Soft Coral Nutritional Dis F

FAQs about Soft Coral Nutritional Disease

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All need appreciable (measurable) organic phosphate and nitrate. Zeros won't work.

Soft Coral Problems 8/29/16
Hi,
<Howsit?>
I've been having a consistent problem with some of my corals and was hoping you might be able to give an opinion on possible causes.
<Let's see>
Some background on my system.
Display tank 34G, 14 months old.
10g sump
Led lighting
The water parameters are
Temp 26.5 degrees C
SG 1.026
Nitrite/Ammonia 0
Nitrate <1
Phosphate undetectable
<Maybe an/the issue. Some organic HPO4 is essential to all life>
Nitrate and phosphate managed with Red Sea NOPOX manually dosed into the sump.
<Why? That is, what is your perception here?>
PH 8.2
Alk 9dKH
4 fish
Percula Clown
Banggai Cardinal
Yellow Assessor
Bicolour Blenny
Inverts
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Corals
2 x Capnella Tree Coral 1 healthy the other having problems
Several Corallimorphs most doing well and multiplying except for brown &
white striped.
2 x Zoanthid colony not doing so well
Hitchhikers that came in with live rock.
Brittle Starfish several
Red & White Linckia starfish small. Has lost legs and regrown them. Some of legs still moving around tank now with new head.
Crabs. I've removed many small crabs (approx 10) others may be in the tank yet to be detected.
Pistol Shrimp probably in the tank somewhere I hear loud pops in the night.
The Problem! The Zoanthids, 1 of the Capnella and the brown and white striped mushroom are all refusing to open and I fear are slowly dying off.
<STOP the "Red Sea NOPOX manually dosed into the sump.">
When I first placed them in the tank they all did well initially for maybe 2 weeks. When they showed signs of not fully opening I have moved the coral to a new spot. On moving the coral the coral temporarily improves for about a week and then does the same again starts to show signs of distress. I move again and same deal.
With the exception of the Zoanthids, I have the same or very similar species of coral in the same tank that are healthy.
The unhappy Capnella is standing upright but all its branches are only slightly extended. It's not fully retracted.
The brown and white morph coral actually multiplied from 1 to 4 polyps and 3 have totally died with the 4th now so small it will soon be dead.
The Zoanthid colonies only 50% of the polyps are opening.
Do you have any ideas what maybe causing the problems?
<All sorts of speculations. For now as stated above>
Is there some hitchhiker that's annoying the coral that's taking a few nights to find its food source when I move them? Or maybe it's common for unhappy coral to temporarily improve when moved?
The skunk cleaner shrimp is not the culprit as he's a recent addition after the problems had been observed.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tony
<Let's review in a couple of weeks. Bob Fenner>

Declining Xenia 6/7/03 Hello, <cheers> A few weeks ago I purchased two small colonies of pulsing xenia (not sure what specific kind). They were placed in different areas of the tank in a med. to high current and both were doing fine for several weeks. Probably five days ago they began to shrink in size. The pom-poms are still opening during daylight hours but the stalk and each individual arm keeps shrinking. I have a 55 gallon reef tank which includes: 1 Chromis (due to a bout with ick, tank had been fallow for a month. This fish just added a week ago) 1 star polyp (doing fine) 1 metallic green brain (added at same time as xenia, it's doing fine) 1 brittle star 1 banded shrimp 50lbs live rock 15 gallon sump w/refugium Prizm protein skimmer removing dark liquid daily ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 (or very close to it) dKH 10 ph 8.3 260w compact fluorescent lighting temp 79 salinity 1.25 -1.26 (not as stable as it should be due to daily changes in humidity and evaporation) 5% water changes weekly <nothing stands out as a problem with water chemistry... unless that pH is a day time reading in which case your pH may actually be dropping to well below 8.3 at night (bad for Xenia)> Concerned that iodine might be the problem I began using Kent's Tech-I (used as directed) a couple of days ago but there has been no sign of improvement. <lack of iodine can be a problem, but only here if the iodine is old (over 2 months)> It has been suggested to me by LFS that my tank may be too clean. <I guarantee you that is not the case... in any aquarium!> Not enough nutrients for the xenia to absorb and that I should add more fish. Something obviously needs correcting but I'm not sure what it may be. I really don't want to lose them! <lack of quarantine or acclimation to light is more likely a factor. Aggression from a neighboring coral even more so (Starpolyps or other coral within 10"? Shedding chemicals/allelopathy)> Thanks so much for your help, Bryan <best regards, Anthony>

Iodine for mushrooms and soft coral I read on your web site, mushrooms need iodine. <all corals, especially soft coral, need iodine> My salt which is one that says it has every trace minor major element in it like iodine, will this be enough till next week when I buy some liquid iodine <yes... a week delay is fine. But iodine only lasts for 6-12 hours in most tanks. That is why some people prefer to dose a very small amount daily> I also noticed brine shrimp adult centimeter in size could I feed them this do they need to be dead? Thanks, JM <brine shrimp is a very poor grade food (low nutrition). Other frozen foods would be better like krill, plankton and especially Mysid shrimps. Anthony>

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