Lobophyllia problems - seeking advice

[oakleye]

I've had these two lobophilias for a couple of weeks now, and they were doing great initially. But three days back, one of them just shriveled up, and now the other one's done the same thing. I'm stumped. My water parameters seem fine, except for the alkalinity which dropped to 7. I'm re-dosing slowly to get it back up to 10, and I'll try to keep it there.

[zenoxa]

I'm not convinced those are Lobo's, to be honest. If your alkalinity is fluctuating like that, it's likely to stress them out. I mean, I've seen this before - when alk levels bounce around, it can make corals pretty grumpy.

[zeno9]

Lovely brain coral, gorgeous colors

[oakleye]

I still thought 7dkh was fine for them, so didn't consider alk the issue. Low flow and on the sand bed, could that be affecting them?

[sweetie_22]

Those look like Trachyphyllia to me - nice ones, too. They're known for their tissue inflation varying quite a bit, even daily, so it's not necessarily a cause for concern if they're occasionally deflated. If they stay deflated and you start seeing tissue recession, that's when you should worry.

A sand bed is fine for them. Low mag levels can also make Trachys a bit grumpy, in my experience.

[oakleye]

They're still deflated and I'm getting really worried now. I can see a white tip on one of them and it looks like it's dying. I'm at a loss as to what's causing the problem, I've checked my water parameters again and I'm still not sure what's going on.

[felinxo]

It's really tough once they get damaged like that. I had a similar experience with my acanthophyllia, had to give it away to a friend due to a flesh lesion. He's got very low flow and low lighting, and it's doing great under his care, his large polyp corals love it.