Chalice Help needed!!

[Uslanja]

Good Day! We purchased our first "chalice" 11 days ago, so we are very inexperienced with keeping this type of coral.

The first day home the coral showed skeletal structure around the eyes and the overlying tissue was a white in colour. (Photo taken under actinic lighting)

A few days later the overlying tissue appeared to be plumping up and turning from white to a beige/brown colour.

Over the next several days almost all of the skeletal structure was covered by plump beige/brown tissue.

A few days later, areas that had not been deflated and white began to show signs of turning colour to brown.

Yesterday (day 10 in our tank) we noticed 4 small holes in the tissue between the eyes. This area has not shown any previous signs of stress. This evening (day 11 in our tank) we have noticed many more holes in the tissue between the eyes as well as the overall colouring appears to be turning to brown. The skeletal structure that was previously visible around the eyes appears to be returning. As well, the eyes and mouth tissue appears to be very taught and stretched. The small feeder tentacle ends that had been visible appear to be less in number. The mouths are mostly closed.

The chalice is placed at the bottom of our tank in an almost vertical position under a slight rock overhang. The lighting is 250 watt 14,000K MH. The MH is run for 6 hours per day. The water depth above the chalice is 24 inches and the MH is 8 inches above the water level.

We believe the flow in that area to be on the high side of moderate.

Water parameters were tested 7 days ago with the following results;

Temp. 76.4 degree Fahrenheit
Salinity 35
Spec. Grav. 1.0265
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Alk 7.2
Ph 8.0
Calcium 400
Magnesium >1500


We have chronically low alkalinity and Ph and have been dosing with B-Ionic part 1 Alkalinity to raise the alk level. We have chronically high magnesium and do nothing in that regard.

We are in need of advice in what our next course of action should be.

Thanks for your time!
Dave & Tracy

 

[LPS_Blasto]

It's dying. The tissue is receding. It's losing color and bleaching.

Probably too much light. I'd move it to medium light. Not shaded, but not directly under the MH bulb. Move it out to the edge of the tank so that it's not under direct light. Most LPS corals don't like or need super bright lights.

I'd try to feed it at night after the lights have been out for about an hour or two. The feeding tentacles should be out at that time if its still healthy enough to eat. Turn off the pumps and stop all water flow. It will eat any meaty food, such as brine, mysis, chopped krill or blood worms. Best way to feed it would be to melt the frozen food in a coffee cup. Add 2 or 3 ounces of tank water to the cup. Suck it up in your turkey baster and then slowly and GENTLY allow bits of food to fall out of the tip of the turkey baster. You want the food to land GENTLY on the feeding tentacles. Squeezing the turkey baster vigorously just scares most corals and makes them retract. Just hold the baster above the coral and let gravity do the work. Direct the point of the baster to each mouth and set of tentacles.

If that doesn't work, I don't know what else to do. I've never had one that sick before.

I'm not sure if I'd dip it. That might just stress it out even more. It's not happy at all. I can't say for sure if it's your lights or your water chemistry. If you can keep the pH steady at 7.8 or 8.0 thats fine. Don't dose to try and get that magic number of 8.3 If it's stable at 8.0 - leave it alone and stop dosing pH. Your alk needs to be at least 7dKH. 8 or 9dKH would be better. Don't worry about the magnesium. It will prevent algae at those levels.

If you have a stable pH 8.0 and stable alk 7DKH - then I'd just stop dosing completely. Those aren't what might be considered "perfect" water conditions, but it's good enough. Long term stability is what you want. Daily swings in pH up to 8.3 and then down to 7.8 is what makes corals unhappy. I got into that once a few years ago. I call it yo-yo dosing. It sucks. You worry about low pH of 8.0 or even 7.8, so you dose up to 8.3. But you can't maintain 8.3 and the pH falls down again by the end of the day. So you dose it back up to 8.3. Just like a yo-yo. Up and down all day every day. Corals hate that.

Again, if it's stable at 8.0pH and 7DKH just stop dosing and let the tank settle in.

I hope this helps. It's a beautiful coral. Wish it were mine. Good luck with it. I'm praying for updates pics in a couple weeks with a nice green coral thats all plumped up and happy.

 

[Uslanja]

Hi FragFarmer! Thanks for the responce! We had it in a vertical position at the entrance to a cave under a slight rock overhang, we have moved it further under the overhang and into less light. We will try and feed it in a couple of hours, our day lights just went off. From what we have read the browning could be a bleaching from too much light, but what would be causing the tissue to tear? Just poor health, too much flow, something else?

 

[seafansar]

Well at first it looks like it was doing better and recovering from the skeleton being shown, but the last few pics look bad. I actually think it would be better with more light and keep it horizontal. I think it was being shaded way too much. My chalices have turned brown when they don't get enough light and I think would turn white if they got too much light, but honestly I've never had that problem. Mine all seem to love bright light.

 

[Uslanja]

Tissue is pulling away from the skeletal structure. No feeding tentacles visible. A small area of the chalice still retains some of its original colour and it appears to have three small eyes in that area that look to be doing better than all the rest. A few questions come to mind: 1) If this area can survive, is it possible to frag that part and start again? 2) What would be the criteria to determine if in fact it could survive fragging? 3) If that small area survives and we do nothing will it in time regrow over the rest of the structure and eventually repair itself?

Tissue pulling away

 

[cheeks69]

We have chronically low alkalinity ...chronically high magnesium

Although lighting could be the issue if the coral wasn't properly acclimated my guess is your water chemistry is the issue. Are you keeping any other hard corals and if so how are they doing ? Do you know what type of lighting it was under when you purchased it ? What salt are you using and have you tested the alk/cal/mag levels before doing a water change ?

 

[seafansar]

I would give it an iodine bath or something similar. Yes, you can frag a small piece and it will grow back. It might grow back over the old skeleton a little, but most likely it will start making a new skeleton over the old one. So it doesn't really matter if you cut it up or leave it be.

 

[cheeks69]

What would be the criteria to determine if in fact it could survive fragging?

Trying to frag a coral that's under severe stress is a bad idea IMHO. I would leave it be and eventually if it survives will grow right over the skeleton.

 

[Uslanja]

Hi cheeks69! That is what we are thinking as well. This coral is probably gone. The tissue is pealing right off the skeleton and there is just a small strip of original colour left along one edge. We're wondering if we should pull it from the tank or leave it a while longer?

 

[cheeks69]

I would leave it, you just never know. I can't tell ya how many corals I thought were gonners and left them in the tank and they made a comeback.

 

[seafansar]

I would leave it, but I was also put it in more light. That is way too shaded an area for a chalice. I would also give it an iodine dip at this point.

 

[Uslanja]

Hi cheeks69! Thanks for the advice! We will do just that. Hopefully it will show some improvement.

Dave