LPS melting away
 

Help my lps corals are melting away very quickly Saturday night my torch coral melted away almost over night. Yesterday all looked good got home from work tonight my frogspawn has done the same thing. Water parameters are as follows Ammonia less then 0.1,nitrites show 0,nitrates 20, kh150,phosphates 0 or very close to it,calcium 440. I still have a bubble coral and an elegance that I don't want to lose. Any help greatly appreciated Larry

This might be a silly question, but what is your temp and salinity at?

temperature 78.6 salinity 1.025

One mistake I made is not feeding my LPS. Some can survive without target feeding but if you do they will be healthier. When they are only surviving on UV they aren't as healthy. If the LPS looked ok but really was borderline and exposed to RTN it might just be to much....

RTN in a tank isn't good and is known to spread quickly - hence the name...

If a coral is dying toss it - don't try to save it. Unless you can frag it to try to save it. Toss the RTN part!!!!

What is your Mg at ?

I target feed twice a week a small amount is there any way I can get a handle on this before losing all hate to say it but never really tested for mg should get a test kit I suppose

Yeah. I have had hammer and frogspawns loose heads due to low Mg. Also I believe that there is a strain of bacteria that can cause LPS issues.

Don't exceed daily max doses of Mg either as it can do damage as well.

KH 150? What test kit are you using, seems high. Natural seawater is 7-8 dKH or 2.5-2.9 meg/L according to my Salifert test kit.
A good idea to check your Mg level, but as mentioned if it's low bring it up slowly. I follow the reef calculator on the BRS site for al my levels. hope this helps.

150 is ppm , just multiply by 0.056 to get DKH. 150ppm = 8.4dkh

Flow? Lighting?.

if no containment and stable parameters lighting and flow would be my guess.
How old is the set up?

As far as flow have MP10 and two hydor power heads have coral and power heads situated so they sway steadily but not being torn apart. My lighting is leds they are full spectrum par 38 bulbs 4of them. The corals are about mid tank height tank is standard 90 gallon.

I had a peppermint shrimp that would munch on my lps at night and in the mornings they wud be melting away as well. Not sure if you have any peppermints but if you do keep you eye on it.

No peppermints in that tank not even questionable reef friendly fish. Could it be a bacterial infection of some kind if so is there any thing a person could treat tank with.

could be lighting - I assume the elegance is on the sand - were is the frogspawn located?

maybe lower all lps to the sand. or lower the intensity

Brown jelly disease is usually the infection your have to worry about the most. best thing to do is fresh water dip with some iodine or coralrx.

brown jelly usually occurs if the lps has been damaged or under fluctuating parameters causing stress.

Thanks Jess I was not aware of that method, I just go by the chart on my Selifert kit. Cheers Laurie

I find euphyllia really hard to keep happy over the long term. I have had a hammer start to recede in a tank with 10 other specimens that were all growing and happy. I took it out and put it in my frag tank, and the hammer came back and grew like a weed again. I am not sure what it was or wasn't getting in my DT. I now have a wall hammer that has been great for over a year start to recede and the trip to the frag tank has not halted its descent. They are just so picky. I almost think SPS are easier to keep happy over the long term.

Try iodine dips and keep your mg up. No direct flow and they don't need a lot of light. You will find that less light and flow brings them out of their skeleton a lot more. If they start to bleach, you have too much light. If the color is fine and they are retracting, try turning down the flow. If the actual tissue is receding from the skeleton, there is not much you can usually do especially if it's a wall.

Yes elegance is on the sand the torch and frogspawn were about mid tank would the lights make them dissolve that quick. Lights have been running since early December. The LEDs are 12 3 watt bulbs. The iodine dip can you just use regular iodine and mix at what strength

Lights don't tend to cause tissue recession in my experience. I have had a torch and hammer start to bleach on me under intense light. The stalks start to turn clear.

For an iodine dip. I use Lugol's and you can put 2-3 times the recommended in a separate container with some of your tank water for about 5 min and then back into your tank. No need really for a rinsing dip.

when was the last time you added a new coral to your tank?

Almost 2 months, my last coral to add was this first to start this destruction of my corals.

Update frogspawn is gone. Still no answers took water sample to local fish store basically same test results as myself. Did water change loaded up on carbon. Bubble was looking really bad yesterday not melting but barely expanded. Today its looking much better almost back to normal, elegance has shown no signs stress. Lets hope I have a handle this carnage. Larry

Alk me thinks.......

My tests show 150 ppm