Could this be reef bug? Corals dying with white patches

[thang45]

I was wondering if someone could help me out.

I have 90gal tank and currently keeping mostly SPS and LPS. 2-3 weeks ago I bought a Green Palau Nephthea and Fuji green toadstool coral. After 1 week some of my Acros are started to have white patches in the center, bleaching and colours are peeling off.

At this stage I have no clue if there are bugs in my tank or simply the new corals releases some toxic that my Acros doesn't like.

I have stopped using carbon for little over 2 months, and since found about this I added carbon.

What could have caused this? What steps should I take to diagnose this problem?

Here are my parameters.
Temp 78F
Calcium 430
Mag 1350
dKH 10.6
Nitrate 20 ppm (a bit high)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[seashark]

nitrates seem high, what's your po4 levels? also a picture would help

 

[Reefphile]

Signs of AEFW are off-white bloches/spots sps braches. One way to confirm for flat worms or bugs is to dip an infected acro into a Melafix or CoralRX solution and see what falls off the coral. BTW, I'm currently treating my tank for AEFW. All acros were taken out of the tank, dipped and placed in another tank. My tank will be acro free for 7 weeks to starve out AEFW. I believe this is the only known solution to treat the entire tank. Good luck,

 

[luvdiving]

Could be anything.a pic would really narrow it down.

 

[thang45]

nitrates seem high, what's your po4 levels? also a picture would help

I'm currently using phosphan 150, and level is 0.

Signs of AEFW are off-white bloches/spots sps braches. One way to confirm for flat worms or bugs is to dip an infected acro into a Melafix or CoralRX solution and see what falls off the coral. BTW, I'm currently treating my tank for AEFW. All acros were taken out of the tank, dipped and placed in another tank. My tank will be acro free for 7 weeks to starve out AEFW. I believe this is the only known solution to treat the entire tank. Good luck,

I took some corals out and use iodine dip or I have to use CoralRX? If I have worms I will definately try your method.

Could be anything.a pic would really narrow it down.

Anyways, I think I found some bugs living inside the coral. I have googled it but couldn't find anything. Here are some pictures and hopefully someone can identify it for me.

 

[thang45]

More pics.

 

[dots]

they look like vetrimid snails or feather dusters from what you are showing.

 

[OneReef]

Could the addition of the leathers/toadstool have caused problems? They play chemical warfare with SPS.....

 

[thang45]

they look like vetrimid snails or feather dusters from what you are showing.

Well I hope they are harmless. I cannot find any worms. I'm getting nervous because I have a lot of SPS. Is Green Palau Nephthea safe to have?

Could the addition of the leathers/toadstool have caused problems? They play chemical warfare with SPS.....

Do you guys keep a mixture of soft and hard corals? I added carbon, hopefully the others corals will be ok.

 

[smp]

Thang, I agree that those look like some kind of vermatid snail. I have never seen them growing right on SPS coral like that. Noticing them doesn't mean that they are what is causing the problem however, you may have always had them and only noticed now. Are they growing on the dead spots? Ie; is there a correlation between where these things are and where the die-off is happening?

As you saw in my tank, those softies (and others) did fine with the few SPS I had. That doesn't mean that all SPS are ok with them though. Is this happening to _all_ of your SPS or just a few? How is the pink Millie you got off of me doing? If it is struggling then it's not the leathers as that same coral is doing fine in my tank....
FYI, I haven't run any carbon in a long time but I used to. My tank was better off when I did.

 

[smp]

Also, post pictures of your corals.

 

[thang45]

Thang, I agree that those look like some kind of vermatid snail. I have never seen them growing right on SPS coral like that. Noticing them doesn't mean that they are what is causing the problem however, you may have always had them and only noticed now. Are they growing on the dead spots? Ie; is there a correlation between where these things are and where the die-off is happening?

As you saw in my tank, those softies (and others) did fine with the few SPS I had. That doesn't mean that all SPS are ok with them though. Is this happening to _all_ of your SPS or just a few? How is the pink Millie you got off of me doing? If it is struggling then it's not the leathers as that same coral is doing fine in my tank....
FYI, I haven't run any carbon in a long time but I used to. My tank was better off when I did.

I think are right, its properly there all along but I didn't noticed it.

I think OneReef is right about chemical warfare with SPS. I think the only option now is to take the leather out, I hope I'm not too late.

BTW, does purple xenia release toxic that could kill sps?