LPS peelings. Acans, and Welliso.

[MammothReefer]

I know this is a long shot, I consider myself to have a pretty good understanding of the needs of these corals, and causes of things but this one has me stumped.

I recently have found a number of my LPS all started peeling from the edges in ward. This is happening in both my Frag tank, and my display (different flow, different lighting). Which makes me believe it's not related to flow or lighting. Frag tank has very low flow and Leds and the corals range between the directly under the leds and off to the sides. The display is high flow setup for sps and I only have a couple pieces in that tank as I had to move them to the frag tank when a fish was picking on them (5-6 months ago). The corals that are effected are placed in various locations there is no sand in the frag tank, nor any other critters minus a single sexy shrimp. The main LPS that appears to be effect are my Acan bowerbankis, where 3 out of 6 are showing signs of peeling or skin rescission. Out of my acans, I think 4 of 20 or so are showing signs of issues, and of my wellisos 1 of out of the 3 are showing issues, my biggest and oldest one, and it's peeling fast.

I first noticed it had switched from recession to peeling on Monday, the skeletons are white. I tried dipping them on friday in revive which has fixed the issue in the past but it has never been this wide spread. I have only added one acan in the past months of which I added on monday (bought it while I was out of town, so it can't be related to that as the issue was present prior to addition). All acans effected have been in my system for 8+ months. I feed them but I don't over do it I try to spot feed them once a week. My water parameters are pretty solid I am working out the kinds in my alk right now but I'm getting very minimal swings in the process. Like .1-.2 dkh a day max. (not enough to cause this issue).

What throws me for another loop is I had 1 bowerbanki recently recover from bleaching, and is thriving now, as are 3 acan frags I was having issues with before, a welliso that got stung is healed up and growing back, as is my only scoly which was on the verge of death is now back to 100%. My SPS are getting better and better each day seeing growth and colouration return (had a mag issue a couple months back) So the problem isn't universal I have some stuff thriving of the same species while others are falling apart (literally)

I typically do water changes weekly, I missed a couple weeks due to a salt/shipping issue but my paramters were solid during that time and I've since gotten back on track w/the changes. Everything in my tank is automated, all parmaters are tested for weekly, with alk right now daily.

Temp is kept between 76-78 (I found early on aussie corals don't do well in higher temps.)

Alk/Calc are dosed automatically as in Top off. Mag is dosed by hand when needed.

I run GFO/Carbon which I change out when I see my phosphates start to rise. It's the only thing I've changed in the past month or so but haven't seen any posts or chatter linking LPS tissue recission to Carbon/GFO. If anything it helps keep chemical warfare down, and phos due to feeding.


When I dipped everything in revive I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary coming off, just your usually bristle worms and starfish.

My welliso has lost about 15% of it's flesh at this point, and the worst bowerbanki about 2 polyps the rest are in the early stages. outside of maintaining the course and shooting for stability.. thoughts?

Here are my most recent "full test" paramters.

10/6/2011 - 22:15:00
Salinity 1.024 (usally keep my salinty @ 1.025 always calibrate before usage)
Calcium 410
Alk 8.624
Mag 1380
PH 8.05
Phosphates 0.03
Nitrates .2
Temp 76-78

Here is a link to my stats chart..

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...G12ZFhsTXBGTUFZellSWTZ3QkhiLVE&hl=en_US#gid=0

I'd really hate to loose this welliso it's by far my favorite piece in the tank. (I'd also hate to frag it and loose the perfect shape..but if it's my only choice I will.)

 

[philosophile]

Did you just recently change your GFO? The GFO dust might be irritating polyps...

 

[MammothReefer]

Did you just recently change your GFO? The GFO dust might be irritating polyps...

Thanks for the quick response.
I last I changed it about a month ago. When I change it, I do it by doing while doing a water change and drain the tank via cycling the waste water threw the new GFO and out to the waste bin so I usually run 10-15 gallons of water threw the GFO before it cycles back into the tank . I also run filter socks which I change weekly.

 

[philosophile]

Hmmm... No idea what would be causing it then...

So I'll offer the standard prescription... Do a few WCs back to back and hope for the best?

 

[slapshot]

Something must be picking on them. Check at night with a red light. That or you nitrate or phosphate kits are off. Those are the only three things that can cause that.

