SPS (Pocillipora) and possible STN... need guidance

[fluidimagery]

I love these long drawn out stories but I picked up a beautiful potter's angel at an LFS about a month ago. Shortly after I got it to start eating it developed a taste for my pocillipora... it left all the other SPS along in the tank. First I tried moving the 2 colonies he likes to a different part of the tank away from his normal swimming area. Within a few days he found them again, so I trapped him and brought him back to the LFS.

Unfortunately the angel took quite a few bites of the colonies and soon after the red pocillipora (sorry, not sure the actual type) started to bleach from the base up. Within a few days it was pretty much done for. I just coughed it up to the angel and the coral was just a cheapy. Now the past few days (the angel has been gone for 2 weeks) I've been noticing my favorite coral (green pocillipora) that I've grown from a frag over the past 3 years start to bleach as well from the base up... other than the chunks the angel had taken out.

I checked the tank parameters and alk was a little higher than normal at 11dkh and calc was a little low at 400 which I've adjusted the doser I have. Magnessium was also a little low at 1200. I've also been noticing a bit more algea than normal, all the other SPS look fairly normal.

I guess my question is... did the angel stress the coral and the tank parameters being out of whack put the coral over the edge? I did a large water change and what is left of the pocillipora looks good and I don't see the pieces breaking off that I did yesterday. The colony has so many branches it's going to make it very difficult to take any sizable frag to try to grow. Should I just leave it be or will it die if I don't do anything? Will the tissue regrow over the dead branches eventually?

pics:

 

[Bob 1000]

Frag it if it's not doing good to the point where you think it's going to die.. I was there in my Nurse Bob thread..

 

[fluidimagery]

I did a few phosphate tests with my hanna meter. Tank is .09 which would explain the excess algea. I run a phosban reactor and use 150g that I change about every 2 months. I tested the water coming out of that at .05. I just replaced the media (it was due tomorrow) it and took a reading after about 10 minutes of it running and it was still .05. What gives?

I'll take another reading tomorrow and see if it's better. I'd assume phosphate would be 0 coming out of the reactor if the media was brand new. Is rowaphos better than phosban?

 

[Bob 1000]

I only used Coralife phosphate remover when I use media...A half gallon of that stuff held my 280 gal. system to low for salifert to read, with 9 big fish.. For 3 months just sitting in the sump in a mesh bag on the bottom..

 

[reefman]

leave it alone. get your par in check n make sure it has good randon flow. your angel may have been pickin on it cause it was stn-ing. sps is more yummy to fishes when is dying. if conditions r right a poc will recover.

 

[Bob 1000]

leave it alone. get your par in check n make sure it has good randon flow. your angel may have been pickin on it cause it was stn-ing. sps is more yummy to fishes when is dying. if conditions r right a poc will recover.

Yes very true..

 

[fluidimagery]

Sounds good, I think I got a little carried away with the amount of fish too.

List:
1 2.5" Ocellaris
1 3/4" Ocellaris
1 2" Hippo Tang
4 Smaller Chromis
1 Chalk Bass
1 Midas Blenny
1 Purple Firefish
1 Solar Wrasse
2 Green Mandarin (mated pair)
2 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Emerald Crabs


Tank is 135g system