Im loosing my big bubble and I don’t know what to do

gabrielquissak32 · May 13, 2024

Hey guys few weeks ago I got a very nice giant bubble from my lfs. Looked massive at the store. From the day I got it, it did well but never to the size it was at the store. Which is ok as I knew it would take time.
Althought in the last couple weeks a couple of my other corals started to struggle with some sort of brown/red algae which i now think is brown jelly disease. ive lost a toadstool and have 1 bubble and a goni frag infected. besides this big bubble that something is wrong but im not sure what it is. He is know barely opening and its base its fairly red/irritated. is there a coming back from here? so much time and money spent and id hate to loose this one.
Tank is 120g. 2 red sea 90s led. 2 red sea wave makers 45. ( bubble is down near the sand band where theres not much flow)
skimmer and filter socks for filtration.
parameters
ph 8.1
salinity 37ppt
mag 1400
calcium 520
nitrate 15
phos 0.2
amm 0.0
nitrite 0.2
alk 8.0
would love some insight as im so disheartened
Photos of before and after the bubble
Also included my smaller bubble, my Goni frag and my sps frag that is bleached. My hammers, torch and Dallas colony are doing great for now

tgrick · May 13, 2024

So this looks bacterial. I saved my bubble that was rotting away using Cipro. Do you have any available or can you get some? I placed my bubble in a 2.5 gallon tank, using ONLY an airstone, with an A80 light for a week. The bubble is healthy, with about 50% gone due to necrosis. So, let's 1st answer the question of Cipro. Can you get some?

gabrielquissak32 · May 13, 2024

Don’t think I can get cipro here in aus. Just with prescription

tgrick said:
So this looks bacterial. I saved my bubble that was rotting away using Cipro. Do you have any available or can you get some? I placed my bubble in a 2.5 gallon tank, using ONLY an airstone, with an A80 light for a week. The bubble is healthy, with about 50% gone due to necrosis. So, let's 1st answer the question of Cipro. Can you get some?

Pod_01 · May 13, 2024

gabrielquissak32 said:
salinity 37ppt
mag 1400
calcium 520

Salinity is elevated, 35 ppt is better value. Also Calcium is up there I run at 420…. Corals like stability and giving them multiple stressors doesn’t help long term.

The tank looks new, rocks are really clean so there might have been some swings in parameters. How stable are the PO4 and NO3 values? If PO4 bounces up and down that can really stress corals.

But I suspect your biggest issue is this:

gabrielquissak32 said:
bubble is down near the sand band where theres not much flow)

I am generally following philosophy that corals always need flow. Oceans water always moves and some corals have more or less flow but they always have flow.
Flow removes waste, since corals cannot move flow remover it or it will rot on them. Flow also brings food and fresh elements… If the water is not moving corals will deplete the surrounding water of everything and suffer.

As a reference I have Red Sea reefer 250 and I have 2 MP40 (going on random 60%) and two Maxspect gyre xf330 going at 70% Oscillating between left side and right side.

Here is picture of my GSP in the flow:

Some LPS:

Some SPS:

Also your pictures are very blue, I am fan of 14-15k light profile. Corals do need the other light spectrum.

So slowly change salinity, increase the flow and change your light spectrum.
Where I live I also have zero access to cipro, so I prefer reefing method that do not depend on it like make sure the basics are covered. Salinity, water changes, alk stability… try to get few pieces of live rock and put it in your sump or display to diversify bacteria population.

If you are starting out, I would suggest some easy to keep corals, GSP (on its own rock), devils hand coral, cheaper Zoas (don’t buy pest ones just cheaper it implies they grow well). Some chalices like Hollywood stunner: