Aftermath of Brown Jelly Disease

kmwcane

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Sadly, as the result of some crazy alkalinity swings over a 5 day period when I improperly calibrated my dosing pumps, I had an outbreak of brown jelly disease ("BJD") that ended up killing four out of seven of my Euphyllia (2 torches, a frogspawn and a hammer). The BJD started on a torch and spread to the other torch - this happened about 4-5 days after I got the alkalinity stabilized. I tried my best to get the torches out once I knew it was BJD but I was probably too slow... and about 7 days after I removed the torches, my hammer coral, on the other side of the tank from the torches, succumbed to BJD as well. Finally, about 3 weeks later, one of my frogspawn that was in the vicinity of the hammer but touching, came down with BJD. It has now been 32 days since the last case of BJD on the frogspawn and my remaining Euphyllia are all doing well...

My questions are:
  1. Am I going to always be at risk for BJD to attack my Euphyllia even if my parameters are all stable and within the acceptable ranges?
  2. Hypothetically let us say that all of my Euphyllia end up perishing as a result of BJD - would I need to wait to add Euphyllia again? If so, how long?
  3. Do I need to be concerned with BJD spreading to other corals? I have zoas, acans, favia, monti's, etc.
Finally, for reference, my water parameters are as follows (and have been stable since the alkalinity swing disaster):

Salinity: 1.025
Temp. 78.5 to 78.8 Fahrenheit
Alk: 8.1
Calcium: 410
Mag: 1350
Nitrate: 3-5
Phos: 0.12

Thanks in advance for any help and please let me know if you need any more information about my tank.
 
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kmwcane

kmwcane

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Sadly, as the result of some crazy alkalinity swings over a 5 day period when I improperly calibrated my dosing pumps, I had an outbreak of brown jelly disease ("BJD") that ended up killing four out of seven of my Euphyllia (2 torches, a frogspawn and a hammer). The BJD started on a torch and spread to the other torch - this happened about 4-5 days after I got the alkalinity stabilized. I tried my best to get the torches out once I knew it was BJD but I was probably too slow... and about 7 days after I removed the torches, my hammer coral, on the other side of the tank from the torches, succumbed to BJD as well. Finally, about 3 weeks later, one of my frogspawn that was in the vicinity of the hammer but touching, came down with BJD. It has now been 32 days since the last case of BJD on the frogspawn and my remaining Euphyllia are all doing well...

My questions are:
  1. Am I going to always be at risk for BJD to attack my Euphyllia even if my parameters are all stable and within the acceptable ranges?
  2. Hypothetically let us say that all of my Euphyllia end up perishing as a result of BJD - would I need to wait to add Euphyllia again? If so, how long?
  3. Do I need to be concerned with BJD spreading to other corals? I have zoas, acans, favia, monti's, etc.
Finally, for reference, my water parameters are as follows (and have been stable since the alkalinity swing disaster):

Salinity: 1.025
Temp. 78.5 to 78.8 Fahrenheit
Alk: 8.1
Calcium: 410
Mag: 1350
Nitrate: 3-5
Phos: 0.12

Thanks in advance for any help and please let me know if you need any more information about my tank.
Does anyone have some thoughts? Thanks!
 

ReefJCB

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Following.

Just lost my trachy 4 days ago and 1 of my torches this morning. Just hearbreaking watching it and not being able to do anything to stop it.

Good luck! Really hoping it stops it’s apread
 

Pistondog

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I've lost 2 torches, 1 month apart with a dozen other euphyllia in the tank. In each case, there was stress, either from mechanical damage and/or my moving the coral. I think the root cause (bacteria?) Is always present, waiting for a weak, stressed coral to infect.
 

Timfish

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This can be very frustrating I've had the same tricolor frogspawn since the mid 90s and I will periodicly have brown jelly pop up. WHile it's usally associated with sudden temperature changes or alklinity swings like the OP it has shown up when there hasn't been any apparent stress event. This thread on Euphyllia and BJD might be of interest.
 

Dreaco

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I’d recommend a cipro treatment and or a chemi clean dose to the tank. There seems to be some good success coming from those options. There is a good thread on here about it.

 

NickCage007

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Some get lucky, and it just stops. Some dont.
I did every dip, treatment with furan, iodine, witch hazel, and still lost the majority of my collection back in october. One survived. Thats it. Just one. Of about 20 in a 50 gallon euphyllia tank.

I did find that after i installed a uv, it seemed to stop spreading, and it eventually stopped after consuming the last few hammers it got to.

There are dip write ups, they seem to help, but i have yet to see a difinitive solution.

Might also add. This one, was different than the bjd i saw first hand in the early 2ks. This one appeared more like polyp bailout from the outside. But decimated the insides all the same.
 

LegendaryCG

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I had it nearly kill off a candy cane coral colony. What I did was frag off the little
bit of tissue that looked healthy still and gave it a good dip in iodine and threw out the rest of the coral which smelled Like death. It has recovered quite well over the last year or so and I haven’t seen it come back.
 

ScottB

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Sadly, as the result of some crazy alkalinity swings over a 5 day period when I improperly calibrated my dosing pumps, I had an outbreak of brown jelly disease ("BJD") that ended up killing four out of seven of my Euphyllia (2 torches, a frogspawn and a hammer). The BJD started on a torch and spread to the other torch - this happened about 4-5 days after I got the alkalinity stabilized. I tried my best to get the torches out once I knew it was BJD but I was probably too slow... and about 7 days after I removed the torches, my hammer coral, on the other side of the tank from the torches, succumbed to BJD as well. Finally, about 3 weeks later, one of my frogspawn that was in the vicinity of the hammer but touching, came down with BJD. It has now been 32 days since the last case of BJD on the frogspawn and my remaining Euphyllia are all doing well...

