Elegance coral end detached from skeleton
 

Hi guys, new reefer here :biggrin:

My nano reef tank has been set up for about a month and a half (10 gallon tank) and since then, I've kept Candy cane corals and zoas very happy.

Two days ago, I picked up an elegance coral from J and L and it wasnt until tonight that I realized that part of it wasnt attached to the skeleton; I'm not sure if this happened after it went into my tank, or if it was like that before. I dipped the coral in Coral RX.

The coral was opened up in the shop, as well as during the next day after it went into the tank. Tentacles were all fully extended and ate a couple Vitalis LPS pellets. It's placed on the sand substrate directly, with its skeleton partially buried. Params are as follows:

Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Ph: 8.4
Mag: 1020
KH: 9.4
Ca: 345
Salinity: 1.023

In attached pic, lights have been off for a while already which is why its quite closed up, but it was fully open and feeding during the day (at least before I left for work in the morning). Detached portion is at the bottom part of the pic.

Won't panic right away but I suppose this is cause for concern. Thanks for advice, reef buddies :razz:

Other than having a slightly low calcium(you want to shoot for 400ppm to 480ppm. Your parameters look good.

What do you have for fish or inverts in your tank?

I have a yellow watchman goby as my only fish.

As for inverts, small frags of a favia, hammer, candy cane, and some zoas.

Meant, crabs and snails and such for inverts.

Anyways couple of reasons an elegance will recede it's flesh like that. In your case, if you have crabs, they could have injured the flesh while climbing on it to steal the LPS pellets you fed it. Happened to me once. Or you could have had a temp swing it didn't like. Or maybe it's the lighting it does not like. So many variables. We need more info

I’ve always found elegance very hard..... same with the gold torches....

Yours is not happy - that’s for sure....

How long was it at j&l before you bought it ?

There is a disease elegance corals get....

I have 5 trochus snails, and 2 blue leg hermits.

The light is Current USA Orbit Marine (not the IC variant).

Its opened up quite well during the day actually. Also feeding well this morning.

Personally I am of belief that Current USA fixtures should be used for really shallow tanks and low light corals. They are using 0.5W LEDs, which dont produce high enough PAR for most corals that we keep. While corals may be able to survive with them, they will just survive, not thrive. Other than low CA, as was already mentioned, I would say it isnt getting enough light as well.

The tank is only 12 inches deep, so it would be considered a pretty shallow tank

I had a duncan detach once. A month later I found the head still alive where it had floated under a rock. I picked it up and put it in a safe crevasse where it could get some light. I heard duncans can regrow a skeleton, maybe your elegance will do the same thing?

They're a very challenging coral to be successful with and not one that anyone should place in a new system. Yours looks like it has been receding and doing poorly for quite some time. Optimal and stable conditions in a well established system plus regular feeding might turn it around in theory.

I've tried a few over the years, some lived for a couple of years but all eventually died. In most cases the fleshy polyp slow receded in relation to the skeleton over many months until there was nothing left.