LPS Emergency!!!!

[TaNuki]

My neighbor has been out of town working on a start up business of his and his wife has been caring for the tank. She called me crying to come help her last night.

I got there and this is what I found:

Hammer Coral Disintegrating

Scoly's with holes:

Acan Dying:

Favia dying:

She said the Favia has been dying over the past ten days, but the rest of the corals were perfect on sunday and got like this basically over night. Tank is well cycled (3 years old).

I tested the parameters last night:
PH- 7.8 (So low)
Ca-350ppm (Low but not devastating I don't think)
Nitrate-10ppm (possibly because of the dying corals?)
Alkalinity- 3.3 Meq/L (9.2dKH)
PH- 7.8
Salinity- 1.024
magnesium 1340
Water Temp: 83.7!!!!!!

So after I tested the water my only guess is the temp is a huge factor? I told his wife I am no expert and all I could do is test the water and look for help. So don't worry I am not claiming to be anything I am not.

When I saw the temp that High I volunteered to get going on a water change as well. We changed about 15 gallons (65 gallon redsea max) and got the temp down to about 79. I shut down the heater and turned the ac to about 64 in the house as well. I talked to her today and the tank is at 76. The corals don't look any worse than they did yesterday.

Any ideas on what more can be done? Or maybe what caused this?

I would love to say it was the fish nipping, but they nor I have ever seen his fish get remotely interested in any of the corals? They are also all well fed.

Anyone?

 

[endlessblue]

Salinity is a little low also, but not enough to cause that. Why was the temp so high? What's the normal temp?

If the favia had already started to die, there maybe something eating it (parasite, hitchers, etc). It's possible it started on the favia laid eggs and now exploded.

Has anything been added into the tank in the last 2-3 weeks?

How often are the water changes?

Don't worry some of the corals may bounce back!

I'd take them out and dip them in coral Rx once for the next 3 days

 

[TaNuki]

He does a weekly 10% change I know. The temp was high because I think his wife forgot to monitor that maybe? So really I have no idea how long she has had it that high?

I know he added a small wrasse maybe a month or so ago for flat worms and a couple of scoly's. I guess I hadnt thought of that, but yeah hitch hikers and parasites seem to be what I would imagine. Even with those tears in the scolys and acan you think they may be able to make it? He had me throw the hammerspawn away when I sent him a picture of it. My guess is that may have been a good idea though.

 

[seapug]

Water temp is my guess. f the water was 83 degrees at night, it was probably over 85 when the lights were on during the day. I'd start by checking the heater. The nitrate and pH issues are likely a result of the decaying coral tissue.

 

[AGYDAL]

The Scoly looks chewed to me...I had a cowrie in my tank that I forgot about, till he got bigger and made his presence known when I looked at the tank one night after lights out and it was munching on my favorite LPS, his munch marks looked just like that...if it makes you feel any better the coral survived, I dipped it and then put it in a lower flow area.

Possibly the high temp altered something's diet that normally would feed during the day, maybe when the tank cools off at night that something's appetite comes back?

 

[firsttank]

I have gone through this and I can tell you its not parasite for sure.

This happened to me on two occasions:

1- When I did vodka and micro bacter dosing - The water was stripped extremely clean and I did not compensate with feeding. I immediately stopped it but lost two scolys to it.

2. I started a suphur nitrate reactor couple of weeks ago and started to see the same. My nitrates dropped to 0 and my lps reacted again. This time I lost a nice acan but caught it in time and started to feed 2-3 times a day.

Unfortunately once they start its very difficult to stop. I lost my scoly over night and the flesh just peeled off.

 

[johnnytmc]

Looks like some kind of bacteria outbreak in the tank, probably brown slime disease. Usually that would explain the corals can get wiped out so quickly. Did you notice brown slime/jelly covering the tissue? Maybe the temperature rise decreased oxygen level and that caused an increase in bacteria population. I would continue to do aggressive water changes, and running a UV sterilizer will help controlling it.

 

[ati70cutlass]

i had a death as well from brown jelly. however i ponder the thought of maybe the water is too clean. ive always found lps like the water a little dirty compared to sps. here is a pic of mine before it died months later. notice the exposed skeleton. it almost quadrupled in size when full puffed up.

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