Brain is croaking.....
 

OK I am at my wits end here.If I lose the brain I am pulling the plug from the hobby for good. Discus looks good right about now. I cant keep acro,milli,monti,stags,candy canes,trumpets,and now my brain is sliding slowly but surely. I had a flame angel that was taking chunks of it and eating it I found another home for her but the brain is just deteriorating into just a skeleton.....What am I missing.

george

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Slow down there! Before you pull the plug give us more info on your system, levels etc. Maybe there is a simple solution.

George if you babysit a big colony of zoos I'll nurse back that brain for ya then you can seen those candies how well there doing :mrgreen:

Murry I PM'd you....

Danny, the test results I took are as follows
PH 8.2
temp 80
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate .5mg/L
Calcium approx 460mg/L
Salinity 1.024
Alkalinity 2.06
KH 5.8

george

See everything else in the tank is growing like crazy.My mushrooms have doubled in size some re about the size of a teacup saucer.My zoo.s spread like crazy, My clam hasnt been visited by the grim reeper yet toadstool is fine...Just anything that has a skeleton.....aaaarrrrgggggghhhhhh

george

Wondering if there isn't a little "chemical warfare" going on with the other corals and the brain? What other corals are near or have contact with it?

How big is the tank?

Jim,,,,, buddy nice to hear from ya..where I have the brain he is donwn on the sandbed.To his right was a galaxy but I moved him up as the galaxy tentacles were getting close.I found the candy cane sitting on it about a week ago.But picked it up and put it backwhere it belonged.Now it is sitting all by his lonesome self.But like I said the flame was taking fair size chunks outa it before I found her a new home.
Give me a call sometime Jim


george

to be exactit worked out to be 85.6gal withthe dimensions.

george

I lost my open brain in my early reefing experience. It was deteriorating as you described. Late in his decline, I used to target feed it at night under a weighted margarine container and it showed signs of improvement for a bit. I believe this would have saved it if I thought of it earlier. Hope this helps or gives you food for thought.

edit for spelling

stressed
 

it sounds like it has gone through quite a bit of stress with the various incidents of fish taking chunks of it, galaxy tentacles getting close and possibly stinging it late at nights, candy cane on it......... it probably haven't had a chance to get comfortable and the stress is causing it to deteoriate.

I target feed my brain all the time and he eats good.After he eats he gets all big and fat like a bowl of jello.

george

George,

If the brain has been damaged by the angel, there may be no way to help it recover :(

ok I am listening to everyone here.But all my other stuff started dieng off first.ie...acros,milli,digitata's to name a few then the candy and trumpet now the brain.I am wondering if there was another cause to the chain of events...besides the angel getting hungry.

pH is okay.

Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are okay.

Ca okay.

Salinity okay, but how are you measuring it? With a swing arm plastic thing or a refractometer? Could be your salinity might be out by a bit or by a lot.

Alk and KH are the same thing. KH of 5.8 is low. Should be between 8 and 11 dKH.

What's your Mg? Should be between 1280 and 1350 ppm.

How often do you test and adjust your water chemistry?

How's your water flow? High, low, medium, or a mix depending on location in the tank? Are your corals placed in the right flow areas of the tank?

What kind of lighting? When was the last time you changed bulbs/tubes?

Using RO or tap water?

Just to add to Bev's list what brand of test kits are you using? Maybe try and take a sample into a LFS and have them test and see if the #'s are the same. I know that I was shocked at what I got for a reading on PO4 from my Salifert kit (supposed to be one of the better brands) and a Hanna colorimeter test. My PO4 was significantly higher than I thought and it certainly told me why I was having a problem with my SPS browning out on me and in some cases dieing.

WTF somethings going woonky in my tank also frogspawn and candy cane went fuzzy:twised:

This is exactly the problem I am having ??????????

When was the last time you did a water change? I find that although my parameters are testing ok if the corals aren't looking up to par a good 15% water change gives them the boost they need and they look better in a day or two.
I will often blast them with a small powerhead before the water change. Blow the fuzz off. If they start to disintigrate from that it's most likely too late to save them. Lps can sometimes be funny. Good luck

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With all of those water peramiters being very good I'd say it's the brain. I recently gave up on a green plate coral, it was given to me by a fellow reefer and wasn't doing well from the get go. i can't figure out why it was going down hill because my other plate and similar corals are all fine. I wonder sometimes if coral catch colds or other bacterial infections that can kill them, there's so much we still don't know.

Each and every week faithfully 10% 1 tank 15% other tank

I wonder if there is something going wacky in the water in the north end. I haven’t added new tap water to my tank in over two weeks, I had 3 pails filled and from before. Now I don’t want to risk it, getting new tap water, off to Sobeys I go.

good luck guys


Brad

I'm thinking it the water also

goerge doesnt use tap water only distilled bottled water from the store.

I buy the RO water from the store every week I am filling 4 more bottles....

tested for copper last night.....and negative.
tested today for Mg it was 1300 KH was 9.7 so I am getting there in the testing.....but maybe like some others said the brain went maybe cause of stress.

did you test for Iodine?.... just curious


Jim

jim,

Still waiting on the test kit.I will be testing tonight...

george