Corals melting!

[Bitcoin Reefer]

2.5year old 360g mixed reef.

Three coral experiencing serious issues, these coral were stable in tank for 1-2 years each.

Possible causes:

*Phosphate rose from .10ppm to .36 over 6 weeks, unsure why, but main guess is new Diamond Goby stirring up sand like crazy and releasing old waste that turned into phosphate. Phosphate is down to .10-.15 stabilized over a couple weeks with GFO, reduced feeding, and small amount of carbon dosing.

*Flatworms treated with flatworm eXit by Salifert. Green purple favia? was already dead before treatment, zoas looking weird and mangled before treatment, treatment seemed to go smoothly with no signs of stress by any corals except ricordia mushroom shrunk up until I turned UV and added carbon to remove medicine 30-60 minutes later after flatworms all died. The flatworms were clear, and not sure if they were hurting things too badly, but treated to be safe. I did notice the torch which just started meting today, and also an elegance coral were shrunken and weird for last couple months, I’m thinking maybe from flatworms.

*Salinity I just figured out today was at 1.0235 as my refractometer was not calibrated properly.

I’ve attached photos of the hammer, Zoa, and favia? That are having issues/dead/dying. I’ll post photos of healthy coral below. Oddly all 8 of my new Acros look amazing (had for about 1 month)

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Should I remove hammer or Zoas and dip? Or do you guys think it’s just fluctuations in phosphates and low salinity causing these issues?

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I have probably 60 other colonies of coral in the tank that are all fine also including 11+ species of SPS

 

[Troylee]

I’d guess salinity from what I read above.. how’s your nitrates?

 

[crazyfishmom]

2.5year old 360g mixed reef.

Three coral experiencing serious issues, these coral were stable in tank for 1-2 years each.

Possible causes:

*Phosphate rose from .10ppm to .36 over 6 weeks, unsure why, but main guess is new Diamond Goby stirring up sand like crazy and releasing old waste that turned into phosphate. Phosphate is down to .10-.15 stabilized over a couple weeks with GFO, reduced feeding, and small amount of carbon dosing.

*Flatworms treated with flatworm eXit by Salifert. Green purple favia? was already dead before treatment, zoas looking weird and mangled before treatment, treatment seemed to go smoothly with no signs of stress by any corals except ricordia mushroom shrunk up until I turned UV and added carbon to remove medicine 30-60 minutes later after flatworms all died. The flatworms were clear, and not sure if they were hurting things too badly, but treated to be safe. I did notice the torch which just started meting today, and also an elegance coral were shrunken and weird for last couple months, I’m thinking maybe from flatworms.

*Salinity I just figured out today was at 1.0235 as my refractometer was not calibrated properly.

I’ve attached photos of the hammer, Zoa, and favia? That are having issues/dead/dying. I’ll post photos of healthy coral below. Oddly all 8 of my new Acros look amazing (had for about 1 month)

So there’s a lot that is going on at the same time. My main thought is: get the salinity back to normal over the next couple of days.

What are alkalinity, calcium and magnesium like?

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Healthy corals.

 

[JGT]

Hammer has Bjd, remove and cut off the dead head.,Zoas can come back. Favia is a goner.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

So there’s a lot that is going on at the same time. My main thought is: get the salinity back to normal over the next couple of days.

What are alkalinity, calcium and magnesium like?

Alk 8.6 relatively stable, calcium 460 relatively stable, magnesium my test says 1150 ICP says 1300. Stable.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Hammer has Bjd, remove and cut off the dead head.,Zoas can come back. Favia is a goner.

Is bjd brown jelly disease, in this case caused by fluctuations or some disease I should be concerned about?

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I’d guess salinity from what I read above.. how’s your nitrates?

Nitrates 5.6ppm

 

[crazyfishmom]

Alk 8.6 relatively stable, calcium 460 relatively stable, magnesium my test says 1150 ICP says 1300. Stable.

I would say, frag the hammer and dip the remaining head if you want to try to save it. The zoas should be okay but they’ll likely take a few days if not weeks to go back to being happy. They’re great canary in the coal mine coral. Get that salinity back up, your other corals look great but I do worry that the salinity being down for a prolonged period of time might cause big issues down the line. Also, careful with GFO and fast drops.

 

[JGT]

Is bjd brown jelly disease, in this case caused by fluctuations or some disease I should be concerned about?

Yes. When conditions are not right or fluctuate greatly, Euphyllia will succumb to it.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Hammer has Bjd, remove and cut off the dead head.,Zoas can come back. Favia is a goner.

And ya Favia definitely gone. It died over about 1 week. The green borders started fading, then purple turned to white.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Yes. When conditions are not right or fluctuate greatly, Euphyllia will succumb to it.

Thanks!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Is bjd brown jelly disease, in this case caused by fluctuations or some disease I should be concerned about?

Normally a super stressed out coral that gets a bacterial infection from bacteria already in your tank. It can be contagious but I suspect that only because the corals were already stressed since healthy Coral that are thriving normally don’t come down with it.

 

[JGT]

Other head looks OK, so remove the bad head. I’d do it outside the tank do you don’t cause it to spread.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I spend so much time, even testing phosphate every single day for 2 weeks, I really fight hard for my tank, and after finally being somewhat stable for like 6 months (tank 2.5 years old) and 20 years of freshwater experience, crazy that I can still make mistakes like this. Didn’t expect Diamond goby to release so much nutrients. Didn’t expect refractometer to get so out of calibration. I think I’m going to buy one of the higher end digital salinity meters where you drop the drops in or whatever and it looks like a digital scale .

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Normally a super stressed out coral that gets a bacterial infection from bacteria already in your tank. It can be contagious but I suspect that only because the corals were already stressed since healthy Coral that are thriving normally don’t come down with it.

Thanks for the insights!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Other head looks OK, so remove the bad head. I’d do it outside the tank do you don’t cause it to spread.

Will do this now. Thank you!

 

[crazyfishmom]

I spend so much time, even testing phosphate every single day for 2 weeks, I really fight hard for my tank, and after finally being somewhat stable for like 6 months (tank 2.5 years old) and 20 years of freshwater experience, crazy that I can still make mistakes like this. Didn’t expect Diamond goby to release so much nutrients. Didn’t expect refractometer to get so out of calibration. I think I’m going to buy one of the higher end digital salinity meters where you drop the drops in or whatever and it looks like a digital scale .

The Hannah salinity meter is kind of awesome. I calibrate it every 2 months and it’s been an amazing upgrade to my reefing life.