Bad case of dieback happening - any ideas?

[KP]

haha nah there is only one not in a folder. Check out the folder links near the top there are a few in each folder.

[cookie extreme]

throw your hydrometer away, especially if its a cheap and nasty lfs one. they are usually inaccurate so wont tell you alot. see if your lfs can test with their refractometer

i wonder how we managed all those years before the refractometer poped up. even if it is not spot on it doesn't really matter as long as it is stable and within the right range (1.020-1.027).

looking at the pic's of the corals shows that they are not struggling only parts are dying off which suggest some sort of warfare. its hard to tell why the others died over the years, but i guess he wouldn't be the only one that had losses. 8)

if you have good success with leathers and mushroom and your stony corals are not doing well then carbon may help you absorbing all the chemicals leathers emit into the water.

before adding kalkwasser please read up on it otherwise you can do more harm if added incorrectly.

i agree with chim on the levels regarding Ca,Mag and Alk if you want to keep lots of stonies as a water change will do bugger all in replacing them (some people still belive that a simple small WC will bring everthing back to perfect square one and thats not the case. if you stonies recede more than one option would be to give it to somebody else who keeps lots of stonies and see how they go.

[chimera]

looking at the pic's of the corals shows that they are not struggling only parts are dying off which suggest some sort of warfare

doh! didnt even notice photos posted :oops: i guess that helps with the diagnosis :lol:

before adding kalkwasser please read up on it otherwise you can do more harm if added incorrectly

definately, but as you should do with any additive

[Fay]

The coral in the photo is one I have and it has done the same thing, I thought it was because I moved it to high to the light and burnt it.

It is growing back very slowly. I moved it to the cube tank where it gets a bit of natural sun light ( when the sun b>> shines).

[wasp]

Looking at your pic, that kind of dieback is caused to brains quite easily, it can be lack of light, too much light, too much flow, attack from other corals. If it happened when under that leather it was likely shading or chemical attack.

Sometimes it can happen simply by repositioning the brain and not realising part of it is now in the shade.

I have read that once this happens they will never grow back, however, I bought one like that once, and over time it did grow back.