Bacterial infections in coral?

luther1200

Premium Member
Hi, I have been having some problems with my SPS lately. While I did have a nutrient problem, I was wondering if it could also be an infection. I did notice a brown "puss like" substance on 1 of my LPS. I sucked it off with a turkey baster and it looked damaged. But it healed in a week or 2. I was thinking maybe my SPS are also being affected, and are just not hardy enough to fight it off like the LPS.

The other reason I think this (besides it affecting not just SPS) is that my PO4, and NO3 levels are now within acceptable range and I noticed a small white spot on 1 of my miilapora's today. It has all its polyps way out, except on the bottom where there is a small white spot. It started from a dead area that has been dead for a few months after some mushrooms got to close to it. But it had healed and started to grow over. Until I looked today and its starting to get bigger.

Could it still be showing negative affects from the recent poor water quality, even though its O.K. now? Or is it maybe a bacterial infection? The other reason I am suspicious is that through out the poor water quality this particular coral continued to thrive, and actually grew quite a bit.
 
The possibilities are numerous as to what is causing your problem. You may very well be correct. One could remove the coral in question and take a sample of the bad spot and culture it to see what grows. IMHO, I would cut out the bad areas if possible to help prevent any bacteria infection from spreading. Of course the bacterial spores can float in the water column and re-infest other areas and corals. Antibiotics can be bacterial specific, if it is a bacteria. It is possible it might be a fungus or virus also.
 
You could try using Erythromycin. I would pull the coral out and put it in a quarantine size tank and try it. Remove the infected parts. Treat it for a least two weeks.
 
It will take much more of the Erythromycin to treat the entire tank. Plus the antibiotic could have negative effects on your good bacteria in your system. A smaller tank will be less expensive and easier to get an even dose with antibiotics, especially over a two week period. In some cases you may to treat for a second two week dose. ;)
 
I have a 12 aquapod I could use. But it only has PC lighting. That wouldn't cut it for SPS. I could probably get a T5 fixture fairly cheap for that, would that work?
 
IMHO, for two weeks, compact fluorescents bought from Home Depot that work in regular sockets would be good enough. They sell a Natural Daylight bulb that has a 6500 K value. You could buy three for less than $20.00 and use them somewhere else when you get finished. I get good coralline algae growth from mine in a 40 gallon. ;)
 
What about the ones on there? Do you think they would be O.K. for 2 weeks? It has 2-27w PC's. 1 is a 6500k/10000k, the other is 420nm/460nm actinic.
 
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