Plate Coral

[jgoal55]

Question #777:

My plate coral which was doing great as of yesterday has a coupe of tears in his tissue....

As far as I can tell my water conditions are perfect (PH, Calcium, Alk, Salinity). This morning I noticed a small tear and tonight I noticed a secondary small tear and the original tear had become a little larger.

I am pretty sure he is till alive because I am pretty sure he ate a mysis shrimp today....

I did notice my six line wrasse try to steal a couple of shrimp away from him and was wondering if by doing so he may have torn his tissue?

Will it come back? Is there something I should do (ie - moe him to another part of the tank)? Does mela fix work in SW and if so does it help corals (doubt it but worth asking)?

As always, Thanks for all the help.

 

[simon_kruger]

add or increase idodine. check that its not getting blasted with waterflow. its should be ok.

 

[jgoal55]

whats a good iodide to use?

 

[cgill311]

Plate corals are a lot tougher than you think.

I have one that was doing well. Then due to low pH and elevated phosphates, algae took hold on its skeleton. The plate recessed to about 10%and I thought it would surely die. Basically the only thing visibly alive was the mouth.

Then I added a AquaC Urchin skimmer and homemade kalkwasser doser to my system. The pH now hovers around 8.2 and the skimmer appears to be working. With these 2 additions, the algae started to receed and the plate was able to make a comeback. Now it's about 70% of its original self and sprouted 3 little baby plates.

Yes, tears will heal provided your water chemistry is in check. If algae takes hold on its skeleton, then you might be in for some trouble.

 

[jgoal55]

awesome guys...thanks.

thats good to hear that it will most likely survive......my water chemistry is almost perfect but apparently my ph has dropped a little......7.8.....

I will does it to bring it back up and see if that helps him.....

 

[jgoal55]

Simon.....

do you mean iodide or iodine?