Elegance Coral Looks Like Trash

[Orca1]

Hey all. I bought an Elegance Coral (not sure if it's Australian or not...probably not) about a month ago and it was doing fine. About 4 days ago it started to look like trash. The tentacles seem withered, it's not fully expanding, and there's a mucus type of discharge on the top of it. I added a new light about 2 weeks ago (250w 20K Ushio). The Elegance Coral is placed low in the tank. The paramaters are fine with the exception of phosphates. I just put on a phosban reactor today in hopes of keeping them under control. I also tried target feeding the coral last night.

Is this a natural cycle of the Elegance, or is it time to send it down to the locker? I'ver heard of anenomes discharging, but don't know about this.

What do you think? Don't worry, be honest. If it's time for me to get rid of the coral before it pollutes my system then so be it.

Thanks.............Eric.

 

[prattreef]

I would not get rid of it just yet, but it does not sound good. Lowering phosphates should help, it sounds like their might be a bacterial infection starting and you are not likely to beat that. I'd do a water change. fresh carbon, increase the flow near the coral and maybe add a little iodine. Good luck.

 

[Orca1]

Ya know....I forgot to add something important. I may have cyanobacteria based on the research that I did online. I have what looks like long red hairs coming off of a few rocks. If I take them off, they grow back the next day just as long. At first, I thought one of my girlfriend's hairs got into the tank, then the next day there were 4 of them.

Does that sound like cyaonbacteria?

I just re-tested and the results were:
Amonia 0.
Nitrate 0.
Nitrite 0.
PH 8.4ish.

These tests were done with an API test kit, which I'm starting to think isn't worth d!ck. I also tested phosphates, and it came back with 0 also. The way I see it, if I have algae, I have phosphates. Water change is being done tomorrow.

 

[prattreef]

Doesn't sound like cyanobacteria. ( you can read my article on the subject in this month's Reefs Magazine). The API kits are not very good. Elegance corals are funny--not necessarily a beginners coral. Sometimes they are very hardy though.

 

[Orca1]

I'll definitely check out your article. I guess I'll give it some time and see what happens. If I really see that the coral is going down hill, it's gone.

Thanks prattreef!

 

[Orca1]

No more elegance...:supermad:

 

[Dre]

I'v seen some information on the elegance coral on google images. And there was one article that stand out in my mind .It stated that the specimens that are availeble today on the market are not as durable compared to specimens that were availeble a few years ago although there is always an exception to the rule.

 

[Cibo]

I have had a few Elegance Coral in my tank from time to time and they all looked great. they were eating all showed signs of a good peace of coral up until 3 days before they died. as far as I'm concerned Elegance Coral is a not worth getting. they look great just before they drop dead!

 

[baja2700]

do u have any pictures? is it still alive or did it kick the bucket?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

pics if a/v, bacterial infection most likely.

Do you have the chemicals to dip corals? In the worse case, you can do the coral dips like you should have when you get first coral, these dips will kill off quite a bit of bad stuff that affects the coral but make sure the dosage is correct and read the instructions carefully. Wrong dosage may do wrongs to even healthy corals.

 

[Orca1]

It started coming apart shortly after I started this thread. I ended up canning it before it did any damage to my other inhabitants. Sucks, but I learned something.

 

[E.intheC]

Sorry to hear that. From what I've read and heard elsewhere, the Aussie Elegance corals are much hardier than the Indonesian.

FWIW, I like API Test kits. I've heard mostly good things about them as well.