Bubble keep on dying

[uwiik]

I am running coral wholesale and export facility in Jakarta - Indonesia.
I've been having trouble keeping bubble coral (plerogyra sinuosa) alive for extended period of time. Even when the water parameter is good enough to keep and grow delicate SPS. (Nitrate less than 5, nitrite 0, ca 390-410, po4 0.01-0.03, 9-11 dkh).
Bubble used to be hardy before, but over the last couple of years they all seems to be changing. Back in 2003 I could receive a badly damaged bubble and all i have to do is put it in low flow and low light area and it will recover in no time. Today's bubble could arrive in perfect condition, fully expanding for 2-6 weeks then they just starting to recede and slowly die while all the other LPS and SPS are doing just fine. What is wrong?? Any special method to keep this particular coral???

 

[redox]

any pics available?

 

[uwiik]

I'll take and post some pics on monday. Thank dude...

 

[fierceseaman]

where are they being gathered from? perhaps the environment that they are being collected from is much different than the classic bubble?

 

[airinhere]

Have you attempted a biopsy of a "healthy" specimen? Check for parasites, infections or abnormalities. If you can identify potential causes, you can try to make effective treatment.

 

[uwiik]

I'm getting bubbles from various location, every once in a while I still get 'hardy' bubble. The hardy one will open up and stay healthy even when i put it next to the 'weak' bubble. When it starting to recede sometimes is see brown curly string on the dying tissue. I've tried iodine dip, freshwater dip, antibiotic dip, putting sideways, inverted, low light low flow, medium light mild flow to no result, they just die. funny thing they never completely die, they expand fully for long time (2-6 weeks), perfectly healthy with no sign of stress whatsoever, then just recede, starting to rot and die but when there is only 10-30% healthy tissue left, the tissue recession just stop and the remaining 10-30% healthy tissue will do fine..for like forever...and it always happen after they do perfectly fine for quite some time. One of the fellow exporter in jakarta told me that it is related to high dKH. He told me that bubble coral cannot withstand high kh. It might b true since I maintained my farm's water parameter good enough to maintain SPS, but it just doesn't make sense. A fellow aquarist told me that kh have to be absolutely stable (high or low but stable), it sort of make sense, but my kh does not really swing, it only change a little when i perform water change. Based on previous experience bubble is a very hardy coral. What happen???? This case seems to be happen only to people who keep their water quiality SPS ready, since I have a friend who only keep cheap LPS with below optimum water quality and although his bubble loses its color it stays alive.....weird....