All my SPS are dead

[mayjong]

Exactly how are they dying?

receding at base, tips burning, flesh sloughing off, browning and bleaching!
it is affecting all sps, caps, monties,acros, millies,birdsnest....

all having different reactions, yet not limited to species (2 caps right next to each other, one bleaching, one browning- stuff like that)

mostly happening very slowly over the course of a couple months.
i've checked everything, new tests, salt,pinpoint fluid to check measurments, the whole bit.
it's a wasteland in my tank, only my largest colonies look like they might make it, all smaller colonies are going (just a matter of time)

i'm at a loss........
i've posted on sps forum with more detail, and it always comes to the same thing-how's your kh, hows your ca, hows your mg,hows your salinity, tds,po4,ect....i've checked it all...

just lucky ,i guess....

 

[Bamm Bamm]

sorry for your loss but $200 isn't crap when it comes to corals.. I came home from a weeklong business trip a few years ago and lost about $3000 worth of rare corals...

 

[dots]

Go back to the basics. Reduce your foods and supplements to only the absolute needed. Double your water change volume and frequency for a couple of months.

Triple check all your equipment and refrain from changing anything else until you prove something to be bad for sure.

Sometimes too much....is well, too much. Concentrate on your parameters, what you describe seems to run the gammet of SPS stress reactions and would start with Alkalinity and Salinity keeping them even more stable than you are currently......the basics. No additives supplements new corals as little as you can get away with.

Double check your temperatures, use a glass NIST thermometer to double check your readouts. (I know, I know, you have did that already......and so did I but did it myself too and it pulled out of a nosedive.)

In the end, if you keep SPS long enough....the little devils will kick you in the face three or four more times really good....its about that time it doesn't hurt so much loosing them....and you begin to get really, really, really, stubborn and refuse to fail.....that's when you figure it out and it all comes together.......or you go to mushrooms and softies and call it a day.....

Good luck, stay vigilant!!

 

[Brian Prestwood]

It looks like hoping for the best worked about as well as usual. I guess its back to the drawing board on that plan.

I was attributing the poor health of some of my acros to all the algae in my tank. The algae is mostly gone now and still some of my acros look bad so I decided to do a thorough inspection today. I found red bugs and AEFs.

The funny thing is that many of my acros look great and didn't have either. Wierd.

Most of my acros had a few red bugs. I ignored them. A few acros had a lot. I dipped them.

I turned all the circulation pumps off and all the lights on so I could see what came off when I blasted them with a turkey baster. I blasted all my acros.

In most cases the acros looked healthy and nothing came off.

In some cases the acros had denudded spots. In most cases when I blasted an acro with denudded patches several 1/2" long AEFs came flying off. Once they're off the coral they're easy to easy. When they're on the coral they are totally invisible.

I blasted a couple of acros with denudded patches that looked like AEF signs and nothing came off. I don't know what that means yet. I kinda hope it was AEFs. At least thats an explanation.

The red bugs are easy to deal with. A single large AEF can kill a small acro colony.

After I spotted the AEFs the first time about six months ago I started blasting all my acros at least once a week with a turkey baster. The AEF signs, i.e. denudded patches and fading, went away. That's when the algae problem got distracting. I guess I should have kept up the blasting.

I was hoping I dodged the AEF bullet by removing the source coral quickly. For now I'm going to get the afflicted acros healthy again with regular blasting and dipping if necessary. This will give me time to decide on a long term plan.

Taking the acros out for quarantine and/or dipping seems to be key to most pest control plans. Most of my corals are easy to remove. Some are not. I am going to remount them so they are easier to get out.

 

[Underwaterparadise]

IMO I think it's Water Quality VS Pest. I have never seen a post with your tank prameters or what Test kits you use other than to say " my water is fine" That is way too general of a statement. I recently had issues with my tank and lot's of testing and good husbandry has got me back on the right track. I even took my water to 3 different stores and had it tested.

If you QT's a coral for over a month and never seen any issues/pest during QT and are dipping them as well than the issue is in your tank all ready or it's water quality IMO, not the coral you bought.

Just my .02c

 

[Paulca916]

IMO I think it's Water Quality VS Pest. I have never seen a post with your tank prameters or what Test kits you use other than to say " my water is fine" That is way too general of a statement. I recently had issues with my tank and lot's of testing and good husbandry has got me back on the right track. I even took my water to 3 different stores and had it tested.

If you QT's a coral for over a month and never seen any issues/pest during QT and are dipping them as well than the issue is in your tank all ready or it's water quality IMO, not the coral you bought.

