What's going on with my favia?

[bookwyrm]

I've had a prism eye favia for about four months now which I purchased from Captive Reef. It came to me as a frag with three polyps and started growing a fourth after a month of owning it. It seemed like a very healthy coral, always extending is feeding tentacles and night and always looking healthy during the day. A little over a month ago, I noticed one of the "eyes" had something that looked a little like a whitish tear or scrap in the tissue. It was only about a quarter of an inch long, so I assumed it had gotten bumped during tank maintanence and I didn't realize it. I kept an eye on it, but the thing didn't seem to be growing.

Well, it was growing, only very slowly. It also started to bulge outward, and just this week I noticed the other two larger polyps starting to get the same thing. I don't have any pests that I can find, plus I've dipped all my corals extensively before adding them. My water parameters are good, Nitrate around .2, no detectable phosphate, pH stays consistent at 8.1 and alk, calcium and magnesium all stay within normal range. Plus, I've read these corals are not supposed to be picky about parameters at all - I have a blue cali acro and some montipora in the same tank, and they aren't having any issues. I also have a candy cane and a few acans. Just this week, one of the acans started looking "pouty" and not inflating its polyps all the way, but the other one right next to it looks completely normal. I also have a candycane and chalice that seem fine.

Here's a picture so you can see the favia.

What do you think is going on?

 

[Bald Eagle1]

Its possible it might have gotten bumped, if it did and some of the tissue was torn, it might have developed a bacterial infection. I've had this happen in one or two of my corals before. Hopefully some of the great folks on here can chime in with some thoughts and remedies.

 

[cheeks69]

We need to know the exact cal/alk/mag levels and which test kits you're using. What type of lighting are you using how many watts and what are the dimensions of the tank ? Have you changed bulbs recently ? Where is the Favia in the tank and how far is it from the light ? Is there any aggressive corals close to it ? What is your fish list and have you noticed any nipping ?

 

[catran]

Can you post pictures? Mine "puffs" up and that's a great sign. Hard to tell if it's doing good or having a problem without pictures. Keep it out of too much light and water flow. Mine loves low flow.

 

[bookwyrm]

The tank is a regular 10 gallon with a DIY refugium made out of an aquaclear 110. There is only one royal gramma in it. I have 4x24 watts of T5HO lighting, and the bulbs are 6 months old. My test kits are Seachem and Salifert. Calcium and magnesium fluctuate, but mag is usually around 1400 PPM. Calcium is usually between 420 and 460. Alk is 5 meq/l. According to the test kit instructions, those are all fine. The favia is all by itself in one corner of the tank, about a third of the way from the bottom. I placed it there because I was told that favias liked lower light.

Catran: I linked to a picture in the original message.

 

[Robzilla]

420-460 is a pretty big swing. Maybe the inconsistant levels are bothering it. What kind of flow is it getting in the corner?

 

[Jackalope]

VIERD.... i was about to say it looks like its getting light shock. i changed the timing on my tank for an extra hour and my blue lord acan got really mad. the others didnt seem to care. no change in timing?

 

[cheeks69]

Since water chemistry doesn't seem to be the issue I would shade the Favia from direct light and see how it reacts.

 

[bookwyrm]

So, I have an update and new question. I moved the favia to the bottom of the tank, underneath an overhang. When I moved it I noticed some things I hadn't before. You can see them in this picture. One is that it had more polyps than I thought, but the other polyps had grown against the rock the favia was sitting on so they were not visible before. There was also one that had nearly grown on the bottom. These were very pale, you can see the side of one, a pale area on near the bottom in the picture.

The second thing I noticed, which I guess was visible from the first picture, but looks more obvious from this angle, is that the first polyp to show problems and the one that is most advanced almost looks like it's dividing. Do favia polyps divide? If you look at the top polyp in the picture, you can see how it looks like the purple edge is moving inward, and although this pic isn't good enough to see it, it almost looks like there is a second small mouth. The other polyps that started showing problems look very similar to how the first one started out. So... is this some form of reproduction, or does it just look like it might be dividing when something else is really going on?