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Help with receding Dragon Soul Favia


rsucre

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I’m having trouble with a Favia coral that I bought about month an a half ago. It looked very healthy when I bought it. The skin was puffy and extended, covering the entire surface of the skeleton, it showed tentacles at night, etc.

Since the beginning I placed it on the bottom of the tank.
After a week, the skin started to retract, exposing some of the skeleton. Then my blue legged hermit crabs started to bother the coral, I think looking for dead skin or maybe looking for food in the exposed skeleton.
After that it just gradually retracted more and more to a point that I think it will be hard to recover.
I just moved it to a more shaded area.
All other corals are looking good and happy, no issues.
My parameters are:
Salinity 35
Ca 460
Alk 10
Mg 1300
Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0
The tank is almost a year old
I’m running GFO. The tank is an IM Fusion 10. Light is a Nanobox Mini Tide running with 20% whites and 70% blues (at midday peek). Run a limewood skimmer at night. Circulation is an upgraded return pump and a Jebao RW-4 (12 V power supply to reduce its strength). Water changes: 10% weekly. New water parameters: SG 35, Ca 460, Alk 11, Mg 1320.
I’m feeding Red Sea Reef Energy coral food (aminos and proteins) on a daily basis. Some Zoplan and Phytoplan (small amount) on a weekly basis.
Really don’t know what could be wrong.
Here are some pics. Disregard the sand particles on the Favia, it is because I just placed it in this new (shaded) location:
IMG_3322.jpg
IMG_3321.jpg
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Elizabeth94

Hm. Def doesn't look good. But I don't see why it would be doing that if your parameters are good and the lighting is correct. (are your test kits expired?).

 

Looks more like a bacterial issue to me. I would do a nice dip in a diluted iodine solution and put it in a low flow area. Do you feed it anything directly? When mine has its tentacles out I put mysis on the coral with the tank flow off. It takes a little while, but it does eat whole mysis shrimp. Sometimes it gets cyclopeeze too.


 

Really don’t know what could be wrong.

 

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Hm. Def doesn't look good. But I don't see why it would be doing that if your parameters are good and the lighting is correct. (are your test kits expired?).

 

Looks more like a bacterial issue to me. I would do a nice dip in a diluted iodine solution and put it in a low flow area. Do you feed it anything directly? When mine has its tentacles out I put mysis on the coral with the tank flow off. It takes a little while, but it does eat whole mysis shrimp. Sometimes it gets cyclopeeze too.

 

Hi Elizabeth. I have Revive. I dip it before introducing it in my tank and again a week ago. Should I dip it again? Revive OK? Mine never eat. Even when it showed the tentacles, I put mysis, zoplan and more recently Fauna Marine LPS pellets... Will not even try to eat them.

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Elizabeth94

Revive is for pests, not bacterial infections. I would pick up some Betadine from cvs and do a dip in that (diluted with tank water to look like a tea color). I am a STRONG believer in iodine and it is one dip I advocate for lps that are suffering from infection. I am surprised yours doesn't eat, my favia always had a strong feeding response, they are just slow at getting food down.

 

It really doesn't look too great, I would do a five min iodine dip as soon as you can. Then place it in low light and low flow. See how it looks in the morning, and dip again if you need to. I have done these iodine dips on a ton of lps and some turn right around after the first dip. But it only works if this is really a bacterial infection.

 

Double test your parameters to be sure nothing is off.

 

 

Hi Elizabeth. I have Revive. I dip it before introducing it in my tank and again a week ago. Should I dip it again? Revive OK? Mine never eat. Even when it showed the tentacles, I put mysis, zoplan and more recently Fauna Marine LPS pellets... Will not even try to eat them.

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Revive is for pests, not bacterial infections. I would pick up some Betadine from cvs and do a dip in that (diluted with tank water to look like a tea color). I am a STRONG believer in iodine and it is one dip I advocate for lps that are suffering from infection. I am surprised yours doesn't eat, my favia always had a strong feeding response, they are just slow at getting food down.

 

It really doesn't look too great, I would do a five min iodine dip as soon as you can. Then place it in low light and low flow. See how it looks in the morning, and dip again if you need to. I have done these iodine dips on a ton of lps and some turn right around after the first dip. But it only works if this is really a bacterial infection.

 

Double test your parameters to be sure nothing is off.

 

 

 

Hi Elizabeth,

 

Thanks for your help. Could not find Betadine here in Panama, but found an equivalent (same components, Iodine and Povidone). Did the dip as you said and placed it back in the shaded/bottom area of my tank. Let's see how it goes.

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The Favia has not improved. It seems to me like it is starving. The rest of my corals are doing fine, but my reef tank is "low nutrient" (almost zero nitrate, zero nitrite, zero ammonia, very low phosphates, running GFO, feeding low, etc.). I'm feeding mostly a daily dose of Red Sea Reef Energy (the upper dose for my volume).

 

I just made a second dip of Betadine (Iodine Povidone). This time I made a stronger dip (dark tea) and less time (3-4 minutes). The favia immediately looks a little better (i.e. greener/vivid centers). I'm not going to give up just yet.

 

Any recommendations, things to try, are welcome.

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Elizabeth94

I was wondering how your favia was doing. You can safely dip lps in the betadine for upwards of ten mins. I think five mins is a good time to start though.

 

See how it is tomorrow and try to offer it some mysis. They are SLOW eaters when their tentacles arnt extended to begin with.

 

Dont be afraid to dip every two days.

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I was wondering how your favia was doing. You can safely dip lps in the betadine for upwards of ten mins. I think five mins is a good time to start though.

 

See how it is tomorrow and try to offer it some mysis. They are SLOW eaters when their tentacles arnt extended to begin with.

 

Dont be afraid to dip every two days.

 

The problem is that the hermits and the shrimp are stealing the food before the favia has any change of eating it... Maybe I will have to take it out into a bucket to feed it?

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