another brown jelly question.

[ryanman1321]

I recently added a coral that ruined my nano reef. Killed hundreds in lps. I have learned my lesson. I set up a quarentine tank for all new corals.
My question is, when its done running its course, and the last of my lps melts away, how long do i need to wait until it is safe to add more lps? How long do the protozoa threaten my new additions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Sadly there really is no way to test this at least from what I've read or heard.

Also Very Sadly... my Duncan Colony has been hit with Brown Jelly.

 

[ryanman1321]

So weeks? Months? Years? I mean, it cant persist forever. Should i out in a cheap lps in a couple weeks to see if it gets devoured or could that be a false positive of sorts? I dont want to try to save the ones I have i just need to know the lofe cycle of these things ect.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I have no idea, wish that I did. Like I said I lost a 23+ head Duncan to BJ and my newest one that I've had over 2 months just showed up with it. In my tank so far it seems to only affect Duncan's and wall corals that have been fragged. I just got a wall hammer that's never been fragged so I'll see how it goes. Have had it a few weeks and so far so good.

But I do think dosing iodine might be helpful in getting rid of it. Iodine kills the bacteria. So it just might work!

 

[organism]

Brown jelly isn't really a plague that spreads... It affects sick, damaged or unhealthy corals. It tends to happen to newly arrived colonies since they get damaged in bags during shipping, but in some cases if you have a situation where your water parameters are very off, using tap water, too much light, too little flow or something along those lines stressing the corals then it can spread to other corals as well. Basically it eating all of your LPS was most likely a symptom of something else that was going on in your tank that needs to be addressed before adding new corals.

For future reference when it appears on corals they a dip and moderate to strong water movement to blow off the dead tissue. I prefer Revive, but iodine or Furan will work too.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

In my case the reason my Duncans get the Brown jelly is my Cherub Angel likes to peck them on occasion and the Duncans can't handle it as well as other corals like the Euphyllia handle it well.

 

[rt67ghy]

I had four different hammer corals which were infected with BJD. After treating them two of them recovered from it, one died and one is currently undergoing treatment. The other corals in my tank were fine except a trachyphyllia radiata which was near an infected hammer. I dipped the brain once in iodine and thankfully it recovered. Obviously the bacteria and protozoa causing the BJD were and probably are still in the tank but aren't affecting the healthy corals. So, I agree with organism that they will only affect an unhealthy or damaged coral and I think there's probably no way to totally eliminate these from the tank.

 

[sde1500]

So as I am starting to scope out what corals I want to put in my tank, and the focus being on LPS, should I proactively dip every coral in iodine? I mean, I have no corals now, so would the iodine dip help in preventing BJD?

 

[rt67ghy]

It wouldn't be necessary to dip all the corals. Dipping euphyllias (hammers, torches, etc) may help to protect them since they are most susceptible to getting BJD especially when you first get it. I never proactively dipped my hammers and torches. I started dipping when I noticed a problem but in most cases it would be too late.