Panic Time! Need Some help! Acropora Spreading Death.

AKL1950

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Went on a 10 day trip to see family and found this when I came back. Whatever caused it, it has happened pretty quick. The center colony is a WWC Ice Breaker. Two weeks ago it was a beautiful pearly white colony. Very dead now. The rest of the tank looks fine. Just this one area and it is spreading outward from the center colony.

These corals have all been in the tank for a couple of years and have grown great. At a lose as to what is happening.

Any ideas or suggestions needed. If I have to, I can easily remove that entire rock from the tank. It’s just sitting on top without being glues down.

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AKL1950

AKL1950

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This was the area last month. Last picture now. The red coral is a WWC WOW and has been encrusting the entire rock. It had encrusted below the Ice Breaker completely. Could this just be a high level warfare among theses colonies? Most of the blackish dead area around the Ice Breaker is the encrusting WOW

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Sisterlimonpot

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Could be a number of things. I can't tell if it's a product of post processing of your photos but is there bryopsis on the rock?

If all the other corals look healthy, I wouldn't be too concerned with it.

Does the other corals look unusual? like their polyps are not out like normal? Color is a bit off?

Do you see any signs of pests? Egg sacks at the bases of acros? Red/white/black bugs scurrying around the newly skeletoned coral?

I've lost large healthy colonies like that with no real explanation while eeverything else survived. The one thing I'd suggest is unless you see cause for concern, don't make any drastic changes to disrupt the balance.
 
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AKL1950

AKL1950

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Could be a number of things. I can't tell if it's a product of post processing of your photos but is there bryopsis on the rock?

If all the other corals look healthy, I wouldn't be too concerned with it.

Does the other corals look unusual? like their polyps are not out like normal? Color is a bit off?

Do you see any signs of pests? Egg sacks at the bases of acros? Red/white/black bugs scurrying around the newly skeletoned coral?

I've lost large healthy colonies like that with no real explanation while eeverything else survived. The one thing I'd suggest is unless you see cause for concern, don't make any drastic changes to disrupt the balance.
Thanks for the feedback. This particular group of coral are all growing fast. I’ve had to constantly trim them back, because they keep stinging each other. Per your questions, no bryopsis, everything else in the tank appears healthy and growing and great polyp extension everywhere. I know the big red colony has been invading that entire area. My primary suspect is it finally killed the white Ice Breaker as it grew all underneath it. Could have made that area chemically toxic and caused a die back on all of them. My ICP from a month ago was fine.

As you say, I’m going to watch it and see if it continues to spread. If it does, I can take that entire rock out (it’s on top and not glued down) and dip it in potassium chloride. I have never seen bugs in the tank or on the corals, but you never know until you finally see them. If I find bugs I can frag off good areas of the colonies and sanitize the entire rock.

I have seen tanks where coral chemical warfare has gotten out of hand and to me, this looks like that. It does not look like what I have seen from an outbreak of flatworms or something else eating the Acro’s. Got my fingers crossed it’s not bugs.
 
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AKL1950

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Could be a number of things. I can't tell if it's a product of post processing of your photos but is there bryopsis on the rock?

If all the other corals look healthy, I wouldn't be too concerned with it.

Does the other corals look unusual? like their polyps are not out like normal? Color is a bit off?

Do you see any signs of pests? Egg sacks at the bases of acros? Red/white/black bugs scurrying around the newly skeletoned coral?

I've lost large healthy colonies like that with no real explanation while eeverything else survived. The one thing I'd suggest is unless you see cause for concern, don't make any drastic changes to disrupt the balance.
Got as close as I could to the areas that are dying. These are unedited photos taken with an orange filter. The little black dots are all around the area, but I cannot see any movement in them.

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Sisterlimonpot

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I have seen tanks where coral chemical warfare has gotten out of hand and to me, this looks like that.
It's quite possible. In my opinion, chemical warfare is primarily seen with lps.

I personally take the hands off approach and allow nature to take its course and I have 20-30 examples of sps corals growing into each other without the entire coral dying.

There's always a winner and loser, but in my experience where they touch, a boarder is established they simply start to grow againsteach other.

But the possibility remains, I'm not familiar with the ice breaker, it's lineage, it's total time in captivity. It's quite possible that it's one of those corals that is still developing a hardiness to captivity and with that, very susceptible to outside forces.
 
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AKL1950

AKL1950

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Could be a number of things. I can't tell if it's a product of post processing of your photos but is there bryopsis on the rock?

If all the other corals look healthy, I wouldn't be too concerned with it.

Does the other corals look unusual? like their polyps are not out like normal? Color is a bit off?

Do you see any signs of pests? Egg sacks at the bases of acros? Red/white/black bugs scurrying around the newly skeletoned coral?

I've lost large healthy colonies like that with no real explanation while eeverything else survived. The one thing I'd suggest is unless you see cause for concern, don't make any drastic changes to disrupt the balance.
Not looking good. I broke off some frags of the center dead coral. Best pictures I could get. I don’t know what they are, but I suspect they shouldn’t be there. eggs? And what kind?

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AKL1950

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Parameters and test kits?
Salt. 53.1. IO-RC
Ph. 8.24
Temp. 79.5-80.5
Alk. 8.2. Hanna, trident, Salifert
Cal. 420. Trident, Salifert
Mag. 1440. Trident, salifert
NO3. 15.5. Hanna
PO4. 0.15. Hanna

1% daily water changes
Last ICP last month showed slight elevation in some trace elements. I was using KZ 1234, but backed off to let things drop back down a bit.
 
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AKL1950

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I’m going to just sit here for a while and let all this soak in. For right now, I’m going to restart using KZ Flatworm stop. I had stopped because my iodine spiked. Got a big bottle of it. Take a few days to decide on different treatment options everyone has provided. I thought I had AEFWs about 6 months back. I was losing a lot of frags in one area. Through a lot of them away. Thought I had stopped it, but I guess not. Deep breath, think about it, and get ready for warfare.
 

billyocean

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They really like the smoother skin acros
...which is where it looks like they began
 

Sisterlimonpot

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Naw, those look like spirorbid or vermited. If you poke them with a metal object are they spongy or hard?

One thing to note is that they don't grow on live tissue, which suggests they attached after death, or you had some tissue necrosis and didn't know it... neither would've been the cause of death.
 

billyocean

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Naw, those look like spirorbid or vermited. If you poke them with a metal object are they spongy or hard?

One thing to note is that they don't grow on live tissue, which suggests they attached after death, or you had some tissue necrosis and didn't know it... neither would've been the cause of death.
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WalkerLovesTheOcean

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Not looking good. I broke off some frags of the center dead coral. Best pictures I could get. I don’t know what they are, but I suspect they shouldn’t be there. eggs? And what kind?

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I see spirobid worms, bubble algae and those black dots that I don't know what they are. No AEFW in these pictures but you definitely have them in other pictures.
 

Sisterlimonpot

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Ahh, you're honing in on the purplish oval shapes.

At 1st I dismissed that as new coralline growth... but quite possibly could be flat worms... easy to discern by someone who's in front of the tank... for sure.

A dip of the rock in KCI will tell a huge story.
 

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When was the last time you introduced mariculture frags colonies to the tank. A while back black bugs that looked like fw under a scope were coming in. Hope it's not them as they went through the tissue really quick.
 
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