LPS STN - cant figure it out.

[bridun22ajl]

Hi,
I have had my tank set up for over 3 years.
I have a 30x30x18 - 70g cube.
I use ATI sunpower with 4 blue plus 1 coral plus and 1 purple. and a reefbrite blue.

Water is
Alk - 7.5
cal - 420
mg 1550
nitrate - 0
phos - 0

I have been keeping LPS for years and over the last 6 months I have lost almost over 30 acans and 20 something chalice, 2 scollys, and some hammers.

I can not figure out what the cause is but I have had many of these corals for a year long time- some even for 7 years.

They dont all go at once, its one by one. The tissue recedes from the bottom or outside edge and works its way to the center until it is gone.

I have tried dipping in coral RX. Is there something else I can dip with?

I do not believe anything is eating them. I feel like this is bacterial related - I have lost a couple acans to brown jelly, but the majority of them just slowly recede.

Thanks for your help and advice in trying to tackle this very frustrating issue.
~b

 

[drdavethedude]

Do you feed? I don't know what your tank's issue is, but I'm experiencing something similar. LPS corals that seem healthy, in my case for several months or a year or so (my tank is only 1.5 years old) and then slowly start to dwindle and recede. I contacted Bob Fenner on WWM with all my parameters and my problem and his guess was "starvation", even though I spot feed my corals once every week. Recommendation was to start spot feeding almost daily, which I've been doing. Too soon to tell if it's making a difference....but I'm hopeful. good luck.

 

[fishcraze_1]

I dip in Coral Revive. Have great success. Even bringing several pieces that looked like goners.

 

[Reef Frog]

That sounds bad. Some of the following ideas assume you fear losing your entire collection or rare/expensive corals and are willing to take educated risks, expend effort & funds. I also assume you've covered the basics like bad salinity readings, stray voltage, stinging, toxic softies etc. There may not be an easy answer & you may have to take a few stabs in the dark.

I wouldn't rule out animal parasites yet. Look under magnification at night & I mean observe several times at night, not a quick glance. Look for eggs. You may choose to dose or at least dip in Baysr or Interceptor equivalent. Read up & decide if full tank prophylactic treatment is warranted.

BACTERIAL: Clean the tank up if needed. Improve flow. Some have used UV or ozone but have zero experience. Decrease dissolved organics if they're excessive. Tune the skimmer & skim wet. GAC.

As skeleton appears, try cleaning it up right to receding tissue. Brush away debris, electric toothbrush can help. You can then apply peroxide, a drop of alcohol, anti fungal liquid etc. This is stressful so you may want to experiment on a low value piece first. Sounds stupid but I saved & turned around 2 scolys this way.

Are your problem acans & scolys ALL on the sand bed? I have a pet theory that the proximity to bacteria and/or other myriad harmful micro organisms is very likely IMO. You can dip again & put them on a Tupperware lid for example as a barrier. If things get better for your test cases, you could consider removing or replacing the sand bed.

Unknown irritants are possible. More water changes may help, maybe run poly filters in search of heavy metals & other junk.

I would consider putting some or all of my colonies in a GOOD QT system for an extended period. Escape whatever is getting at them & hopefully your fallow DT will self correct.

Well, there's a collection of ideas for you. I hope something there will work for you. I would be a shame to lose 3 years of work. Good luck.

 

[bridun22ajl]

Thanks for the help so far

I should mention a few other things.

The corals all accept food and have tentacles out at the appropriate times yet still continue to recede.

The acans and scoly are on the sand but I have chalice on the rocks.

I have moved corals to other tanks and still have the same issue.

I have 15 fish and a bubble king skimmer. The skimmer doesn't pull out a lot and I would say I feed pretty heavy. Going to keep adding fish as this skimmer maybe overkill but it is only a few weeks old.

Lastly. My sps and Zoa are doing fine.

 

[Reef Frog]

You didn't list your salinity reading. Do you trust your device & other test kit results? Something could be off but unknown to you if you're getting bad readings.

I'm still thinking parasites. They are hard to spot. If it was me and I was facing a total LPS loss, I might just consider a Bayer treatment as it is not reported to have bad side effects with most coral. My opinion only here...check out the threads & decide for yourself. I would definitely dip individual specimens, make sure the light & flow were right at a minimum. Good luck.

 

[bridun22ajl]

salinity is 1.025. with calibrated refract.

can anyone recommend the most up to date info on dipping with bayer?

 

[jfingers8]

How often are you doing water changes, and how much at a time? I had a similar problem for about 5 years and couldn't figure it out. My skimmer broke one day and all of a sudden my tank came to life. I was starving my tank. Water was to clean. This was in a 75 and doing 10 gallons a week. Not advising others to do this, but i don't run a skimmer in that tank anymore, and since then I haven't had any issues. By the way, my corals also ate when I spot fed them, but continued to recede.

 

[bridun22ajl]

im doing about 5-10g ever week also.

skimmer doesnt pull out a lot, its pretty clear. Like i said, I ahve about 15 fish in a 70g tank and i try to feed pretty heavy. I am going to add a bunch more fish and see if that helps too.

 

[jfingers8]

I wouldn't add more fish. I think 15 fish is more than enough in a 70. I would try doing water changes every 2 weeks instead of weekly and see if that helps. If your skimmer isn't pulling anything out with heavy feeding and 15 fish in a 70, that is a clear indication that your water is to clean and your LPS have no nutrients to feed on. Your probably starving your corals.

 

[All Delight]

Try dipping in tropic marin pro coral cure? I've had some success using this product in the past. It's a hit or miss tho, sometimes my acans and chalices react positively sometimes they continue to slowly die like you've described. I would encourage to dip every other day too.

Also, if it looks like it's going to keep receeding, I'll frag it up and try to salvage one row inside towards the healthy polyps. The ones near the infection I'll frag up too and sometimes a few of those will survive

I had one colony that I grew from 3 polyps to over 50 over the course of 4 years, I dipped and dipped and dipped for over a month and it continued. I didn't want to frag cause of the time I had invested in this colony, but finally I felt it came down to losing it entirely so I cut it up and I was able to save around 7 polyps. They are doing great now, so the road begins again.

Good luck I hope you're able to turn them around.

 

[Browndawg80]

I had a similar issue where several healthy SPS frags that were growing starting receding and at the same time i bought a couple nice acan lord colonies only to see them wilt away shortly after being introduced to the tank. All of my parameters were good and I spot fed my corals once or twice a week.

Flash forward and I find out the impeller in my mag 24 return had been broke for god knows how long and the magnets inside were completely rusted out and leaching into the system. Of course I also had a Dino problem so I ended up restarting the tank from scratch so I'm not sure if the rusty Impeller was the culprit or not but I believe it was since the corals that were showing good growth prior to the rust being discovered started deteriorating along with new introductions.

Not sure what kind of pumps you run or how big of a pain in the *** it may be to take them out and take them apart for inspection but it may be worth a shot.