AHH! Bubble coral!

[fortheloveofcrabs]

Hello,

I've had a bubble coral for about 6 months now, and it has been doing fine, up until about a month ago. It started spending most of its time 'deflated' and not the tissue is receeding. What's going on?! Nothings changed in the tank (IE no new tank mates). Are the sensitive to something? Is there something special to these corals? I was told they are simple. I have a RBA in my tank that's thriving, and other LPS corals that are fine (mostly candy). I also have 2 clows, a damsel and a skunk shrimp.

Please help!

-Pauli

[Beverly]

Hey Pauli,

How is the water quality/chemistry of your tank? When was the last time you checked nitrate, pH, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium? All of these are important to have balanced in your tank. Here are some links about reef chemistry and chemistry calculators :

Aquarium System Volume Calculator:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/volcalc.html

The Reef Chemistry Calculator:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

What is Alkalinity?

http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/f.../chemistry.htm

Calcium:

http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2002/chem.htm

Magnesium in Reef Aquaria:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

High pH: Causes and Cures:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm

Low pH: Causes and Cures:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

[fortheloveofcrabs]

Thanks for your input Bev. I've always had a hard time with all the fuss over water chemistry. Is it really that important? Well, most (if not all) of you just said 'absolutly it is, foolish child' but hear me out. If you are precise about your water changes, and do them religiously, you shouldn't have a problem, provided everything else is constant in your tank, correct? 'Well, THEORETICALLY, yes' you say (after all, that's how it works in the largest 'tank' of all). Okay, I do my water changes every week, about 20%. So far everything has been thriving up until this crabby little bubble coral, so what's the deal with my water chimisty is the first and most natural reaction... So, I wanted to see what all this 'water chemisty' talk is about and put it to the test. Because, after all, if nothing has changed (no new tank mates (added or removed), same regular water changes done the same way, some feeding habbits, same location in the tank, same lighting, same everything) then surely the only option left is water chemistry. I went out and bought every NUTRAFIN (which I was told are most accurate of the non-electronic tests) test I could get my hands on. And here's the scoop:

Ammonia: 0.0 mg/l
Nitrate: 0.0 mg/l
Nitrite: 0.0 mg/l
pH: (between) 7.5 and 8.0
PO4: 0
Ca: 420mg/L

And that's all they had. Am I missing something?

Oh, temp is a constent 79 thanks to a chiller, and salinity is a 1.024 thanks to an auto top-off. So, is there something else I should test for? This whole 'water chemistry' is really quite frustrating because anytime something goes wrong, everybody yells 'WC!'... Well, what if that's okay? Then what? Is my coal just drepressed? Prehaps it feels unattractive? Any ideas what's wrong, anything else I should test for?

-Edgy in Edmonton

Thanks!

[Beverly]

IMO, Salifert tests are better than Nutrifin, though I use a Nutrifin Ca test.

I don't understand how you get 7.5 to 8.0 for a pH test. If it is a colour matching test, you should be able to narrow the pH to 8.0 or some other number. 7.5 pH is very, very low for a reef

As for doing weekly 20% water changes, this is good Keep it up

However, I don't know the chemistry needs of your tank, and you won't either until you begin testing regularly. The only way of making sure your water changes are replenishing alk, Ca and Mg by the organisms in your tank is to do very large water changes weekly, say 50% or more.

Other than that, I can only encourage you to test for alk and magnesium as well as Ca and nitrate.