help! my trumpets are bailing!

[eameres]

For some reason my trumpets are losing their "heads" (see below). Due to the flow in the tank I was very concerned about them gettign swept into a remote corner, under a rock etc, and then dying due to lack of light. So I figured I'd put them into a floating breeding trap to keep track of them, target feed them more easily and keep them in the light. Am I making things worse?

Any thoughts on what's triggered these poor things to abandon their stalks? We bought the tank about a month+ ago from the previous owner who had it up and running for about 2 years. We moved everything, including the water, and I've doen my best to keep the regimen that he'd established (10% weekly water change, daily calcium supplement, semi-weekly iodine and strontium/molybdenum, DI auto top off) All the levels in my tank seem good, no nitrites or ammonia, nitrates are less than 5, Ph 8.2, density 1.024, low/no phosphates to speak of.

Please help!

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=38995

[eameres]

I've been reading about "extrusion" and propagation, but what concerns me is that in most cases the original skeleton has been completely abandoned.

Should I just be gluing the "daughters" to some rock and hoping for the best, or should I wait awhile and try to nurse them in the floating box?

[eameres]

figured I'd add in a few more details:

according to the previous owner, the corals had been in the tank for over a year, I don't know if they ever had this problem. They have been doing this since I got the whole system about a month ago. Just about everyone has now left their skeleton, the heads are still clustered together in what look like new colonies of 1-4 "heads" each. They shrivel at night and swell during the day.

The tank is 46gal, with a sump and skimmer (no bio balls, etc.)

- temperature varies from about 78 to 81.
- lighting is power compact 96watt actinic + 96watt 10K
- water flow is moderate, just the return + one powerhead

other corals - cynarina, bubble, red mushrooms, star polyps, sun coral, zooanthids, puple fungia, purple chili, red chili
fish - six line wrasse, six spotted goby, 2 perc clowns, flame angel
96# of live rock
green starfish, bumble bee snails, astrea snails, 2 emerald crabs
a little bit of bubble algae, a few flatworms, LOTS of small feather duster worms, have seen a few very small bristle worms after the lights go out.

[NFed16]

The exact same thing happened to my trumpet. It eventually lost all of its heads due to polyp "bail out". The polyps lived for a couple months, but eventually blew into inaccessible spots and shrunk to nothing.

[eameres]

NFed, the inaccessibility was one of my major concerns. I'd hate for the trumpets to face extinction in my tank!

BTW, I'm starting to use kalkwasser as my top-off water. I have a auto-top-off system (a 2 gal container with a pump run by a floatswitch in my sump). I'm adding one tsp of Mrs Wages pickling lime per gallon. I'm going to discontinue the calcium supplement as I start using the kalkH20.

[Bruce]

I've lost the heads on my trumpet (caulastrea?) too. Took a long time for them to all go. What I've noticed are minute hydroids on the skeleton after the heads poped off. I don't know if these are the cause or appeared afterwards. I will try to get some pictures, but its going to be tough.

I have also started to loose heads on my frogspawn colony. Very upsetting. It happend once along time ago too and the colony went on to do really well. The branches are covered in these hydroids up to the point where the living tissue occurs and have been for there for a very long time, so I'm reluctant to blame them for anything.

The best I can tell the hydroid has a single mouth on a short stalk. The stalks of hydroids on the trumpets look almost like serpulid tubes, but thinner.They don't wave around in the current like other colonial hydroids that I have seen.

I hope we can figure this out...

Bruce

[EricHugo]

Have you measured calcium, magnesium or alkalinity?

[eameres]

I just tested my calcium, and if my test kit is to be believed, it is upwards of 550! I had it tested only once before in the LFS, and they said it was between 350 and 400. I supplement with Kent Liquid Ca 11 drops per day (the recommended dose for a 50g tank (mine is 46g) is 1/4 to 1 tsp).

Alkalinity usually measures on the med-low side of the chart according to the kit, that's a little shy of 2.5.

Afraid I don't have a magnesium test kit.

[EricHugo]

Hmmm. I might tend to try andget those straightened out a bit..water changes and the use of a buffer like sodium carbonate should straighten them out a bit. I hope this willhelp the problem, but am not convinced it will. Sorry.

[eameres]

Well, I guess now my priority becomes nursing the mini-colonies! Does the floating breeding trap sound like a decent convalescent home? I was thinking of cutting some overflow style teeth and some more holes into the sides to help with circulation.

[bigzman]

Anyone tried Lugo dip? I did it for my brian coral. Every day fifteen minute drip for a week. Flush with mixed water over bucket.