 

[MammothReefer]

Hmmm... No idea what would be causing it then...

So I'll offer the standard prescription... Do a few WCs back to back and hope for the best?

I'm in the midst of that now. Did a couple 2 days apart. I need to be careful though I don't want to send my SPS into a downward spiral.

Something must be picking on them. Check at night with a red light. That or you nitrate or phosphate kits are off. Those are the only three things that can cause that.

I would normally agree as that is what was happening which made me move the majority of SPS until the frag tank..but there is nothing in that tank. Just a sexy shrimp and the fact that it's happening to corals in both tanks makes it even more unlikely that a single thing is picking on them.

I did find something interesting today though when I got home I noticed the willso had been receding even more and at what appeared to be a quicker rate. So I figure at this point I have nothing to loose I can't frag it as there is no clean spot So I figured wth I'll give it a high dosage Revive dip for a longer period of time, when I did so I found this time a number of black flat worm looking things floating in the water. Unfortunately I had to dip it long/strong enough where now the coral is rather unhappy so I won't know if this was the cause until/if it bounces back. So I'm not sure if this is the infamous "black bugs" or what but they appeared to have the appearance of Red Planaria, or an isopod or something but smaller. If I see it start to bounce back now my next plan of action is to take all my LPS out of the display toss them in a temp tank and intercept that tank for 6 hours, then reveive it for another 10-15 mins @ the end of the intercept bath, but I need to make up a new batch of water for me to do this so.. hopefully the revive dip will slow the recession back long enough for me to intercept everything this weekend.

 

[MammothReefer]

meh no luck, still receding.

 

[impur]

I've had this EXACT problem off and on for a few years now. I don't know what causes it, or how to cure it. Each time i see it happening i've tried a new dip. I've tried Revive, TMPCC, Furan-2, Melafix, and finally interceptor. Interceptor seems to have the best effect, the peeling stops for a short time. I've noticed the acans I glue to rocks don't have the problem, while every single acan I have on the sand does.

It does not affect my favias or chalices. Only acans.

 

[greech]

I am not sure what a Wellsio is or if you meant Wellsophyllia but I am thinking you have a Symphyllia wilsoni...

From the few I have seen they seem to need a pretty low flow/low light area and they maintain their puffiness when they are well fed and tend to stay think when not.

If you suspect a pest, I would recommend the interceptor. I have read of Symphyllia out of Australia to sometime come with Australian black bugs which interceptor works well on but I would research that just to be sure.

The last time I had a problem with my LPS I found my SG was lower than I thought despite calibration. I did a 1/2 day interceptor bath for all my LPS just to be safe, brought up my SG to 1.025 and dosed a little Mg over the next few water changes to balance things back out. All my LPS took off again and have been doing great for the past 6+ months.

If you have shrimp or fish that steal food from corals (wrasses), you may find it helpful to put the coral in a bowl and target feed it. I have to do this with my scoly because my melenarus wrasse eats all of its food before the scoly can close up.

Beautiful coral BTW. Hope you get it healthy.

 

[Useful_Idiot]

I really hope you don't lose that one in the photo. I'm having a similar problem. Over the past 4 weeks a real slow recession on my lps. All my chalices and almost all my acans. Some I dipped in revive and are getting better while others were fine and starting to recede. No major changes I added one acan frag that was a single head cut that day and dipped before it went into my tank. They're getting a slime around the receding edge. I found a thread in the wine county reefers club were a couple people had attributed it to a dirty sandbed, cleaned it and everything got better. Reefbass even had his sps plumbed into the same system and they were ok, which is strange I would think they would react first and not do as well. I question if there's something I can't test for leaching out. My sps are ok. I've removed my sandbed both in the display and fuge slowly over the last 2 weeks and am waiting to see a change. If nothing gets worse I'm blaming the sand. My fault for not cleaning it. Or a bacterial infection. Most of the lps I've dipped since are holding steady. The last time I was having a problem I had a bad test kit giving a false reading. Good luck I hope you figure it out. Here's how they look.
the recession is on the edges of each individual polyp

the slime ring. this one is doing the worst, no help from the dip.

this chalice was lifting off the skeleton.