coral looks like its blistering - is it even possible

[becketd]

the other day i noticed one of my corals was looking like it was swelling....at the time i thought it was going to start froming a new branch...but lastnight i looked at it and noticed that the whole side of that particular coral was starting to swell...so i took my tongs to touch it and see if it was hard...i was very suprise when i found out it was soft....almost like how skin gets a blister.....very weird...i have made a couple of changes to the tank recently..one of them being new MH bulbs...i do it at the start of every year...so i was thinking it was from to much to soon...i cut my photoperiod back to only 4 to 5 hrs a day....i pointed a power head in that direction and thought maybe it was blowing to much water on it or something...i really dont know whats going on thou...anyone with any ideas....i really dont want to loose this coral...thanks david

[sneeyatch]

I'd move it down away from the light for a time.

I could be wrong (probably am - I've been called out all day today for being wrong at work, so...) I've read that the zoox can produce excess amounts of oxygen for the coral resulting in "blisters". There's really nowhere for it go - except out. This is more likely to occur in LPS and soft corals than SPS type corals though.

[Purple Haze]

Acro blisters. I don't think anyone has come up with concrete evidence as to what the cause is. Oddly enough, I have an unknown blue acro that has had these for over a year. I trimmed the infected part only to have it come back.

[Canarygirl]

Some people think--no personal experience with it, but I've read that in some cases this blistering is caused by low magnesium levels. They should be at 1200-1300 ppm so you could try testing that parameter with a good test kit.

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by Purple Haze
Acro blisters. I don't think anyone has come up with concrete evidence as to what the cause is. Oddly enough, I have an unknown blue acro that has had these for over a year. I trimmed the infected part only to have it come back.

same here. trimmed the infected parts completely off and 4 months later same thing occured.

There's a few threads rolling around this forum on the subject.

[Purple Haze]

^Exactly.

[danfrith]

I've heard that high phosphates were sometimes the culprit.

[pIankton]

Low Mg and high PO4 levels being the culprit really doesn't make sense to me. If that were the case, there would be way more people experiencing the same issues. It's way to common of an occurance to have low Mg & high PO4 levels

[becketd]

wow..thanks for the imput...i do weekly water changes so i fig my mag levels would be replenished from any depletion...i do have a mag tester and addative so i will check that tonight....i am glad to hear that it doesnt seem to be a disease of some sort....i thought sneeyatch's point that the zoox could produce excess oxygen interesting...along with piaktons point that it would be a much more common occurance among hobbist if it were high levels of po4...thanks for all the help david

[Kip]

i've stayed on top of Mag levels and po4 levels and still have had blistering issues

i've only ever had it out of one type of acro (stoddarti)

[Purple Haze]

You'll have to buffer almost every salt mix if you're trying to achieve high levels of MG.

Just about every mix is low in MG, among other things.

[Canarygirl]

I run 15% magnesium crystals in my Calcium reactor and that just manages to keep my magnesium levels between 1200-1300. If I weren't doing that I think the level would be way lower.

[mcliffy2]

I've had a pink milli colony that has done that on and off for the 8 months I've owned it. It has continued growing with no ill effects, so I don't even worry about it when it comes and goes. Does yours look like this?