What is up w/ my Lobo & why do my SPS frags hate me?

[AnnetteG]

Anyone have any ideas about the Lobo? All the bubbles are gone today, I guess after moving everything around last night, must have disturbed them. But I still wonder what is causing the pointy bits on the lobo to be brown. I moved it back down to the bottom though, in case that is better. Any ideas?

 

[Amphiprion]

Anyone have any ideas about the Lobo? All the bubbles are gone today, I guess after moving everything around last night, must have disturbed them. But I still wonder what is causing the pointy bits on the lobo to be brown. I moved it back down to the bottom though, in case that is better. Any ideas?

Hi, how long have you had the lobo? What you are seeing is a general tissue recession that is fairly common when these corals are stressed. They have very pronounced septal teeth, so when recession starts or there is physical damage, these teeth will often protrude through the tissue. The brown and bubbles are the result of algal growth on the exposed skeletal portion--most likely some sort of cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, or both. My recommendation is to follow schigara's advice and carefully photoacclimate the coral and put it slightly higher flow (but not direct, as this can cause more tissue damage and expose more septal teeth). Feeding, if it will accept it, will also speed things along. Hope it recovers for you.

 

[AnnetteG]

I've had it for a month. When I got it, the teeth were already exposed, but weren't brown yet. I hope it comes back too. I'm just going to leave alone where it's at on bottom now and hope for the best. Some bits of the red coloring have gotten darker since I've had it, so I'm hopeful that's a good sign. Should I keep blasting the bubbles away once in a while? Since everything else seems to be going well with the tank, I really think it will get much better once I can change out all the bulbs next month. I think these "aging" bulbs that came with the fixture have probably caused more problems than anything. Just my theory though.