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- Apr 20, 2019
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Hi everyone,
Back in January I noticed some Acans receding a bit from the edges of their colonies.
After that, I lost two hammers that just sort of withered away, a Hollywood Stunner colony lost a ton of tissue, and the Acans eventually lost all of their tissue. I also noticed some slight tissue recession on a sizeable Stylophora colony.
Fast forward to now, and I've now lost the Acans, Hammers, several Acro frags, and some good-sized Acro, Stylo, and Seriatopora colonies: probably about a third of my corals in total.
Now the plague is coming for my Duncan. This Duncan is about 6 years old, was one of my first corals, and it has been almost impossibly hardy, easily surviving every mistake I made as I took a crash course in taking reefing more seriously. Here's a picture of it this morning:
You can see some of the heads I've already lost, and I circled one that's on its way out. The skeleton below the head has brown goo on it that wiggles around in the flow. The only other coral I saw this on so clearly was the Stylophora.
I'm almost completely convinced I'm dealing with a bacterial and/or protazoal issue here, as I've watched the sickness spread from one coral to another.
Yesterday I performed a Coral RX and Iodine dip on the Duncan-just because I had some around-but I'm pretty sure it's not going to do anything. Iodine didn't help the Acans either.
I've been doing research and have seen some stuff on here about treating with Antibiotics.
This thread discusses dipping corals with Amoxicillin/Doxyciclyne
This one discusses whole tank treatment with Ciprofloxacin
I have Amoxycillin, Doxyciclyne, and Ciprofloxacin ordered and on the way and am currently trying to figure out how I want to go about this.
The thread I linked about brown jelly disease says Cipro may not be very effective against vibrio, and I don't have a way to rule out that vibrio is the cause of my issues.
Some reports about antibiotic dips say it's ineffective as you're just dumping the treated coral back into a pathogen-ridden tank.
Does anyone have any experience, and/or follow up questions that might help me devise a treatment plan here?
Since I'm sure someone will ask, here are my parameters:
Salinity: 1.024-1.026 (it's a small tank, so things like filter socks filling up and overflow teeth getting clogged in my fuge mess with salinity a touch
NO3: 5ppm (Salifert)
P04: 0.055ppm (Hanna ULR Phosphorus)
CA: 420 (Red Sea)
Alk: 8.6 DKH (Hanna)
MG: 1310 (Aquaforest)
PH: 8.2 (Peak daytime) 7.9 (Just before lights on)
Parameters wander here and there (again, small tank) but I haven't had any super crazy swings in over a year.
I also stopped all carbon/amino dosing out of fear that I was feeding the nasties.
The only coral that has survived once the tissue loss started is-annoyingly-the Hollywood Stunner pictured right of center here:
Thanks for looking. Hopefully I can get this under control.
Back in January I noticed some Acans receding a bit from the edges of their colonies.
After that, I lost two hammers that just sort of withered away, a Hollywood Stunner colony lost a ton of tissue, and the Acans eventually lost all of their tissue. I also noticed some slight tissue recession on a sizeable Stylophora colony.
Fast forward to now, and I've now lost the Acans, Hammers, several Acro frags, and some good-sized Acro, Stylo, and Seriatopora colonies: probably about a third of my corals in total.
Now the plague is coming for my Duncan. This Duncan is about 6 years old, was one of my first corals, and it has been almost impossibly hardy, easily surviving every mistake I made as I took a crash course in taking reefing more seriously. Here's a picture of it this morning:
You can see some of the heads I've already lost, and I circled one that's on its way out. The skeleton below the head has brown goo on it that wiggles around in the flow. The only other coral I saw this on so clearly was the Stylophora.
I'm almost completely convinced I'm dealing with a bacterial and/or protazoal issue here, as I've watched the sickness spread from one coral to another.
Yesterday I performed a Coral RX and Iodine dip on the Duncan-just because I had some around-but I'm pretty sure it's not going to do anything. Iodine didn't help the Acans either.
I've been doing research and have seen some stuff on here about treating with Antibiotics.
This thread discusses dipping corals with Amoxicillin/Doxyciclyne
My experiences treating rapid tissue necrosis in multiple SPS species with doxycycline and amoxicillin
Hello all, I'm sure a lot of you who keep SPS have heard about the study and claims that rapid/sudden tissue necrosis (RTN/STN) is being caused (or at least assisted by) vibrio harveyi. If you haven't I suggest giving it a look as it has some pretty interesting information and could potentially...
www.reef2reef.com
This one discusses whole tank treatment with Ciprofloxacin
Experimenting with in-tank antibiotic treatments for Brown Jelly Disease
Brown Jelly Disease (BJD) is an issue many reefers have run into. Like most coral diseases, the pathogen causing BJD has not been conclusively determined. Here I will share some observations and test results supporting the idea that its caused by a bacterial pathogen, and so may be treatable...
www.reef2reef.com
I have Amoxycillin, Doxyciclyne, and Ciprofloxacin ordered and on the way and am currently trying to figure out how I want to go about this.
The thread I linked about brown jelly disease says Cipro may not be very effective against vibrio, and I don't have a way to rule out that vibrio is the cause of my issues.
Some reports about antibiotic dips say it's ineffective as you're just dumping the treated coral back into a pathogen-ridden tank.
Does anyone have any experience, and/or follow up questions that might help me devise a treatment plan here?
Since I'm sure someone will ask, here are my parameters:
Salinity: 1.024-1.026 (it's a small tank, so things like filter socks filling up and overflow teeth getting clogged in my fuge mess with salinity a touch
NO3: 5ppm (Salifert)
P04: 0.055ppm (Hanna ULR Phosphorus)
CA: 420 (Red Sea)
Alk: 8.6 DKH (Hanna)
MG: 1310 (Aquaforest)
PH: 8.2 (Peak daytime) 7.9 (Just before lights on)
Parameters wander here and there (again, small tank) but I haven't had any super crazy swings in over a year.
I also stopped all carbon/amino dosing out of fear that I was feeding the nasties.
The only coral that has survived once the tissue loss started is-annoyingly-the Hollywood Stunner pictured right of center here:
Thanks for looking. Hopefully I can get this under control.