Dead colt coral...now what?

[MikeP]

Yeah it's in pretty rough shape. I now have my PC lighting running all day. Last week I would only have the PC lighting on for a few hours in the evening because it wasn't mounted properly, but it's good now. Should I give it another week before I totally give up? And if it doesn't recover how do I remove it?

[Beverly]

Mike,

What kind of water flow is it getting? How's the alk, Ca, Mg and pH swings in the tank?

If it has now securely attached to the rock it's on and it doesn't improve over the next week or so with moderate water flow and excellent water chemistry, I would be tempted to cut it off just above the base. Doing this will remove the not-doing-well portion, but leave a base from which a new colt can grow. I've done this with xenia and devil's hands and within a month, the new corals show signs of growing back.

[MikeP]

I've pointed my powerhead right at it, so it's getting good water flow. I will have to take the water to a LFS for testing cause I don't have a kit. I have a product called coral builder that a LFS conviced me to buy. I haven't been using it for long but is it something that will help with this? Is it a good product in general for someone like me who's just keeping some soft corals and zoo's?

[Beverly]

Mike,

It needs indirect, but moderate, flow. Direct flow may be making the coral shrivel up due to all the water coming at it. HTH

Don't know anything about coral builder. It's best to have test kits on hand to do routine chemistry testing, though.