Help with receding candy cane coral
 

Happy New Year everyone!

Among a variety of other corals, I have 3 colonies (30 heads+) of candy canes. Over the past week, many candy canes in these colonies started receding and now each colony has 4-6 canes that almost completely lost their flesh. Some of the other canes started showing their white backbones too... It looks like the receding starts from the base of each cane. The colonies are not located next to each other...Other corals appear to be fine.

Parameters are 1.024 for salt (IO), 0 for nitrates, 380 calcium, 9 KH, and phosphates are at 0.1. It is a 29g biocube, with weekly water changes of 20%. Tank has been established for over 5 years with great growth.

What can possibly cause these canes lose their flesh and die?

Thanks for the help!!!

Hmm
 

Happy new years! Any new additions to the tank? Or sudden changes in temp or salinity?

Not that I know of. Both salinity and temp (81.5F) seem to be constant...

I attached a picture of the colony that seems to be affected the most...

Could one of your fish suddenly be developing a taste for candycane?

The aquarium currently has a clownfish and midas blenny (been there for 3 years) and a new cleaner shrimp (boxing day addition). The problems started before the adddition of the shrimp though.

Should I consider a Loguls dip? If so, what is the best practice for the dip?

Forgot to mention that around the same time that the receding begun, there was also a sudden outbreak of red slime. I used chemiclean to rid of it. I used it once before with no ill effects...

Anthony- the original candy cane actually came from you about 5 years ago :) I bought 2 heads back then of this neon green candy cane.

Chemiclean reduces O2, which reduces bacteria and on down the chain it goes
What other corals do you have that are unaffected ?

Have you checked the magnesium level lately. Also have you started to use a new batch of salt since this has started ?

2 open large (and 2 closed) brains, acans, frogspawn, torch, zoa, gsp, a few softies.

Come to think of it, I did notice that 2 heads of another euphylia coral died over the past couple of weeks. All the other ones seem to be fine. The non affected candy canes open up nicely too...

YES - for the new batch of salt. Just opened the new bucket 3 weeks ago which could coincide with when the problems bugun. Same IO salt though - could this be the problem???

yeah

I.O. is famous for how much their batches can vary.

Arghhh. has anyone tried their Reef Crystals line? should I switch to that? regular IO salt has worked well for me for many years now...

Hmmm
 

Though you said the problems started before you got the cleaner shrimp, I do remember mine ****ed all of my Lps off constatly

Amazing. Glad to hear. Now I'll have to trade you for a few heads cause I no longer have any left. I have some IO salt here if you want to try a water change. It's from the same batch I've been doing water changes with for a while, so it should be fine.

Anthony

From what I've read reef crystals have higher calcium and magnesium. Salt is designed for reefs. Also could it be your lighting?

Are any of your candy cane heads getting stung by sweeper tentacles from neighboring LPS? They come out at night, and can reach out pretty far sometimes.

I bought a bucket of Reef Crystlas - will give this a try. Measured Mg today and it was quite low - 1100. With weekly water changes, one would think that no dosing is requried (and this was the case in the past). However, perhaps the IO batch that I used over the past 3 weeks had low Mg.

As for the lights, I change the CF bulbs every 6 months and these ones are only 4 months old.

Also noticed today that a few other corals started receding, so whatever the problem is, it is systemwide-hopfully the new salt will help it.

Anthony, I will PM you.

Well, if it spreading to other corals, that is serious. Your sg is a little low at 1.024, although not sure if that is enough to cause a problem. Are you using a refractometer?

Calibrate refractometer if using one.

I use a good-old hydrometer.... Every now and then I bring it to the store to make sure the readings are correct...

Ooooo, invest in a refractometer and some cal solution
Great money spent for sure

There's your answer. Use another set of test kits (lfs, or a buddies) if you can.

+1 for sure, using 3 different hydrometers & even checking with the LFS, they were actually set around 1.030.

Thank you all for your input. Calibrated refractometer showed 1.025...

A quick update: did 2 20% water changes using reef crystals (on consecutive days), and changed the light bulbs just in case. No visible new tissue recession in non-trumpet corals. In fact, many of them opened more in the past 2 days than I've ever seen them before.

Candy canes seem to open quite a bit although tissue recession is still visible (not in all canes, but I have over 100 heads...). It definitely does not look like the trumpets with severe tissue necrosis will recover, but I am not sure if new trumpets are losing their tissue. I will probably do a 10% water change in a day or two...

Anything else that could possibly cause a quick tissue necrosis in a stable system? I don't think that I solved the mystery of what caused the quick tissue necrosis in the canes, but I think that the new salt might help it a little

Amonia, nitrite and nitrate are still at 0. pH=8.4, alkalinity=9 and calcium is at 400