Loosing large SPS colonies
 

Had a great run from Sept till April. Lots of growth to the point I sold and culled a bunch of unwanted colonies.

Since spring I've lost two mature, large colonies (valida and red convexa). I've had both for 4 years and have been through heat waves and less than ideal conditions. Now a third colony (blue turaki) is looking stressed and time will tell if it makes it. All parameters have been stable.

My gut instinct is that this is due to temperature swings as my tank got up to 84 degrees 3-4 weeks ago as the weather changed. But this happens every spring and the corals have always been fine. Any ideas?

My 150 swung from 79 to 89 most days during summer, never affected corals other than browning a bit. I suppose it depends on the species, but I wouldn't expect that this year vs last.

Checked for AEFW?

I'd check for flatworms. I recently bought some acro that had flatworms and it infected my tank. My acro's starting dying one by one and I couldn't figure it out until I took one out and dipped it and hundreds fell off. They are invisable when in your tank so you'd never know unless you dip.

These colonies can no longer be removed from the tank. None of my acro's can be :(

It could be AEFW. Interesting cause 2 months ago my melanarius wrasse passed away and then a month later I start loosing colonies. Thinking maybe the wrasse was keeping the AEFW in check. Maybe?

But then AEFW usually kill from the base up. My acro's are dying from the tip and receding to the base in all 3 affected colonies.

When I had them, the colonies would just start loosing color, then tissue. Cut a branch and dip it, see if anything comes off.

I've actually never seen a AEFW. What do I look for after dipping? I know they are clear or translucent but how do you'd identify them if they are almost invisible?

Google AEFW and hit images

And that wasn't meant to be rude , I could post a pic for you , but if you google it you'll find dozens of different pics in seconds that will not only show what they look like , but also what the bite marks and eggs look like as well.

Not rude at all. I ve seen pictures.

What I meant was what type of dish, color ect works best to see the clear AEFW. A white dish, or coloured dipping container?

Or am I over thinking this?

No bite marks or eggs that I can see through the front pane. Checking mostly the underside of the stressed colony but also the top.

I would almost guess its aefw, besides that there are asterina stars that will eat acros and red bugs. I would take out a colony out that's dying and dip it, if that's not possible than cut a good size frag off and dip that. In the mean time, purchase another wrasse and start blowing your acros with a turkey baster once a day. Its not gonna eliminate your problem but its should control it.

Other than that, the only thing could kill your acros from top down is Alk swings.

Good luck, fingers crossed its not aefw, but in case it is there are methods to get rid of them, don;t lose hope.

you will never be able to see unless you use a high power flash light at night and really really look close at the bottom for bit marks. Valida is a favorite so check those first.

Rich ... Thanks. My other 3 valida are in close proximity and are doing real good and thriving. I mean REAL good in every way (polyps, color and growth).

Just dipped a large 4+ inch multi-branched frag of the affected turaki. Nothing unusual after 10 minutes.

Been no alk swings so I am still looking for suggestions and still puzzled.

I love wrasses so I'll buy another melanarus wrasse on the weekend when I am at J&L. If they have 3-5 juv yellow coris wrasses I'll pick them up too for pest control. I've always wanted a herem so this is a good excuse.

Time to cross the fingers and hopefully Kien can throw a prayer into the prayer reactor for me!

Could you post some pics of affected colonies?

I wish. Tried many times but I've never figured out how to post pics on Canreef.

I permanently removed and dipped 2 super stressed colonies and no flatworms. Turaki is too big to remove but cuttings have had no flatworms when dipped today

Easy. Open a photobucket account and post the links.

This guys says he has an AEFW treatment if it is that. Pretty interesting thread.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2464227

Dipped frags of the affected corals and didn't see any flatworms so not gonna panic quite yet.

Gonna read that thread thou as I'm a bit out of the loop on in tank AEFW treatments.

i know u said water is stable but post ur parameters is nitrate or phosphate up at all ? Alk swings can cause this, nitrates can cause some colonies to be stressed and others look fine

I've never tested nitrates in 10+ years. Gonna start testing nitrates when Hanna releases a handheld colorimeter if it's affordable.

Phosphates are .06 on a Hanna. This is low for my tank as po4 is usually .08-.10 in my tank over the last 4 years.

You should probably test NO3. If it's steadily increased over the years, it could reach critical levels. PO4 is even a bit high IMO. I aim for 0.00, hoping to be under 0.03ppm. NO3, I aim for less than 1ppm

Hrm weird, is anything stinging them? I had two big colonies come close and ended up losing both to stn,

NO3 could be high as I haven't ever tested. I've always vinegar dosed to control nitrates but never tested. My aim has always been off on PO4 but corals have done well especially Sept-March with PO4 around .10. Tried gfo and fozdown but never been able to maintain PO4 in the "ideal" range.

This scare is gonna make me a better reefer as I've had a long lucky streak just doing large regular water changes. Just hope I don't loose anymore large colonies.

It's possible but these corals have been intertwined and criss-crossing for almost 2 yrs with no issues.

You may continue to lose them until you figure out why. Test anything you can. If you don't have a kit for NO3, drop by here with some water tomorrow night.

The steady rise in nitrates is what I'm battling now after really not testing it for like 2 years finally tested it and was presently surprised with decently high levels and started to notice high end acans and deep water acro just not looking as good ... maybe same thing for you?

Ok thanks. Not tomorrow but soon. Very soon

Nothing you've said led me to believe you had AEFW. It's definitely something to check for though.

How's flow? Have you increased it over the years as the corals have grown?

A picture says a thousand words. Please try again, it really isn't that difficult. Go to www.photobucket.com and upload your pictures there. Use the links provided on Photobucket to post them here.

I use Hanna for P04, but you don't need an expensive kit for N03. I just use API, and N03 shows up pretty well if it is present.

I think I may have the same problems as U. At first I thought it was aefw as well but it was not. I was having rtn on my sps. Mainly targeting my millis. I stopped dosing vinegar and vodka and that seemed to have stopped the rtn. My mag was a lil low at around 1050 so I dosed it up to 1350 currently and 2 more milli colony is starting to STN. I believe these problems r caused by stressing in changes of water chemistry but not sure. Try stopping ur carbon dosing n see what happens. Also what are ur parameters at?

Ya gonna grab a cheap api nitrate kit.

Write the date on it when you buy it and chuck it out in a year. IME, that's about when they start losing their accuracy. For $8, you can buy a new one every year. :D

So it's been a week. I was out of town and I am happy to report the large turaki colony looks better. By better I mean the tissue appears thicker and healthier. The tips that have died now have algae and it is slowly populating the dead areas.

Picked up a chiller (thanks Ryan). Bought a API nitrate test kit. I'm somewhere between 2-5 ppm for NO3. So not to bad but could be better. Test PO4 tomorrow and Alk/Ca.

Fwiw, tips seem to recover faster if you nip the dead ends off. NO3 looks good to me! I'd be more concerned about PO4 and alkalinity if NO3 is only in the 5 ppm range. :)