Help with coral problems

stros

New member
I have lost most of my corals from stn over the summer. I have not added any more until I could try to figure what was happening. I put 2 spongodes frags in to see if the problem was still happening. I have these pictures of one of the frags. As you can see it has bare streaks in the middle areas? Same problem I had over the summer. Eventually it would slowly progress and kill the whole frag. I have tried massive water changes, weekly water changes, revive dips, water parameters are Alk 8.5, calcium 400, po4 0, no2 .01, no3 2.2, mg 1188, k 236. It is a 180 gal tank with 50 gal sump.

Frontside

Frontside

backside
 
I'm sorry that I don't have anything constructive to offer, but I did want to say that sucks! Looks like a gorgeous tank with some great colonies. Hope you come up with an answer!
 
I have read that thread and that is my next move to siphon out all the sand. I only have a couple of inches in the tank so it will not be that bad to take out and replace. i do have some red cyno mainly on the sand bed.
 
Could this be AEFW? I have tried to see if there are eggs but do not see any? It seams strange to see this in the middle of the coral.
 
This my friend, sadly looks like a classic case of spiders.... I had the same issue 2 years ago, 1 night I noticed the little, no, tiny little destroyers. I'd be more than happy to share my experience if interested
 
I would like to here your experience! Can you eradicate them?

Eradicate?...:uzi:!! Sure, you can eradicate anything. If your willing to follow the proper steps. Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure at recommended dosage ceases their lives rather quickly, however IME I've felt safer going the full 15 min with the last 5 min blasting with a baster- coral, rock, whatever is in the solution.
First thing first tho, check corals about 30 min after display goes dark, small bright led flashlight, they are strictly nocturnal. Scan bases of corals very carefully, for the most part they are translucent sometimes take on the color of what they're eating
I'll get you a pic here shortly. It's important to verify what the problem is before making an attempt to find a solution
 
image.jpg

A macro pic, not mine, but its what I'd look for
 
I had very similar damage, and sure enough that was what I found. I've tried many times searching the web for info on them, there isn't much, especially in the hobby.
They are nocturnal, the males carry the egg sacks and the larvae, when they hatch the male releases them directly onto the host coral. Adults can and will travel to find new host. When snatching em up with tweezers be quick and precise, if you miss they like to jump into the water column. I had found them on many different things sps and lps.
I had treated my infestation like aefw, dipped, qt for 2 weeks, dip again and qt for another week, to let any stragglers in the display starve out, then back in display. Tall order when you have 40 someodd corals.
For your sake I hope this isn't the problem, but the sad thing is these little guys are so elusive, mine came from a lfs, I can only imagine how many other people have em and don't know. I learned the hard way to dip and qt everything I get
 
Sure does look like that coral has been eaten...now we got spiders eating our sps...as if AEFW's werent enough! :furious:
 
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