LPS melting away slowly

bigevill1

bigevill1

Big and Evil
So about 6 weeks ago a few of my smaller acan colonies and my big green welsphylla (spelling?) started to melt away. At first I didnt think anything of it, but a few weeks later when the rest of my acans, and most of my chalices started to receed I started looking for answers. All of my SPS are doing great, the fish and other inverts are doing great. Here are my params:

pH 7.9 to 8.1
salinity 1.026
Nitrate 5
ammonia 0
Alk 8
Ca 480
Temp 78-80


This is a 210 gallon tank lit with 3-250 watt MHs. 90% of my LPS that has died were in my tank for more than a year doing great before all of this started. I have lost $100s worth of acans already and now my price LPS the Big Evil Watermelon chalice is about 30-40% gone. I have read about the "Black bugs" and did my first treatment with interceptor saturday night, but things looked worse sunday morning. I dont see any bugs, but I really dont know what else could be doing this. Any suggestions on things to check would be great.

Thanks

Mike
 
I do have pepps, but the chalices are melting uniformly around from the base, and the acans that I moved out of my display into my connected frag tank (where there are no pepps) died as well. I do not have a mag test kit, I plan on getting one, but the last time I had somebody else check it (which was addmittedly months ago) it was 1460.

I was doseing Kent's tech M without a test kit earlier this summer to try to kill off some hair algea, but the only effect I saw on any corals at the time was that some of my montis lost some color. Could the mag coming back down cause my problems?
 
Verify your refractometer is calibrated if you are going to be running @ 1.026, and I ran into this issue and lost a scolymia in the process. My refractometer for some reason wants to return to where 1.029 displays @ 1.026 so I need to calibrate it before every usage.

Also verify your temps are correct. My ACJR probe got out of wack and my temp was running 2-3 degrees hotter then it should that can make really tick off lps (specially aussie stuff)
 
good point. I meant to get another thermo to double check that my AC jr probe wasnt off, and keep forgetting. I did double check the refractometer though. I recalibrated it, and I still have a hydrometer to check with as well just for quick checking.
 
Are you seeing necrosis of the tissue? Is it receding with a area of dying tissue at the base? This is a picture of my sick brain coral. You can see the leading edge where the tissue was slowly receding back. Started at the bottom and uniformly moved upward.

picture.php


I used Coral RX dip. One 15minute dip and the process stopped. My brain coral is now recovering. I also tried two dips of Lugol's solution but that had no effect. What ever it was, Coral RX treatment stopped tissue necrosis and my coral is looking much better
 
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What about your test kits? I heard about someone having a melting problems with his corals and his parameters were normal. He looked for bugs, nudi's etc... Nothing.

For whatever reason he bought a new calcium test and his reading was like 280 with the new kit. His old kit crapped out. He slowly brought his calcium up over the next 2 weeks or so and things began to perk up.
 
Good luck.
It worked for me. I've had that brain since the beginning of this hobby. My oldest piece and it has survived all my blunders and beginners errors. I really would been disappointed to have lost it. Don't know the cause, but CoralRX was the cure in my case.
 
I have a similar brain that was also the first coral I ever bought that has started to receed. I am just going to move all of my LPS into my frag tank tonight, take it offline from the main system and then treat the whole frag tank with Coral Rx. Hopefully I can get somebody from my local club to come help me as it will be a chore.
 
The instructions for CoralRX say do not add it to the aquarium. Treat each piece in a bucket and put back into the aquarium. Treat. Then Rinse in clean aquarium water. Then put back into aquarium.

Instruction is in Bold print!
 
yeah I know, thats why I am going to use my frag tank which has nothing in it right now. I will take it off line from the main tank and pull out the few snails in there. I do not have any rock, sand, fish, shrimp or anything in there. Once I am done treating I will empty the frag tank and clean it out before putting it back online.
 
I sounds like you may have a bacterial infection of some sort....I had 2 Acan Lords that were growing well then they started to slowly retract and began to show skeleton. I ended up dipping mine in Tropic's which is also an iodine base dip which should disinfect if the coral does in fact have a bacterial infection. This seemed to work so far for my 2 Acans and they seem to be slowly recovering.

P.S. you can use a small power head or a turkey baster in the dip container to help 'force' the iodine cleaner into the nicks and crannies of the coral during the dip to help better with the cleaning. good luck!
 
Ok, every LPS that I own except for a frogspawn that I could not get out of the tank got dipped in Coral Rx last night and this morning most of the acans actually look better. Of course it is too early to know if the problem is fixed, but I hope to see results in a few days.
 
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