is my open brain coral dead?

[mos90]

i have had my open brain coral for a few months and it seemed to be doing fine. all of a sudden last week i noticed a small hole in the center if it. didnt think much of it. within a few days alomst of the tissue has peeled. now it all i see if the skeleton. i would have to say it is dead.

all of my water parameters are good and i still am doing feedings twice a week of liquid zoo plankton and mysis for my other corals.

i will get some pictures tonight.

wonder what happened?

 

[Heathd]

Did it have a brown jelly like coating on it, at any time?

What corals are surrounding it? Its possible it could have been stung and then became infected.

What is your mag, calc, alk at right now?

 

[FLESHY]

What sort of inverts do you have in the tank?

What kind of h2o flow is in that area?

Those are the first two questions that come to mind.

 

[mos90]

didnt see any brown on it ever.

no corals anywhere near it. placed on the bottom by itself.

calcium did drop to about 380 for a short spell. still should be high enough.

mag-1350
cal-410 -now
alk-11dkh

something may have picked at it. thats the only thing i can think of. maybe my blenny going for food. or 1 of my shrimp.


as far as flow. here is a possiblity. i recently added a vortech mp10 powerhead. turned all the way up it is over 1000gph. so what ive done is i have both of my powerheads that came with the tank on all the time. 500gph. and i keep the vortech on the second to lowest setting 2-300 gph.

but every few days the vortech has a cleaning mode it stirs up all the crap laying around in the tank so the overflow can catch it.. i turn the vortech almost all the way up for a 5 minutes or so.
invert list. 2-pep shrimps,1-cleaner shrimp, 12 or so mixed crabs and snails. dont forget my new friend the mantis shrimp.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Did sand blow on top of it?

 

[mos90]

maybe a little

 

[Heathd]

I doubt the mantis bothered it, especially with so many hermits wobbeling about as wild game.

Sand would irritate it though. The bad thing about RTN is once it starts, its hard to stop.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I have had them come back from very little flesh left on.

 

[mos90]

let me snap a few pictures of it tonight. i think its to late but u can make a call.

all the flesh is gone. didnt want to lose a $50 coral.

maybe it was just to much flow for it.

if it is gone i will just frag my frogspawn to replace it.

 

[mos90]

i have a mix of corals. some like medium flow and some like a little higher flow. i try to keep it in the middle but maybe 800gph is just too much for the medium flowers.