stylophora, hystrix stripping

[heller792]

can some one help me please, i currently have a green stylophora any pink hystrix that is stripping and i really cant get to the source. I recently had a prob with aefw and after treating the corals i added some dancing shrimp to keep ontop of the problem, these have been removed now as i thought these might be eating the polyps but the problem is still there. I used to run the tank as a zeo tank but stopped due to the tank having a display dsb and ive never had any no3 or phos on salifert kits so i didnt see the point of continuing it as i always had great colours and growth without it.

Here are some pics of the tank and the corals that are effected

heres the tank

heres the stylophora but ive cut all the dead branches away, you can see the stripping at the bottom

heres what it used to look like

heres the hystrix and what it used to look like

the only other coral to strip is one that has been stripping for months (maybe 6 ) i put this down to the aefw as there was loads of them on it but now there is none on and it continues to strip

i did find a bumbul bee snail on it very early hours of this morning and have currently sumped it. The stylohora and hystrix were not dipped as part of the aefw treatmen as i only dipped the acros.

PLEASE help, ive had enough

Dave

 

[heller792]

results just taken
no4 0
no3 0
phos 0
mag 1440
alk 8.3 dkh
cal 470
salinity 1.026

flow is done with 2x mp40es and return is or3500, skimmer is a hydor perforer which is good for a 900l heavy stocked tank, mine is 400l under stocked. I run carbon and used to run cheato is the sump with a 125 grow light but it kept growing then buning itself out and exhausting all nutrients so stopped doing that. Ive checked to see if there is any current running throught the tank but its just a little from all the individual equipment.The acros, montiporas (plate and encrusting are all growing and colouring at a great rate and my Acropora valida which went white from being on zeo has returned back to full health and fantastic purple with bright green polyps. I will take some other coral pics now and post so you can see what i mean.

Dave

 

[smtank]

Curious how close in proximity are these corals to one another ?

Very nice tank BTW.

The Valida does not appear to be suffering from the same issue as the others, could be wrong.

 

[heller792]

thats not the coral i would call valadia, here are my other corals which i think are doing fine, stange how it just seems to be effecting corlas simlar to hystrix in polyp definition.

hope you guys can see something obvious cause its really getting me own.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Maybe try dipping and basting those corals to see if anything comes off.

 

[heller792]

think i may of got to the bottom of the problem, while cutting the dead branches away i found a couple of these starfish in the bases. looks like these or similar.
http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

heres my coral

 

[smtank]

WoW and more WOW, interesting ( unfortunate for the corals ) but interesting. I have never seen that particular type of starfish and it really makes sense. They are very selective eaters.

Good eye and good find.