I posted a thread here a couple months ago trying to figure out why I have been losing most of my LPS coral to some type of recession. This all started in late august early september. the most affected corals are acans and blastomussa welsis. but basically everything in the tank is receeding in some way. I have tried everything I can think of to find the problem and have not found any good answers. Here is my current question. 4 weeks ago I totally emptied the tank. I scrubbed every piece of live rock. and tropic marin dipped every coral. then I replaced 90 gallons of new water. (this is in a 120 gallon tank). Even though this was a very major risk I felt I was losing everything by this point anyway. a few days after the overhaul everything was looking much better, it was obvious that this helped the problem. the receeded areas had healed and were regrowing within the next two weeks. but now the corals have started receeding again. When this all started I had just added a 5 polyp piece of wild australian duncans. through this whole problem they have showed no stress or recesion infact they have double in size and polyp count. Is it at all possible that they could be releasing a toxin in the water? I know it is a strech, but Im running out of ideas. has anyone ever heard this or have any ideas? thanks for your help!
Duncan Question?
- Thread starter ironman2
- Start date
musty baby
New member
Why not pull the duncans, put them in a 5 gallon or something and see how everything else does?
I doubt that that would be the problem, but if it's on your mind that might be an option.
I doubt that that would be the problem, but if it's on your mind that might be an option.
Hypertek99
In Memoriam
You know something i too recently add duncans in my tank and now 3 of my micros are receeding also. Somethings fishy?? I'm going to move the micro's over to my frag tank with no Duncans and see what happens.
zeppelin
www.corareef.org
My duncan frags and mother colonies, and my acan lord frags and mother colonies are in the same system, and have been for several months with no ill effects to either. I do about a 10% water change every weekend, but nothing else special. I dont see the duncans doing any harm.
On a side note, have the lords been in the tank for awhile? Are they aussie? I have had recession on a few colonies, and in every case I found rotting black sponge in the rock under the acans when I fragged the colony to try and save it. The rotting sponge could cause water quality issues in general.
Blasto Wellsii are another story. They are just very tempremental. I have had colonies doing great for a year and just start downhill for no apparent reason. Can't offer any suggestions on those.
Good luck turning things around.
On a side note, have the lords been in the tank for awhile? Are they aussie? I have had recession on a few colonies, and in every case I found rotting black sponge in the rock under the acans when I fragged the colony to try and save it. The rotting sponge could cause water quality issues in general.
Blasto Wellsii are another story. They are just very tempremental. I have had colonies doing great for a year and just start downhill for no apparent reason. Can't offer any suggestions on those.
Good luck turning things around.
I have had most of the colonies for over a year and some longer. there was a mixture if aussie, non indo and japanese. I have gone from around 40 colonies of acans to now 3 colonies and several frags. I also lost 4 colonies of candy canes. my branching hammer and frogspawn colonies havent lost any heads yet but the tissue has receeded up the skeloten to withing an inch of the polyp.
I know there are alot of people out there with duncans, and alot of them keep them with there acans. I havent really heard anything negative about them, but the craze is fairly new to. Im wandering if there could be a certain species of duncan that can release some toxin? Maybe its rare for them to do it. or maybe they arnt doing it at all. There is another local guy here that has been in the hobby for along time to. He has a SPS dominated tank. he got 3 polpys of the same duncan. And his tank started crashing about 2 months ago. the acros just started fading color and then started to RTN. And this guy is no begginer so I dont think he was being careless with water paramiters. anyway it just seems alittle odd to me, I Am just hoping for someone to say they have heard of this! Its probly a dream.
So as to the comment about moving them to another tank, Im in the process of setting up a 9 gallon ano just for them. but it will take several weeks and probly another large water change to see if it helps. I dont know what else to do right now
I know there are alot of people out there with duncans, and alot of them keep them with there acans. I havent really heard anything negative about them, but the craze is fairly new to. Im wandering if there could be a certain species of duncan that can release some toxin? Maybe its rare for them to do it. or maybe they arnt doing it at all. There is another local guy here that has been in the hobby for along time to. He has a SPS dominated tank. he got 3 polpys of the same duncan. And his tank started crashing about 2 months ago. the acros just started fading color and then started to RTN. And this guy is no begginer so I dont think he was being careless with water paramiters. anyway it just seems alittle odd to me, I Am just hoping for someone to say they have heard of this! Its probly a dream.
So as to the comment about moving them to another tank, Im in the process of setting up a 9 gallon ano just for them. but it will take several weeks and probly another large water change to see if it helps. I dont know what else to do right now
maxalmon
New member
This is a little odd, I just started collecting Duncans a few months ago, started off with just a single polyp then added several more. and now they have grown to about 20 polyps. A few weeks ago one of my Lords started receding and I lost my pink polyp monti and a few others. Water changes, ran carbon etc....
For the life of me I couldn't figure it out, there were no changes to the frag tank, no new bulbs or any type of major or minor events that could have caused this. I finally ended up doing a 50% water change and things seemed to get better, that was a week ago.
I think you maybe onto something, now that you've brought this up, I can think back and almost see that there were some minor problems with some sps coloration, less extension...Only kink in this theory at least for my tank is that I also have some Lords (aussies) that are growing like crazy and my micros are also thriving, yet my other Lords are not growing.....very interesting
I'm going to send out a few emails to other reefers who have Duncans and see if there may be something going on.
For the life of me I couldn't figure it out, there were no changes to the frag tank, no new bulbs or any type of major or minor events that could have caused this. I finally ended up doing a 50% water change and things seemed to get better, that was a week ago.
I think you maybe onto something, now that you've brought this up, I can think back and almost see that there were some minor problems with some sps coloration, less extension...Only kink in this theory at least for my tank is that I also have some Lords (aussies) that are growing like crazy and my micros are also thriving, yet my other Lords are not growing.....very interesting
I'm going to send out a few emails to other reefers who have Duncans and see if there may be something going on.
Underwaterparadise
New member
What are your MG and CA levels? Strotium seems to have a big effect on Acans and micro's IME as well.
well it seems odd that there is now three people with duncans that have see recession after adding them. Im taking out my duncans tonight and my ro unit is currently making 75 gallons of water to do a large water change. Its worth a try, it will take two weeks at least to see if this cures the problem, and after a month If the recession still hasnt returned I think we may have found the problem.
Again Im not sure if duncans have anything to do with this, and I know there are alot of people out there with them. but maybe there is one certain species that is capable of releaseing a toxin. Please keep the ideas coming guys
Again Im not sure if duncans have anything to do with this, and I know there are alot of people out there with them. but maybe there is one certain species that is capable of releaseing a toxin. Please keep the ideas coming guys
