Nutrients / Pest Troubles? [Pics]

[jonnybravo22]

Hello again.


Struggling with SPS. Wanted to get some feedback on the pictures below. I have a coral that I have been watching fade in color over about a month.

April 29




I went away for a few days and came back and the change was stark enough to notice it was very bad. I almost threw the coral out but then noticed it still had some brown pigment (assuming presence of zooxanthellae) so I kept it. Especially after taking the pictures, which to my eye actually make it look better than it did to the naked eye. It shows color that I didn't see. So I did some research and decided perhaps it was low nutrients in my system. Over next few weeks I feeed heavily, dosed amino acids, coral frenzy and oyster feast. I THINK that it improved (temporarily) and gained more zooxanthellae.

May 19









But now it has gone downhill again. Now there are only a few polyps left on the coral so it's not looking good.


May 29

 

[jonnybravo22]

All of this made me wonder what caused it to start going downhill. I began to wonder if there was a pest situation since the trouble began at the base of the coral, and then I saw this huge piece missing from another coral, and what looks like bite marks on another.

June 5





Not seeing any actual pests, I guessed AEFW, and so I treated with Flatworm Exit.

I did not notice ANY Flatworms in the system. The only thing I have seen to this point was this small critter. The black dot in the bare area of the coral where it has been stripped of tissue moves. I have a video of it but its slow moving and the pictures illustrate enough. See the dot move to the lower right from one pic to the next.





And the next day, the coral seems to be suffering from an unrelated issue causing RTN on the tips, and a green area emerging under the tissue?





Perhaps this is related to toxins post-dosing of flatworm exit, but I didnt see any flatworms so where's the dye-off to cause toxins?! I'm at a loss, just tossing out a line to see if anyone has any ideas. I'm doing a water change. Also I have barnacles EVERYWHERE. My system grows barnacles instead of coraline. I wish it didnt.

 

[fishguy597]

Flatworm exit is for planeria Flatworms not aefw. Check out the Bayer thread for dips. How stable are your pare meters and what are they?

 

[rovster]

On one of the pics there appears to be the tell tale faded circles at he base. Could be aefw.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Flatworm exit is for planeria Flatworms not aefw. Check out the Bayer thread for dips. How stable are your pare meters and what are they?

somehow missed that, thanks for letting me know.



cal - 420ppm (elos test kit; dose 2 part on dosing pumps)
alk - 9-10.5 dkh (hanna)
Salinity - 1.026 (refractometer, calibrated)
temp - 78- 81 (profilux probe)
phos - 0-0.12ppm (hanna test kit)

On one of the pics there appears to be the tell tale faded circles at he base. Could be aefw.

well that's at least encouraging to know i'm not crazy to suspect them. thanks.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Any other thoughts on what those pictures reveal? likely cause / condition of the coral with the green skeleton emerging under dissolving tissue?

I just did a treatment with Bayer; 1mL / cup for 10 minutes. Rinsed twice for additional 5 minutes per rinse. I am unsure if flatworms were found in the bucket after treatment. there are a lot of specs of something, but to the naked eye, and even under camera I was not able to determine if they are flatworms.

 

[jonnybravo22]

After finishing the Bayer dip, rinsing and returning the corals to the tank, I collected all the water I had used and dumped it into a single bucket, poured off what was just water, so I could see what came off the corals. At first glance, I felt like I was just looking at a bucket of clean water with a few specs of lint and not much else in the residue. I thought, "well, I was expecting a whole lot more than that. maybe AEFW are not in my system." I'm still not sure. After looking closer and taking some pictures with my macro lens, it does seem like "something" came off in the dipping, but I couldn't say what they are. They certainly dont look like the large AEFW I've seen in pictures. How micro can they be? Do you guys see anything in the autopsy photos below? What do you make of this?


<a href="http://s559.photobucket.com/user/jonny_bravo22/media/62daad27-d5b8-4e51-b772-9ca74b3741b5_zps33056a2f.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss35/jonny_bravo22/62daad27-d5b8-4e51-b772-9ca74b3741b5_zps33056a2f.jpg~original" border="0" width="100%" alt=" photo 62daad27-d5b8-4e51-b772-9ca74b3741b5_zps33056a2f.jpg"/></a>


<a href="http://s559.photobucket.com/user/jonny_bravo22/media/20140610-002_zps85d90375.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss35/jonny_bravo22/20140610-002_zps85d90375.jpg~original" border="0" width="100%" alt=" photo 20140610-002_zps85d90375.jpg"/></a>


<a href="http://s559.photobucket.com/user/jonny_bravo22/media/20140610-001_zpsaef14843.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss35/jonny_bravo22/20140610-001_zpsaef14843.jpg~original" border="0" width="100%" alt=" photo 20140610-001_zpsaef14843.jpg"/></a>

 

[gdemos]

while experts chime in on the evidence, it would seem advisable to continue the bayer dip with another round in 2-3 weeks if tissue begins to recover. thanks for the good pics and progress updates.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Hoping for any experts who can analyze the dipping residue

 

[xtlosx]

I just had a bunch of SPS recession recently which has since ceased, all due to... drumroll...

An ALK swing... I added a whole bunch of colonies from a buddy (he's upgrading tanks), I checked ALK daily, and it didn't move. I was surprised. So eventually (2 weeks of daily testing) I didn't do anything figure it was stable. Several days later things started receding, looked weird, so I tested.. Went from my normal 8.6-8.9 to 6.5!

Some corals had to be fragged as they about 90% died (frags are now living fine) and some died back a lot, but just stopped short of dying. So a heck of a spat of RTN.

Regardless, just my experience is keep an eye out for ALK swings. I have read downward swings are MUCH worse than upward swings. I still don't know why 2.5 weeks later my ALK swung down..... I would've thought it would happen within days.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Does anyone see AEFW in the pictures of the dip?

 

[gdemos]

the tupperware pics might suggest AEFW eggs, and if only one dip of bayer produced this and indeed they are AEFW eggs then the bayer did a great job but there is likely more propagating.

I cannot recall the source of the pics on this attachment, i believe it was on the forum, so apologies to the OP, but i held onto these pics because they are very well done. see attached and compare to what you saw on your pieces and after the dip...
<a href="http://s921.photobucket.com/user/gdemos1/media/Clipboard01_zpsb0597470.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad57/gdemos1/Clipboard01_zpsb0597470.jpg" border="0" alt="AEFW Eggs photo Clipboard01_zpsb0597470.jpg"/></a>

 

[dankreef]

I'd say the coral has bite marks on it for sure in the atinic pic. In the rinse its kind of hard to tell but they look like eggs almost. No scientist here. But I have seen bite marks before like that.

 

[Av8bluewater]

Use 10 ml Bayer per cup. Dip again and take a look. 1 ml per cup is not strong enough. Also use Baster or I use eye dropper to baste coral while in dip.

 

[KrazyOnetime]

Ya It was my understanding you had to scrape off egg clusters if you find them.

 

[jonnybravo22]

I never saw any eggs. Lost the coral a few days later. Still not clear what happened / if there were ever flatworms. The green coral that appeared to have bite marks has survived better than any other coral in the tank, it is currently doing fine - no evidence of any tissue loss anywhere.

 

[PaleHorse]

dumb question but whats your lighting?

 

[jonnybravo22]

250W MH + 4 T5s