Sinularia tree coral just broke apart

[antigonus]

My green Sinularia tree coral had been looking kind of bad were a week or two now, just today they the larger branch literally just broke away, its base seemed to be black and 'rotten'. I left the smaller branch which is still connected to the main base in the tank, as it looks healthier and I hope it can pull through. I did water tests, and even brought water in to my LFS for a second look but they also said everything seemed fine.  

My parameters today were as follows: Salinity: 1.023, Ph: 8.1, Dkh: 9.5 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0-0.005 Nitrate: 3-5

 

Like I said, I noticed it had been looking rather shrunken for a weeks or two but thought maybe it just my Blenny picking on it, and in a post I made the other day I wrote how my Clove Polyp also seemed to be dying. 

 

Has anyone experienced this before with their tree corals? 

 

 

[seabass]

Sorry about the coral losses.  That's what they do when they die.

 

10 hours ago, antigonus said:

I left the smaller branch which is still connected to the main base in the tank, as it looks healthier and I hope it can pull through.

I hope so too.  However, unfortunately, if the condition which affected the coral doesn't change, the outcome might not either.

 

Given the limited information that we have, nothing really jumps out as to "the" cause.  However, specific gravity should be increased to between 1.025 and 1.026.  Just top off with saltwater until that is achieved.

[Tamberav]

I had this happen many years ago....I cut off the dying/black parts and it recovered.

 

I would agree salinity is low. 

[antigonus]

6 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I had this happen many years ago....I cut off the dying/black parts and it recovered.

 

I would agree salinity is low. 

Thanks, I'm going to do another water change to gradually raise the salinity. This is what the remnants of the tree coral looks like now, I still hope it makes it. 

[antigonus]

13 hours ago, seabass said:

Sorry about the coral losses.  That's what they do when they die.

 

I hope so too.  However, unfortunately, if the condition which affected the coral doesn't change, the outcome might not either.

 

Given the limited information that we have, nothing really jumps out as to "the" cause.  However, specific gravity should be increased to between 1.025 and 1.026.  Just top off with saltwater until that is achieved.

That is a good point, I had salinity levels like this for a while now though, i'm not sure why it all went down hill so quickly. 

[Tamberav]

8 minutes ago, antigonus said:

That is a good point, I had salinity levels like this for a while now though, i'm not sure why it all went down hill so quickly. 

1.023 gives you little to no wiggle room so if your calibration is off it could easily get messy.

 

There is a top acropora vender that keeps his salinity 1.030 so in reality too high is quite forgiving but when my salinity accidentally dropped to 1.022ish I saw stress in some of my corals and anenomes (not all but some). They don't all react the same.

[antigonus]

On 8/11/2019 at 3:37 PM, Tamberav said:

1.023 gives you little to no wiggle room so if your calibration is off it could easily get messy.

 

There is a top acropora vender that keeps his salinity 1.030 so in reality too high is quite forgiving but when my salinity accidentally dropped to 1.022ish I saw stress in some of my corals and anenomes (not all but some). They don't all react the same.

I raised the salinity to 1.025 by not topping off and doing a water change with slightly more saline water, the coral closed up but that was probably just due to the disturbance. 

[seabass]

When raising specific gravity, you should stick with topping off with saltwater versus doing a water change.  This will raise salinity more gradually.  I know fish tend to endure quick drops in specific gravity better than quick increases (I could only speculate on other marine life).

[antigonus]

2 minutes ago, seabass said:

When raising specific gravity, you should stick with topping off with saltwater versus doing a water change.  This will raise salinity more gradually.  I know fish tend to endure quick drops in specific gravity better than quick increases (I could only speculate on other marine life).

Fair enough, but I tried to do it pretty gradually, there was barely any change after the water change, it only went up from 1.023 to 1.025 in a period of a few days, do you think that's too quick? 

[seabass]

27 minutes ago, antigonus said:

do you think that's too quick?

It's a pretty small change.  I wouldn't think it will harm anything.  My statements were mostly for best practices.