Just my .02c

+1 Very valid statement.
Pretty much what I was thinking also.
Another .02 cent's

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Rob & Paul

Like I said on my first post (rant, sermon) on this thread, I agree, IMO, pests get blamed for a lot of the dirty work that poor water quality is doing.

Last I spoke with him, Mark (mpoletti) his erradication effort was successful at eliminating AEFs. If he hasn't had any relapses I'm probably going to go that route myself. The good news is that the AEF treatment will eradicate the red bugs too so I don't have to get all my crustaceans out.

With any luck, I won't have any obligate acropora pests that are willing to switch to something else while the acros are out of the tank.

 

[Paulca916]

I wish I wasnt so busy Brian I was going to ask to come see the damage first hand so I know what to look for.

LMK how Mark's efforts came out I was thinking of treating my tank RB's just to be safe.

Bummer is I just added a bunch (12) of emerald crabs and a dozen peppermint shrimp along with about 200 snails.

I realize some of them make it but then some dont.

I havent seen any RB"s for a good 5 months and have never had AEFW to my knowledge.

 

[Underwaterparadise]

FWIW I have RB treated on 4 different occasions and only lost 1 cleaner shrimp out of all of them. It did wipe out the pods and such

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Hey Paul

You're welcome to come by and check it out. I'll be home tonight. I have to warn you I'm recovering from a pretty nasty cold.

The AEFs prefer the fury acros, more meat less bone. I have a mille that survived the crash of 2010. It grows like mad for about six then dies off to the base. Its done that like four times. I'm beginning to suspect it was AEFs. I've got two fury acros in that died off state now. There were no AEFs on them.

Hey Rob

I've done two red bug treatments. The first time I lost one cleaner shrimp. The 2nd time, a few months later, the remaining two died.

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

So what's the treatment? Anything eat them? I've never seen them but then you say they're invisible so who knows?

 

[Underwaterparadise]

Only treatment I know of is Lavamasil dips, strong Revive dips work as well.

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

Lamisil the antifungal? That's all Google gives me back.

 

[Underwaterparadise]

Nah, it's a Pig dewormer . I spelled it wrong Levamisole

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

Interesting. At least it's easy to get unlike Interceptor. If you dip some SPS in this stuff, you see the flatworms or they're still extremely clear? Turn flow off + turkey baster = visible when floating around? I'm confused about how to check for these.

 

[Underwaterparadise]

To check for them people take a Turkey baster and blow the crap out of the acros with it to see if any flatworms come flying off. Whether you need to turn the flow off or not would depend on the amount of flow in the tank. If you see anything fly off try to catch it and put it in a bowl for observation. if nothing comes off and the acro is fairly small you are probably OK. The usually hang around the bas of the coral and most acros are less colorful at the base due to lack of ight so they get looked over all the time.

 

[Paulca916]

Hey Paul

You're welcome to come by and check it out. I'll be home tonight. I have to warn you I'm recovering from a pretty nasty cold.

Thanks Brian I have been meaning to stop by anyway to check out how things are going on your tank.
I will see what the weather is going to do looks like its clearing up I will give you a call either way.

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Ron

Here's what I've gathered.

A newly hatched AEF can lay eggs in about seven days.
A AEF egg takes about two weeks to hatch.
It takes about four weeks for an adult AEF to starve to death.

I could have some of these durations wrong. I'd double check them.

To get them out of your display tank you have to remove all their food long enough for them to starve them to death. That requires putting all your acros into a Q tank for at least four weeks. Be sure to scrap off any encrusted acro pieces. Six weeks is probably better.

Dip the corals before you put them in the Q tank. It sounds like Levamisole is just one of several dips that kills the adults. Nothing kills the eggs.

The acros in the Q tank will have eggs in all stages of development. Some will hatch off immediately. Some will take the full two weeks. Newly hatched AEFs can lay eggs at seven days old.

To prevent re-infestation in the Q tank you have interupt their breeding cycle. In other words, you have to kill the newly hatched AEFs before they can lay more eggs. That requires dipping every five days for two weeks. For extra insurance go at least three.

If you kill all the adults before you put the acros in the Q tank then there shouldn't be any eggs in the Q tank itself. For extra insurance you can sterilize the tank with bleach every five days is too.

The trick is finding a dip that effectively kills the hatched AEFs and doesn't killl the acros with repeated applications.

Mark Poletti used this basic process. I've heard he documented it somewhere.