Heartbreak hotel

[Delphinus]

My latest casualty.... and maybe a new record. Not even two weeks in my system and it's kicking off ... Wednesday will be 2 weeks and the rate this guy is dissolving I'll be surprised if there's anything left by then.

With flash, doesn't look too bad at first. But this should be a hairy millepora, the lack of polyp extension is pretty evident.


Without flash, same angle as above, the damage is more evident:


Another view, from underneath looking up, even more evident how badly it's sloughing off tissue:


The worst part is that there's an acro crab in there which I suspect will be a goner when the coral goes.

I'm not sure what's up with this phenomenon. I've invested heavily, both heavily and emotionally, into testing equipment to try to nail down a potential cause. Ultimately, I moved into my house in 2004 and I've never been able to keep an SPS alive ever since. It's the most demoralizing thing. People who complain about brown SPS have no idea how jealous I am of them ... I'd take brown over dead.

Parameters:
Ca = 400
Alk = 3.4 meq/l (~9.5 dKH)
NO3 = 5ppm
PO4 = <0.04

Not really the smoking gun one would hope for.

Really not sure what the next step is. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong...