

[~Flighty~]

Mine did the same thing Im pretty shure due to me moving it and new parts being shaded than had been shaded before. I think in our tanks with the "sun" not moving all day this is a bigger problem. A little pooled detrious in the same area could compound the problem. Good news is it was a localised problem.

 

[skyedolphan]

same thing on this end Daire, usually happens when the detrious sits in the same spot
when I had mine it would pull the same thing if I wasnt consisitant with the blaster daily but the good is it usually grew back over without a problem

 

[NateHanson]

Could you redirect some flow so it gets blown out more regularly?

 

[starrfish]

Nuno - I say the nitrates are less than 10 because I can't really tell the exact reading because of the damn test kit. It could be .0001 for all I know. I just know it's not 0 and it's not 10. I don't have my fuge in line yet, so I expect the nitrates to go down to 0 once it's hooked up - hopefully in the next week or so.

It's comforting to hear that others have seen this before and have recovered from it. Cindy and Dawn - did you just leave it alone and it grew back?? Did you frag it? I'm so nervous about trying to frag this monster - it's huge! I'm afraid I will screw up it's beautiful shape.

Nate - my oceans motions got sand in it and it's stuck in a gear so it's only blowing out 2 of the returns. Marc is coming over later this week to clean it out - I don't want to attempt it the first time by myself - 350 gallons is a lot of water sitting above the OM. I'm going to take good notes so I can do it myself next time. I'm hoping I can direct the flow towards the Turbinaria once the OM is back on line so this doesn't happen again.

I hope it recovers. It started to lose some of it's yellow coloring in my 75, but has really been looking beautiful and turning yellow again in my new tank. I hope it makes it.

Thanks for the replies (and keep them coming!).

Daire

 

[nunofs]

I say the nitrates are less than 10 because I can't really tell the exact reading because of the damn test kit. It could be .0001 for all I know. I just know it's not 0 and it's not 10.

Ah, so your test kit doesn't read anything under 10? In that case you're right, using your test kit you do have a "trace" of nitrates... I just didn't think that would be the case because some test kits go to much lower values (Salifert's goes down to 0.2, IIRC; even the cheaper AP tests go lower than 10ppm).

Anyway, regarding the coral, how large is the dead area?

Nuno

 

[CamaroJWeed]

Do you still have your old tank set up...How long has the coral been in your new tank..what was transfred from your old tank to your new tank? I am thinking initially that maybe your tank is just too new to handle this coral...I would thing 3-6 months would be the soonest to introduce most corals...but this is JMO...if you can get it back to your old tank you might be ok..I hope it turns out ok...but you may have to look into moving the coral...

 

[~Flighty~]

I would watch for alge growth on the dead spots. It can get a foothold and really be a mess. I don't know what to do about it though. Mine has been fine, but the "bald spots" are still there. I have some caps that have bald spots from my fire incident and they grew alge and now are a constant battle.

 

[Moe_K]

FasTest (or was it SeaTest - same company) makes a decent low range nitrate kit. It's supposed to be fairly accurate.

 

[JeremyR]

10 ppm nitrate certainly isn't going to bother it.. 50 ppm probably wouldn't for that matter. Don't get too hung up on reaching 0, the trend is more important.

That thing was baked in the summer under full sun... it can handle light, but detritus and a quick change in lighting can be a problem. I don't know what your 75 has for lights, but if it was darkening, it must have been lower than where it is now. FWIW, it's been heat and light shock bleached a number of times in the seasonal changes of the greenhouse... more than likely it will be ok if the stripping doesn't continue. Keep it clean.

 

[starrfish]

Yeah, I need to invest in a good nitrate kit, but I'm hoping this won't be a problem once I get my fuge set up.

CamaroJWeed - I don't have my old tank set up still. It's going to be my new fuge. I had to transfer all of my corals and fish over into the new tank once it cycled - this was about a month ago. But I also transferred all of my LR to the new tank and the sump when I transferred all of my livestock over.

 

[ReeferMedic]

I lost a huge orange monti cap the same way. I put it under my mh and it got a real bright orange and rtn within 24 hours after having it for about 3 weeks. I fragged a couple of pieces and wound up losing the whole thing. That was when my nitrates were sky high though. I really hope this doesn't happen to that turb. That's a beautiful coral......

 

[starrfish]

OMG - I hope I can save mine. I moved it up higher jcloser to one of the returns hoping that the flow will keep the debris off it. This thing is so big and it's shaped like a cup - the debris just tends to collect on it. We'll see if this helps.

 

[starrfish]

10 ppm nitrate certainly isn't going to bother it.. 50 ppm probably wouldn't for that matter. Don't get too hung up on reaching 0, the trend is more important.

That thing was baked in the summer under full sun... it can handle light, but detritus and a quick change in lighting can be a problem. I don't know what your 75 has for lights, but if it was darkening, it must have been lower than where it is now. FWIW, it's been heat and light shock bleached a number of times in the seasonal changes of the greenhouse... more than likely it will be ok if the stripping doesn't continue. Keep it clean.

Jeremy - I didn't see your post before. My 75 only had PCs - now it's sitting under 150 DE MH and 130W PC actinics (I have 4 of these fixtures across the tank). As stated in my previous post, I moved it under one of my returns hoping that the increased flow will keep it clean. I'm also going to turkey baster it a few times a day to make sure it stays clean. Thanks for the advice - I know this came from your greenhouse - it's an absolutely beautiful coral. And it was so healthy when I got it. I hope I can get it back to it's original beauty.

Daire

 

[JeremyR]

I think it's probably light shock from the upgrade.. I didn't turkey baste it more than once a week or so in the gh.. but it's probably more sensitive to the detritus when it's stressed. You might try cutting your light cycle back on the halide lamps to 4 hours or so a day and slowly build back up after a couple of weeks.

 

[ReeferMedic]

Or, you could try and shade it with some type of screen and gradually let more light in every other day or so. I've never tried this but alot of people use this method. Did you try lowering down it in the tank at all?

 

[starrfish]

No, I actually had to raise it up in the tank because that's where the returns from my main pump are. I'll do as Jeremy suggested (since I don't have any screen handy) and cut down on the MH. The flow already seems to be removing the detritus from it a lot better. Hopefully the flow and the decreased lighting will help. Thanks guys!

Daire