Toadstool Problems

[jselzler1]

Hi,

I have a toadstool coral which has been deteriating last few months. All other corals are looking good and growing. I was kind of hoping this particular coral was reacting to a new MH light I installed middle of January and would self-recover. I guess not.

Here is a pic of it in January at bottom of photo:



Here is closeup today:



It is almost like a pest is eating away at it, though I never see this. Any ideas?

 

[JohnK]

Looks to me like it's just splitting itself into two toadstools. They do that

 

[yukyuklee]

yup! but mine does something different, my toadstool forms a hold than it grows a stem and it will start to detach I just use a pair of scissors and manually cut them so far I average about 3 half dollar size babies every couple months

 

[jselzler1]

I don't think it is splitting. It has been slowly going downhill for months and is about 1/2 the size it was in 1st picture.

 

[stingythingy45]

Can you post your parameters.

 

[RadReefer]

Probably a bacterial infection. This happens to soft corals and LPS from time to time. I had a nepthea that this happened to several times. What I did to fix it is this: Fill a bucket with tank water until you can fully submerge the coral. Add antiseptic iodine from CVS or wherever untill the water is a dark tea color. Place coral in water for 15-30 mins. Stirring the bucket briskly every few mins. Then rinse it and place it back in the tank. This worked great for me with both softies, a torch, and Duncan. My nepthea was really bad, the flesh was pitting and sloughing off. It made a full recovery. You may want to take it off the sand bed after too. It seemed that my corals directly touching the sand bed were often the ones that got infections.

 

[jselzler1]

I check parameters every month. Here is latest.



Temperature: 78.9, Salinity: 1.026, Nitrate, NO3: 0, pH: 8.16, Alkalinity: 10 dkh, Calcium: 460, Mag: 1500

These have been pretty consistent month to month, except bumped up mag from 1120 two months ago. Nitrates were 10-15 ppm in January. Started carbon dosing around then and now been zero since March.

 

[JohnK]

It's hard to see the second pic clearly, does there appear to be actual physical damage or decay? Is there any open wound or hole in the tissue?

 

[jselzler1]

Here is another pic, now with actinics only. Sorry about crappy iphone.

The whiteness on left of bigger head looks like it is seperating apart. The edges of the head are similar.