Is this Suncoral dying?

[Nanz]

This coral has recently started to lose its outer coating or tissue. At least thats what it looks like to me. Is there anything I can do to save it or is it dying?

This is the Daylight Image


This is the Night Image

[MTB]

Are you feeding it? If so what? How much and how often?

These are non-photosynthetic and need to be fed to live. I feed mine a cube of mysis shrimp in a seperate container every 4 days or so.

[GIJOE007]

it sounds kind funny, but sun coral only open at night. They do not need direct light to survive. You should be feeding it at night after lights out. Keep an eye on it and start feeding it at night to see if that makes a difference.

[Nanz]

I feed it at night and I target feed with mysis shrimp, Cyclops freeze dried and AA mixture. I can see the polyps close up on the shrimp so I suspect its still eating. I have been caring for the coral for over a year and it just started to look like this in the past month.

Here is what it looked like before.

[acrodave]

There is a snail or nudi that eats tubastraea. something to look out for

[sufunk]

Looks like maybe just the cyano and bubble algae that is growing between the head is killing off the tissue between heads. Ive had that happen to mine before. Makes sure that every day or so, you blow off anything that is in between the heads and keep feeding it meaty foods every day or so and it should be fine in a little while.

[Boca Kris]

Mine is having the same problem. Can those things regenerate?

[Hingeback]

I have keep a few of these in my non sps tank. I have found these to be sensitive to heat. Anything over 84 f and I have found they start to struggle. It may be worth checking your daytime temp with lights on for a while. The days are getting hotter now and with the lights it may be elavating slightly.. I aploogise if you have already checked this.

Best wishes

[Boca Kris]

Heat seems to be a reoccuring topic. I also have a frogspawn that 2 of four clusters shriveled up and one is now turning white. In another thread someone mentioned the heat. Im not hom much during the day, but I doubt if its getting much above 80. The suncoral is also not doing well. I wonder if light could also be a factor? Would a suncoral do that if its getting too much light?

[GIJOE007]

if it was getting to much light, i would assume the polyps would just close up more until lights out. If you cant check your tank temp during the day, wait until the weekend and check it both Saturday and Sunday. I would also get that bubble algae off the sun coral, just incase...its never nice to have on any coral.

Boca Kris
if your frogspawn head is turning white, theres not much hope for it now. IMO, if it continues to turn white, frag the good heads to save some of it and seperate it from the bleached ones.

[Boca Kris]

Is there usually something in particular that turns them white? The white head is actually extended more than then the other shriveled head which is still quite green.

[Nanz]

Originally posted by GIJOE007
if it was getting to much light, i would assume the polyps would just close up more until lights out. If you cant check your tank temp during the day, wait until the weekend and check it both Saturday and Sunday. I would also get that bubble algae off the sun coral, just incase...its never nice to have on any coral.

Boca Kris
if your frogspawn head is turning white, theres not much hope for it now. IMO, if it continues to turn white, frag the good heads to save some of it and seperate it from the bleached ones.

Oh.. so those bubbles are algea? I did not know what the bubbles were. I can blow them off with a baster. I have a couple emerald crabs but I jailed them in the refugium because they were eating my mushrooms.

My temp is 78-81 and never goes above 81. Moslty its 79-80 but on hot days it may rise to 81 and on cold days it falls to 78. The temp is somewhat tied to the outside temp since my skimmer pulls its air from outside.

[Boca Kris]

Can sun corals come back to life or regenerate tissue that has fallen off? And does anyone know the lifespan? Someone told me once that they all die eventually, and that they don't live that long, even in the most pristine environments.....is that true?

[Hingeback]

Sun Corals can regenerate the tissue. In good conditions they can live for many many years.
I have just recently read an article about them spawning in someones reef. One of my Sun Corals has grown onto another rosk it was touching.
Here in the Uk ( the land with the c--p weather ) on an average summers day my tanks will easily go over 82 - 84 f (without a heater on) and without fans on to cool. The extra heat comes from pumps and lights. My reef is smacking 80f today and its very average outside.
If I notice a prob with my Sun Corals it has always been heat.

Best wishes

[Boca Kris]

under ideal conditions...how long would it take a sun coral to be nursed back to health?

[Hingeback]

Very difficult to answer. I had one that i got cheap due to damage. It took about 4 months to completely regenerate. Yet a friend of mine who in my opinion has got a fantastic setup with fantastic params and puts mine to shame had one and his is still regenerating 9 months after he got it.
To me sucess would be to make sure all water params are correct and look for fresh new growth. Once you have this growth you know you are on the right track and your Sun Coral likes your conditions. Then obviously try to keep these params stable.

[Hingeback]

Sorry also meant to say I have mine situated in quite a strong flow areas, but not direct. At no point does sediment ect settle on the corals. I have noticed with some Sun Corals that sediment has settled and may be causing problems.

My tank params are as follows

Sg 1.026
Temp 78f
Ph 8.2 - 8.3
Cal 480ppm
Mg 1400ppm
Alk 10 Dkh
Amm 0
trite 0
trate 0
phos 0.01

It now has 50 + times turnover of water and an Nitrate filter added.

[Boca Kris]

I never know how much flow I should have. I know I need alot to turn the water over, but I only have a 55g tank, with a Rio+1700 in the filter, and Koralia 600gph on the top. It seems like if I add any more flow, I'll have nowhere to direct it. Right now, I have a nice sort of back n forth sway to my frogspawn, but I do have areas in my tank where detritus settles.

Wonder what I should do?

[Hingeback]

If I am correct the rio is about 500 g per hour and as mentioned yoour koralia is 600g per. As your rio is running a filter I would presume the output is much less than 500gph.

I would say 400gph for rio and 600gph = 1000gph
1000gph / 55g = 18 times turnover

Personally I would be looking to double that ( just my preference ). I do not go for big output pumps and instead go for a number of smaller pumps. I tend to face some of them againsts each other so as to create swirling motion. The other pumps I have facing from back to front.

In my 60g sps reef I have 1500g seio flow pump and 3 x 620g seio = 56x turnover plus return from sump.
The big seio is placed on back wall 3/4 up wall. One seio is placed in the corner and pointing down at an angle. ( I daily change the angle on this pump to create a new flow pattern ) The two others are placed roghly facing each other on opposite sides of the tank.
I feed a liquid food called Nutriplus which is orange. When I place this in the tank the liquid is pushed out strongly in every possible direction. There is no diect flow on any coral.
It can be done it just takes a little trial and error.

Best wishes

[GIJOE007]

IMO, I agree with hingeback...more pumps with less flow per pump. This will allow you to have multiple streams in variouse directions. I also like to point power heads at each other to create a swirl effect...that way the current is mixing with each other and not pushing from one side to the other.

[koyoteturtle]

I dive commercially in the gulf of mexico, and although I see great swatths of these in the sun down there, they are usually most plentiful, and better looking below 20ft to like 50 ft. In other words, were the sun doesnt get through as much. And they really grow well on the undersides of the horizontil braces on the rigs. keep it shaded and spot feed as many pollips as possible, at a time until they wont take any more. Mine love it, I have them in a sorta cave in my rock woork. low flow, just enough to stir the pollip

[Boca Kris]

yeah, i've often thought it was getting sunburnt....maybe i should move it into the shade more...