I've got a duncan with around 10 heads that I put in my tank about two months ago. It did great for the first month, but then it pulled in its polyps and I haven't seen them since. I've moved it a couple times to see if it was in too much or not enough flow or light, but it's only a 30 gallon tank, so there's only so many places to put it. Anyway, it's been at least three weeks since I've seen the polyps and there's now a bit of green algae growing on one of the heads. I'm thinking it may be time to call it done as I don't want it to pollute the tank. Is it time to pull it out, or should I give it a little longer?
How long to give a dying coral?
- Thread starter morganatlanta
- Start date
- Messages
- 1,323
- Reaction score
- 0
Tagging..
Can dead coral pollute a tank? Lord I hope not!
Can dead coral pollute a tank? Lord I hope not!
They can polute the tank depending on dieoff amount vs water volume vs filtration, but I wouldn't worry about only a few heads. Sounds like a flow, water quality and/or light issue. What are your params? Will the polys extend at all after feeding?
Can you even see the heads at all or are they 100% receded into the skeleton.. If you can't see any part of the head I would go ahead and toss it.. If you can see some life in there, might want to hold out..
- Messages
- 5,121
- Reaction score
- 7
There may be a fishing picking at it causing it to recede as well
It's totally pulled into the skeleton and I haven't seen any part of head/polyps in three weeks. More algae growth on it this AM. I'm thinking it is toast...
I've tried it in all areas of the tank in terms of light and flow. The tank is 30L x 12W x 18 Deep. Light is 4xT5HO. Flow is 350 GPH through two returns from 20L sump. Everything else seems to be doing fine, but I also need to mention that I'm battling a bryopsis infestation that came in on a frag (just one little hair!). I'm elevating the Mg to deal with that, but that's just in the last few days, so I don't think it is related.
Nitrate and Phosphate are non-detect on my API test kit. Salinity is 1.025 and Ph is 8.2 and stable. Calcium is around 350 and stable. I've got a chiller that keeps the temp at a constant 77 deg. I don't have a skimmer, but I do have an algae scrubber. It's growing well, and I clean half the screen weekly, but the bryopsis in the display tank is still doing well in the competition for available nutrients. I'm doing 10% water changes every two weeks.
I've got a watchman goby, a little green filefish, and a longnose hawkfish, various snails and hermits and two brittle stars. I'm feeding a few pellets twice daily from an autofeeder to control the amount put in, and they get sucked up immediately.
Other stock is a selection of GSP, zoas, button polyps, mushrooms, a leather, a colt, and xenia on about 50 lbs of live rock, most of it growing like crazy.
There's obviously something the duncan doesn't like, but I guess my question is if it has kicked the bucket, will its decomposition cause problems? Or, can I just leave it there and see what happens? I'm afraid it will add a bunch of nutrients that will fuel the bryopsis, which I'm trying to starve and get rid of with elevated Mg at the moment.
I've tried it in all areas of the tank in terms of light and flow. The tank is 30L x 12W x 18 Deep. Light is 4xT5HO. Flow is 350 GPH through two returns from 20L sump. Everything else seems to be doing fine, but I also need to mention that I'm battling a bryopsis infestation that came in on a frag (just one little hair!). I'm elevating the Mg to deal with that, but that's just in the last few days, so I don't think it is related.
Nitrate and Phosphate are non-detect on my API test kit. Salinity is 1.025 and Ph is 8.2 and stable. Calcium is around 350 and stable. I've got a chiller that keeps the temp at a constant 77 deg. I don't have a skimmer, but I do have an algae scrubber. It's growing well, and I clean half the screen weekly, but the bryopsis in the display tank is still doing well in the competition for available nutrients. I'm doing 10% water changes every two weeks.
I've got a watchman goby, a little green filefish, and a longnose hawkfish, various snails and hermits and two brittle stars. I'm feeding a few pellets twice daily from an autofeeder to control the amount put in, and they get sucked up immediately.
Other stock is a selection of GSP, zoas, button polyps, mushrooms, a leather, a colt, and xenia on about 50 lbs of live rock, most of it growing like crazy.
There's obviously something the duncan doesn't like, but I guess my question is if it has kicked the bucket, will its decomposition cause problems? Or, can I just leave it there and see what happens? I'm afraid it will add a bunch of nutrients that will fuel the bryopsis, which I'm trying to starve and get rid of with elevated Mg at the moment.
- Messages
- 5,121
- Reaction score
- 7
Imo if you don't see any decaying tissue then pollution is not an issue. The file fish could have been the issue with it receding .They have been known to eat aptasia and anything that looks like aptasia . since they are atlantic fish he may have thought he hit the jackpot with the mega duncan. But if you want to keep the file fish then my guess is the duncan will not make it. No visible tissue, no worries imo.
- Messages
- 1,323
- Reaction score
- 0
So I would say my GSP that has turned a milky white should probably be pulled then?
