Mark's 150 gallon

[markalot]

I'd really like to know why the Jacquelineae browned out on the main piece but stayed colorful on the frag rack. :crazy1:

In trade for the slimer bits I got 4 medium size branch rocks, 2 acro frags, and a monti frag. Post dip they lost a bit of color but the source of both, at least in their halide tank, look fantastic.

Pink with a yellowish interior.

Multi colored with bluish tips and bright blue polyps.

When the Lokani browns a little I think it looks better.

 

[mhucasey]

You scored! That's an awesome trade! I love the pink with yellow, two of my favorite Acro colors!

 

[plyle02]

Mark,
Nice pick-ups man!!!
Tank is looking fantastic, and the corals are getting HUGE Hope all is well, and you and your family have an awesome year!
Perry

 

[markalot]

Hi Perry, thanks for the kind words, I hope you have an awesome 2016 as well.

So I think I have some kind of issue, and either these pods are a symptom or the cause and it's driving me batty.

Odd scratch marks, even bite marks, but they do not fit the pattern of AEFW. Bites are scattered, not concentrated. No large dead areas, no eggs, and I've dipped multiple corals multiple times over the past month with no worms found.

But these damn pods are everywhere!

pic links to full size

This first pic is a good example of the panic these issues cause. At first glance it appears to be AEFW bite marks, but look closer and you can see the skin is not missing but rather scuffed up. AEFW bite marks have smooth edges and the skin is gone. Also note the 10 or 15 pods hanging out on the coral.











This is a green digitata and it doesn't have as many pods but showing the same kind of stress.


Slimer showing no stress.

 

[khiann]

Mark's 150 gallon

Good luck mate. This is what i have keep mentioning in the forum about some kind of new sps eating super bug. I have no solution. I lost my whole tank of over 50 colonies due to them in less than 2 weeks. Bayer and typical coral dip does not seems to take them out. And they eat sps faster than aefw. . I tear the tank and sps free for 1 months and they are gone. U can try to find the egg which typically spread all over the sps. Not clustered like aefw. They eat ALL sps except birdnerst.

 

[reefmutt]

Posted on the other thread..
Scary stuff!!!
Double does interceptor and start adding wrasses.. Good luck!!!
I don't know what other options you have..
And make sure you can do 2 or 3 treatments of interceptor spread out over maybe 6 weeks..

 

[nemodan]

A 6 line wrasse ..... may be ?

Are we sure those are sooooo bad ? Or the corals are stressed due to your changes ?

 

[markalot]

A 6 line wrasse ..... may be ?

Are we sure those are sooooo bad ? Or the corals are stressed due to your changes ?

I have a 6 line.

I am not sure. I always suspect my fiddling too much and I am loathe to dose the tank with anything.

 

[reefmutt]

I have spent a considerable amount of time with a flashlight looking at a darkened tank and I have NEVER seen pods infest corals like this..
This is not normal... And they don't look like typical pods...
Mark, if it were me, I would be blaming the critters for the coral problems..
If you didn't have some corals looking absolutely fantastic and thriving then maybe I would second guess myself but some of your corals look so good and healthy, I just can't imagine that it's a water quality issue..

 

[plyle02]

Mark,
After closer look, and something I am yet to personally see myself, I see those large, presumably ampipods, all over the coral. Now, if there were dead tissue or dying tissue, that would make sense, but it does appear as though they are causing the problem, does not appear to be AEFW bite marks. Also, the slimer, know for sliming, is doing it's job by sliming up so much, that they are moving on to other corals, likely... Very weird, I could maybe take a night of this, and on to a larger dose of interceptor I go.... Let's see how they are the next night after you do that, little buggers....

 

[markalot]

Hmmm,

perhaps Flatworm Stop, which increases coral slime, might help? Do we even know if it actually increases slime though?

 

[mhucasey]

I looked at my reef in the middle of the night last night and those same amphiopods were swarming all over the rocks but I didn't see any on acros. I have seen them before on stressed acros. They may exacerbate an issue with the acros but I'm not convinced they are the cause of the issues.

 

[scrapz]

Did you pick up anything from aussie lately? I heard there were these super sps spiders that only come out at night and lived in revive dip overnight. Ive never seen them bur my buddy told me about these.

If its agressive pods, maybe try a interceptor tank treatment?

 

[nemodan]

Mark, I have been following your thread and I do not recall you mentioning this type of issue with your corals before. Am I wrong ?

If I am correct and you started to see this issue this week, could be there is a correlation with all your stones rearrangement.

I am not thinking now in the pods. I am thinking in the stressed corals and the pods are just opportunistic, taking advantage off....... sorry I don't know. Just trying to help and find an answer to this new issue.

Daniel

 

[Henry Colf]

Mark, what a rollercoaster read this thread is...
I would hold off on doing anything to your tank for a few days. I have to agree with Daniel, You just had your hands in the tank probably ****ed off your corals and the pods may just be opportunistic a holes. Give it a couple of days and let the corals cool down....
Just my two cents... Anyway great thread and will be following along....

 

[reefmutt]

I looked at my reef in the middle of the night last night and those same amphiopods were swarming all over the rocks but I didn't see any on acros. I have seen them before on stressed acros. They may exacerbate an issue with the acros but I'm not convinced they are the cause of the issues.

I don't believe that the common amphipods we see running around the reef at night look the same as these..
the common ones are sort of a half circle shape.. these look barrel shaped and flattened, like an armadillo.. like fleas..
nasty, irritating armadillo reef fleas!!
could you catch one and get a macro shot of it out of the tank?

 

[markalot]

Hey all, thanks for the comments and discussion.

Daniel, this started on the Lokani a few months ago.

I'm going to take the wise reef advice of ...

Don't just do something, stand there! :lol:

... and let it ride for a little while longer and observe. It's difficult not to panic but I have to remember that the nasuta had pods and bite marks all over it a month ago and now is healthy and brown with some color showing back up.

 

[markalot]

Top down spam here.

This is the nasuta, should be green with purple coralites and blue/ purple polyps. This browned 2 months ago, showing the scratches and bite marks but is now recovering. it would look better is some klutz didn't karate chop off 4 branches while working on the sandbed. :mad2:



My Red Robin showing one good branch, a good tip, and then disaster in the interior. Could this be bleaching? It has been covered with those pods at night.


My new Fundip Tenuis is doing fine. This time I refused to baby a tenuis and stuck it high up under 500+ PAR. Seemed to like it.


My "Kentucky Bluegrass" whatever it is also doing quite good.


I screwed up the focus on the Lokani but it still looks good.


And of course these aren't having any issues. I'd like to know why.

 

[markalot]

There is a slight oily sheen in the sump water this morning. I don;t remember ever seeing this before. Hopefully not a piece of equipment. No other drastic changes. KH usage continues to slowly climb so something is growing.

 

[markalot]

I see improvement, slow but sure improvement. I am fully prepared to nuke the tank with interceptor but I'm not doing anything unless I lose a coral, which so far has not happened.

I've changed the light cycle to be 7 hours of 4 bulbs and just 4 hours of all 6 bulbs, always an even mic of Coral and Blue bulbs.

I've backed the blue LED's back to 20% max while the T5's are on and 40% when not on. If things do not continue to improve the LED's go completely off for a while.

I'm still slowly rescaping so disturbances are still an issue and possible cause. Last night I took hammer and chisel to cleanly break the big purple stylo from it's polyp infested base. It worked, but it's damn hard to re-position huge corals. :facepalm: I didn't want to trim it down since the Chromis make it a home at night.