need help!

makana · #1 02-24-2010, 12:38 AM

I have a 29g cube. My bubble coral has been looking sick the last couple of days. One side doesn't inflate at all and the other is half inflated. I added an open brain coral a week ago. I've been looking for pests on the bubble coral but there is nothing I can see. Amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phosphate 0, ph 8.1, alk 1.8 meq/l or 5.04 dkh, calcium 380.

I've never had calcium and alk go low like that before so I'm not really sure what I should be doing to raise them back up.

All I have is the bubble, brain, and a sun coral so I don't know why I have this dip. I'm going to do a water change tonight to see if that helps.

Any suggestions?

Flash · #2 02-24-2010, 12:39 AM

can you get us a pic? do you have any fish or inverts that might be attacking it?

makana · #3 02-24-2010, 02:46 AM

I'll try and get a pic tomorrow. I just finished the water change and the coral is all closed up. The tissue on the bad side appears to be receding and the skeleton is exposed. I checked the new water and calcium was only 400 and alk was 8.96dkh.

There is a hermit crab, cleaner shrimp, clown fish, and chromie. I havn't seen any of them bother it and none of them are new, but I guess it could happen.

Flash · #4 02-24-2010, 02:51 AM

is there any other corals touching it?

could it have gotten stung?

makana · #5 02-24-2010, 02:58 AM

I wondered the same thing but from what I read the open brain doesn't have long enough tentacles to reach.

Flash · #6 02-24-2010, 03:05 AM

brains have a sweeper tenticle that can sting. If the side that is damaged is closest to the brain, I would try moving them atleast 4-6" apart for a while and see if it can bounce back.

I had a ric sting a head of candycane and it went right down the the skeleton and to me was completly gone... then 4 days later i noticed it bouncing back SLOWLY... but it has now come back!

makana · #7 02-24-2010, 03:24 AM

I'll move the brain farther away just in case. I don't think they are close enough together to be a problem though.

makana · #8 02-24-2010, 11:23 PM

should I be dosing to bring up the calcium and alk?

Bugsy · #9 02-26-2010, 06:01 PM

One thing with bubble corals is if they are in a high flow area they will not open. Is it in a high flow area?? If so move it a bit so its not in direct flow.

makana · #10 02-26-2010, 11:41 PM

spoke with the guy at the lfs and he said the coral was likely unhappy with its location. So I moved it, shut down the K1, changed the direction of flow from the stock pumps. This morning it looked dead, it was hanging over the sides all stretched out, but tonight it is back up and somewhat inflated. I also bought strontium stuff that claims to help corals bond to their skeleton.

Hopefully it makes it.