Wayne Sallee wrote on Wed, 25 Jul 2007:
First, it's recommended that you fragment your corals so that you have
several colonies, so that if something happens to one, you still have the
other.

Yup, I agree completely. Done that many times in the past, which is why I've
always managed to regenerate my lost colony -- from my own frags -- in the
past.

It's still frustrating to watch a colony grow from a small frag to the size
of a loaf of bread in a year, and then watch it die in a couple of days.

I would recommend that you do several water changes, increase lighting for
the coral by replacing bulbs, adding more lighting, and/or raising the coral
up to a higher place in the tank.

Well, ok. I'm ashamed to admit that in this particular case, my lights are
about two years old (so probably should be replaced), and, while my usual
pattern is a monthly 10% water change, circumstances have made it to almost
two months this time since my last water change.

I'm not completely convinced that this "caused" my coral problem, but I'll
surely grant that it wouldn't hurt to replace the bulbs and do a water change.
(I've already got MH lighting, BTW.)

Also check to see if you need more water flow for the coral. They do need
good water flow. They usually do best when treated like acripora.

Yeah, I've got a lot of water flow. 192g display tank, Sequence Dart Reeflo
pump (3600GPH), going to three SCWDs, which then output to 12 return nozzles.

When I built the tank, I was originally hoping to put in a surge device.
That would have given me awesome random water flow. Never quite managed it,
though. But, for a tank without a separate surge box, I think the water flow
is probably as good as anybody's. I don't have a jet aimed directly at the
coral that died, but that rarely seems like a good idea anyway.

Yes when you get an infection in a coral with many polyps such as a small
polyp coral, cutting off the infected part by cutting where the colony is
still good, helps save the rest of the coral.

Yup, that's my experience too.

Just really tough to cut away enough, fast enough. Especially when the
infection gets to the base of the coral. The branches are pretty far apart,
but they all come together closely at the base. And once a base trunk starts
to go, nothing seems to prevent it eventually killing all the branches on that
trunk.

Very sad...

-- Don
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Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
Draw with crayon. Cut with an axe. Measure with a micrometer.