Bubble Coral Help

[drillsar]

Heres a video of my bubble coral, I dont know whats wrong, Please help so I can bring it back hopefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ebROiwwI8

[JamesJR]

It may be too late to save that coral but maybe we can help.
First off, list all your water parameters, Ammonia, Nitrite, pH, SG, Nitrate, Ca, Mg and Alkalinity.

What type of lighting do you have? Movement, filtration? How long have you had it?

[drillsar]

Ok I will do tests in the morning

[drillsar]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
CA 440
Alk 2.63
SG 1.025

I have a 130 watt aqualight with 10,000K bulbs, Im using a mag 7, I had it for like 6 months. It hasnt been great since I got it, Im thinking possibly the light.

[aQuan00b82]

You have way more experienvce then me I am sure. But from what i've read from books/forums and talking with people the minimum amount of light for a reef aquarium is 4watts/gallon......
So that 130watt lighting system you have is meant for a 30gallon tank. What size tank do you have?

Also a good indicator of poor/insufficient light is poor/slow coral growth (assuming your calcium and alkalinity levels are good)...just my 2cp's let me know if that helps. But then again I am a n00b^^

[mcmxc17]

I have 2 in my tank, one is doing great and the other has it's moments. Make sure that you water is up to speed, it looks like it is, also try changing the position of the BC in the tank and doing some direct feed of some enriched and meaty food. Godd luck!

[rlm2005]

What is your temp like? I almost lost a bubble when my tank got too high last summer. If you do lose this one, leave the skeleton in the tank. Mine regrew and is now 3 separate bubble corals.

[seapug]

Bubble corals are one of the best LPS for low light/low flow tanks. They expand their bubbles to capture more light so look best when shaded. If they are in high flow they tend to get torn & injured then get infections that cause the tissue recession. I'd take your piece and put it in a shaded spot with as little current as possible for while and see if it recovers.

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10758075#post10758075 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
Bubble corals are one of the best LPS for low light/low flow tanks. They expand their bubbles to capture more light so look best when shaded. If they are in high flow they tend to get torn & injured then get infections that cause the tissue recession. I'd take your piece and put it in a shaded spot with as little current as possible for while and see if it recovers.

I think this question is related to this thread so------
do you feel that a bubble underneath an overgrown colt is ok. They both seem fine---and the bubblel is enjoying the shade:)

I know the frogspawn on the other side doesn't like the coral--its always stinging it and causing it to sway over the bubble

[clown2be]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10758041#post10758041 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcmxc17
I have 2 in my tank, one is doing great and the other has it's moments. Make sure that you water is up to speed, it looks like it is, also try changing the position of the BC in the tank and doing some direct feed of some enriched and meaty food. Godd luck!

Agree, Direct feed with turkey baster.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/clown2be/tank_001.jpg

[papagimp]

I know longer have my bubble, propogated him, sold em off, but when i did, he definatly prefered a much lower flow, lower light than what you would typically think they would. lower than most the LPS in my tank.

Alk and Phosphates are another problem, they have to be able to calcify properly and both these can effect that I believe.

High nitrates and low PH never phased my bubble in the least however.

Do you target feed him at all? Mine did much better with target feeding every other day. Krill, squid (he loved that stuff), mysis, anything else frozen that I feed my tank. If a fish died and i was there to grab it quick enough, went to the bubble instead of the toilet. He did excellent and handled being manually propogated very well after all this. He's currently in my boss's 110g, On the sandbed (1") and a little shaded from the 440watts of VHO's. Flow is low enough where he's at to let him fully bubble up (2 koralia #3's + mag5 return for circ) NO skimmer on that tank either, he's done fine in either type of setup.

sorry for the rambling, I couldn't view the youtube clip, blocked from that site here at work, so I listed all the useful info i could think of. best of luck!

[rbtwo4]

Useful for me! I have a bubble and its kind of dark dunno why.

[papagimp]

what do you mean dark? The buble itself is dark? Have a pic available?

[drillsar]

so your saying to take the bubble out of the light? maybe in the sand?

[papagimp]

Definatly in the sand.....they typically will live in a sanbed or in a crevice somewhere. Not on top of the rockwork up near the lights. I've only ever placed them in my sandbed, usually near a cave opening, or even in a cave opening depending on how lighting was hitting him. Same with flow, just enough to keep things from settling on him constantly but not enough to harm his bubbles. Also don't want him to close to jagged edges or sharp points where he can pop his bubbles when expanding. Also keep in mind that a bubble corals sweepers can get huge and very potent, lost many of euphyllia due to an aggressive green bubble coral. When placing in the sandbed, bury the skeletal nub, but don't bury him to the point that sand is resting against his tissue. This can irritate them and cause them not to open. hermits and other critters crawling on or around them can also have this effect.

[seapug]

mine likes the sand, but most likely because it's the bottom of the tank where light levels are generally lower. They can be aggressive when they want-- sometimes mine gets 4 inch long sweepers, so give them space.

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10758548#post10758548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
-- sometimes mine gets 4 inch long sweepers, so give them space.

Like so :D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/papagimp/294174731/

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10758613#post10758613 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
Like so :D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/papagimp/294174731/

so is mine at risk under the shade of a colt coral or is it the other way around :)

[papagimp]

I'd worry about that poor colt getting nemocysted to death. But than again, leathers and softies can put out chemicals that the stoney bubble coral may not like either. If the sweepers are out of distance though, I think both should be okay as far as aggression goes.

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10758800#post10758800 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
I'd worry about that poor colt getting nemocysted to death. But than again, leathers and softies can put out chemicals that the stoney bubble coral may not like either. If the sweepers are out of distance though, I think both should be okay as far as aggression goes.

yeah thanks-----I guess I should frag the colt anyways--rather then the frog span and bubble zapping the ends of it all the time.

[RCBrooke]

On my tank, raising Alk from 1.8 to 3.5 and Phos from 3.0+ to 0.05 and dropping has made a hugh difference.

I also have my bubble coral on the sandbed in full light (3x - 250w MH's and 4x - 96w PC's).

When I first got it, the high Alk, Phos and flow were just too much for it. I almost lost it. During recovery time (3 months) I had it in the bottom of a cut off plastic bottle to keep the flow from injuring it. It went from a beautiful big coral to a gray slimy looking mess in a couple of weeks. After I put it in the bottle it started a slow recovery. When I got the Alk and Phos right (I did both at the same time), it made quick gains. Its now on the sand bed sheltered by softball sized pieces of live rock on each side and the main stack behind it (no bottle) and it is just as large as when I bought it, but now is 3 heads(?).

Good Luck,
Randy