Skelton going away on established corals

[Swordsman82]

Has anyone ever seen anything like this on any of there corals? I noticed it when one of my frogspawn branches basically snapped of you a stiff push from my wave maker. After checking around the tank I found this on my Candy Canes. The deterioration is very new and doesn’t seem to be effecting the rest of the coral. The candy Cane and Frogspawn are open and continuing to grow just fine.

Currently dosing All For Reef and NP Bacto Balance.

 

[Edward]

Did you add any new fish? What's the pH?

 

[Swordsman82]

-last new fish since this past November.

-PH usually tests around 8.1-8.2, but I do not have any controls for the PH like Kalk dosing, and I have not monitored the night time drop. It is in a heavily ventilated area with lots of windows and outside air flow.

I do have a do have a rather large blue knuckle hermit crab that occasionally climbs it. I have no clue if that is capable of doing damage like that though.

 

[ChrisV]

Very interesting. Are calcium and alkalinity within roughly normal range? I don't think it should matter for this, but still curious.

 

[MikeP]

I’ve been fighting the same issue for months now. No real solution yet but it does seem like increasing my nitrates has helped. I also starting dosing iodine after my ICP test came back at 0. So that could be impacting as well.

 

[Swordsman82]

I’ve been fighting the same issue for months now. No real solution yet but it does seem like increasing my nitrates has helped. I also starting dosing iodine after my ICP test came back at 0. So that could be impacting as well.

That might make sense my Nitrates are very low often unreadable, same with Iodine

 

[Seapets]

I’ve been fighting the same issue for months now. No real solution yet but it does seem like increasing my nitrates has helped. I also starting dosing iodine after my ICP test came back at 0. So that could be impacting as well.

Try (Aquachar) It will balance out the levels of the chemicals PH Alkalinity Calcium

 

[Seapets]

Try (Aquachar) It will balance out the levels of the chemicals PH Alkalinity Calcium

It keeps pH steady at all times

 

[Swordsman82]

Try (Aquachar) It will balance out the levels of the chemicals PH Alkalinity Calcium

Does that stuff work? I have seen it online but haven't heard anything from anyone actually using it

 

[Seapets]

Does that stuff work? I have seen it online but haven't heard anything from anyone actually using it

Of course it works I use it. The best thing that they have invented

 

[Seapets]

Of course it works I use it. The best thing that they have invented

All my corals are happy and I do very little water changes to no water changes I only do water changes every six months that’s how long the product lasts and it’s natural wood the aquachar

 

[Seapets]

All my corals are happy and I do very little water changes to no water changes I only do water changes every six months that’s how long the product lasts and it’s natural wood the aquachar

Do some research on (aquachar) and you will see

 

[ChrisV]

Of course it works I use it. The best thing that they have invented

What did you see it do in your tank? How is this different from activated carbon?

 

[Seapets]

What did you see it do in your tank? How is this different from activated carbon?

Activated carbon is chemical made. natural wood is nature made. So seawater its natural nature made as well and it stabilizes all levels of saltwater chemicals it keeps the chemicals stabled instead of them going up and down

 

[Seapets]

Activated carbon is chemical made. natural wood is nature made. So seawater its natural nature made as well and it stabilizes all levels of saltwater chemicals it keeps the chemicals stabled instead of them going up and down

It keeps pH stable it keeps alkalinity stable calcium stable

 

[Seapets]

Try (Aquachar) It will balance out the levels of the chemicals PH Alkalinity Calcium

So all the columns of saltwater chemicals it keeps everything stable instead of them going up and down and also the growth of coral is unbelievable The best stuff that I bought. I tell you that much

 

[ChrisV]

Has anyone ever seen anything like this on any of there corals? I noticed it when one of my frogspawn branches basically snapped of you a stiff push from my wave maker. After checking around the tank I found this on my Candy Canes. The deterioration is very new and doesn’t seem to be effecting the rest of the coral. The candy Cane and Frogspawn are open and continuing to grow just fine.

Currently dosing All For Reef and NP Bacto Balance.

What's the urchin/crab situation in your tank? I did a bit of looking around and the case for this being biological erosion seems stronger than chemical erosion.

Calcium carbonate is just not soluble at the pH you're describing.

 

[Swordsman82]

What's the urchin/crab situation in your tank? I did a bit of looking around and the case for this being biological erosion seems stronger than chemical erosion.

Calcium carbonate is just not soluble at the pH you're describing.

I have a medium sized pincushion and could small hermits and large 2 inch blue knuckle hermit crab which has a tendency to climb the corals. Would the inverts do that much damage to calcium carbonate?

 

[Swordsman82]

Activated carbon is chemical made. natural wood is nature made. So seawater its natural nature made as well and it stabilizes all levels of saltwater chemicals it keeps the chemicals stabled instead of them going up and down

this isn't really saying anything. Also all reef tanks use salt that is some part synthetic unless your taking your water straight from the ocean.

 

[ChrisV]

I have a medium sized pincushion and could small hermits and large 2 inch blue knuckle hermit crab which has a tendency to climb the corals. Would the inverts do that much damage to calcium carbonate?

Honestly I'm not sure. I've seen people speculate that urchins will go for lps skeletons when calcareous algae is in short supply. However, a whole lot of people keep pincushion urchins with coral and don't have issues. It's a species that's generally considered reef safe.

If you search for "skeleton disintegrating" there are a lot of threads on reef2reef that are essentially like this one. I haven't seen a satisfying conclusion though. The closest I got was buying the argument that it was not a matter of the skeleton dissolving.