My questions are:
  1. Am I going to always be at risk for BJD to attack my Euphyllia even if my parameters are all stable and within the acceptable ranges?
  2. Hypothetically let us say that all of my Euphyllia end up perishing as a result of BJD - would I need to wait to add Euphyllia again? If so, how long?
  3. Do I need to be concerned with BJD spreading to other corals? I have zoas, acans, favia, monti's, etc.
Finally, for reference, my water parameters are as follows (and have been stable since the alkalinity swing disaster):

Salinity: 1.025
Temp. 78.5 to 78.8 Fahrenheit
Alk: 8.1
Calcium: 410
Mag: 1350
Nitrate: 3-5
Phos: 0.12

Thanks in advance for any help and please let me know if you need any more information about my tank.

You pose the right questions and I don't have definitive answers. I have a belief that BJD is always around, kinda like dinos are always around. They just need the right conditions and a favorable host. While I cannot (today) see any BJD or dinos in my system, if I take a large scraping under a microscope I can find both. Dinos at 400X and BJD at 1000X.

So my advice would be to hold off on adding new (and therefor stressed, Euphyllia) until the population of BJD seems controlled.

And yes, BJD can feed on many other organisms if needed. Even coralline IME.
 
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kmwcane

kmwcane

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Thanks for all of the input, it has been very helpful! It makes sense that BJD is always around so my goal is to prevent the right conditions for a BJD attack from occurring.

My remaining Euphyllia are still doing well and my parameters have been stable so hopefully the BJD population is getting under control.
 

Kate Vellis

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You pose the right questions and I don't have definitive answers. I have a belief that BJD is always around, kinda like dinos are always around. They just need the right conditions and a favorable host. While I cannot (today) see any BJD or dinos in my system, if I take a large scraping under a microscope I can find both. Dinos at 400X and BJD at 1000X.

So my advice would be to hold off on adding new (and therefor stressed, Euphyllia) until the population of BJD seems controlled.

And yes, BJD can feed on many other organisms if needed. Even coralline IME.
Can you give me a good description of brown jelly disease? I had some sort of brown looking slime that seemed to cover the rocks in sheets and seemed to smother the corals and the mushrooms. I suctioned it off as much as possible and started running a protein skimmer. I even took some of the rocks out and scrubbed the stuff off. I have not seen it return since I have been running the skimmer. I don't know what it was.
 

ScottB

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Can you give me a good description of brown jelly disease? I had some sort of brown looking slime that seemed to cover the rocks in sheets and seemed to smother the corals and the mushrooms. I suctioned it off as much as possible and started running a protein skimmer. I even took some of the rocks out and scrubbed the stuff off. I have not seen it return since I have been running the skimmer. I don't know what it was.

Definitively, at 1000X this is what it looks like below. Naked eye it looks like brown slime or jelly that consumes recently deceased LPS flesh most often. But I have seen it eating dead coralline algae on the rock also on some occasions.

It is my OPINION and experience that it is more often an after-effect than a cause. It is my experience that a given LPS head once infected is a goner and should be removed ASAP. Then try to figure out what is stressing the system. But there are different opinions on this.
 

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cvicente

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IMO Brown Jelly Disease pathogens are ever present in the system, the same goes with many other parasites and pathogenic bacteria. These pathogens are opportunistic and take advantage of weakened or stressed corals. Stressed caused by big alkalinity swings seems to be species specific, affecting some corals more than others. In my system I experienced BJD out of nowhere when a doser emptied 500ml of bicarbonate solution and the alk went up from 9.5 to 16 dKH in a couple of hours. Eupyhillia glabrescens BJ first followed by some Gonioporas, then a few Acros (not tenuis). Once I managed to stabilize the alkalinity no more BJD.
 

Turd Ferguson

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I realize this is an old thread, although picked up on it as one of my torches has BJD and I was doing some internet sleuthing. I believe the onset of BJD is due to a large Alk swing 8.6 -> 5.6

I went on vacation last week and didn't add Kalk to the ATO. At the same time I ran out of two part so in the period of a 2 weeks it's a big swing but I'm no expert.

Going forward, I'll dose Kalk via a doser (at night to maintain pH), and get larger containers of 2 part.

Kinda ticks me off because I also recently lost my Acro colonies which were growing quite well. I attribute it to the addition of Vibrant. I had used it about 1 year ago although at the time didn't have too many SPS. This time round, it wiped them out, with the exception of plating and encrusting coral. That's my best guess anyway. :thinking-face:
 

zoomonster

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People have ranted and raved about the pros and cons of antibiotics in tank. After Losing several hammers, torches and frogs I popped ~$80 for a bottle of 100 500mg Cipro tablets. I have not lost a Euphy since and not had any issues with other corals or fish. Based on my tank volume I mix 2 tablets in 100ml of RO water and dose 10ml an day for 10 days at night and turn skimmer/ozone off until morning. Carbon is also removed during that time frame. Afterwards I do a water change, add carbon back and dose some bacteria (not convinced necessary). I have 3 new Euphy's coming on Friday and they will get dipped with CoralRX or Reef Primer and then soaked in a mix of Iodine, AB+ and Cipro most of the day.

I have also had a few vendors admit they run cipro 24x7 in LPS systems. Not particularly sure that is a good thing.
 

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