bubble coral

[moongoddesss007]

my bubble has been completly deflaited for the past two wweks or so is it dead anyone know how to tell? there should be a picture of it in my gallery

[Bcollins111900]

The pic is small and hard to see. If all you can see is exposed skeleton I would assume it is a goner but I would not remove it from your tank. Some pieces of coral have a tendancy of re-generating. What are your tank peramiters? How long have you had the coral? How warm has your water temp been lately? What kind of lighting are you running?

[moongoddesss007]

As of a couple of days ago, the parameters were:
Ph: 8.2
Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: .25 (couple lbs. of new LR)
Ammonia: 0
Calcium: 330 (was in the 200's about a week ago to our surprise-- our tests were way off) slowly getting it up!!

Lighting is 166 watts (130 watt corallife aqualight-new, and a 36 watt T-5 strip light)

We've had it about 3 months and up until the last month or so, it has been filling up less and less to the point now that it is no longer inflating at all. I wish I could post another pic but it wont accept any I try. There is still tissue there and what appears to be some bubbles along the outer area but the center is comletely open- mouth visible and absolutely no tentacles showing anymore.
At the advice of our LFS we recently moved it to the bottom (it had been at the top) in hopes that it will recuperate. It had been next to our Sinularia before and I didn't realize that they could warfare against each other! Now they are seperate.
I try to feed it but i'm not sure it can even ingest it as there is nothing to pull it in. Although it is still expelling the zoolanthe every so often.
Suggestions on what we can to do help it??

[moongoddesss007]

Our temp BTW is steady at 81

[roktsintst]

mine kept falling off the rock and got damaged. i moved it into a safer spot and it is doing much better. the white skeleton is still alive and the brown is dead. put it up as high as you can with very little flow if possible. you also need to try target feeding it zooplankton and phytoplex and mysis shrimp. dont get rid of it just nurse it for a while and try to get you calcium and alkalinity in line.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/121819bubble_coral.JPG

[moongoddesss007]

Thanks.
Should I move it up because I don't have enough light? Everyone else has said leave it at the bottom. I just want to know for sure because moving it isn't good for it either.

[RicksReefs]

zooplankton and phyto is useless for these guys. mysis, prawn, and chucks of silversides should be readily eaten.

I'd say the problem is/was your very low calcium level. bring that back up and keep it there and the bubble may bounce back.

with your lighting, I'd say keep it in the top 1/2-1/3 of the tank.

[Sk8r]

You should be 0 nitrate, nitrite and ammonia.
Ph 8.3
alk 8.3
cal 400
temp around 80.
mg around 1200.

[moongoddesss007]

Thanks all.
We moved it up near the top and it has shown a little more bubbles than we've seen. I also fed it a couple silverside chunks, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.
The nitrate/nitrite issue has only been since we bought a couple new LR's with various zoos, etc and I think it have us a small spike. The condition of the coral was going downhill far before that.
We're adding Purple Up to boost the Calcium and also using some Potassium Iodide. (we're new to corals so we're experimenting with supplements).
Sk8r- are you sure our ALK should be 8.3? We've always been told 11...

[roktsintst]

Im glad to hear it's looking better already, just give it some time. i have had very good expierience with ESV B-Ionic 2 part calcium/ alkalinity buffer if you can find it.

[Bcollins111900]

I personaly use Randy Holmes calcium receipe for doising calcium. Look it up online. Will save you alot of money and you won't have to buy purple up which IMO does not work all that well.

[MiddletonMark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7931253#post7931253 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moongoddesss007
Sk8r- are you sure our ALK should be 8.3? We've always been told 11...
If measuring dKh, 8 is just about right [slightly above NSW, which would be 7 dKh].

If Meg/l or another scale, these won't be the #'s.

Get Ca + Alk balanced around NSW [Alk 8 dKh, Ca 400] + give it time, I bet it will do just fine.

When feeding, IMO, do chop the food up to fairly small pieces/chunks vs. large pieces. As far as I understand, this would make it easier for the coral to digest, and I've found mine spits less stuff/poop out the next day if I feed smaller pieces [mysis, or mysis sized I can target feed easily, too].

[RicksReefs]

skip the iodine/iodide supplements altogether. you get more than enough thru water changes and using purple up.

I have an experimental oceanic 144g 1/2 round at the shop that I've (for the most part) only used purple-up as the calcium side of the 2 part equation and I can say it does work well for coraline, but it seems to bounce easier than turbo calcium or liquid.

[moongoddesss007]

just wanted to thank everyone for the advice the bubble has made a full recovery since getting my calcium up and feedings with mysis.

[RayMartini]

I knew it would. It is good policy to hang in there with corals as they tend to come back.

Good luck ...