Attempting to save some Euphyllia

[rzimm33]

Roughly 4-5 days ago, my dad’s reef experienced some type of crash resulting in majority of his coral to either die or retract significantly.

He added nitrate to his system rapidly and went from 0ppm to 5ppm overnight and at the same time switched brands of salts and performed a water change. I theorize one of or both of these happening at the same time resulted in his crash.

Tonight he brought over all “surviving” Euphyllia hoping my system could possibly save them.

I dipped all coral in CoralRx for 10 min and kept the water moving/agitated the whole time. Afterwards I rinsed off in clean new salt water for another 3-5 minutes. I placed all coral on the sand bed to give them the most chance as possible to make a comeback.

Based on their appearance and how retraced they are into their skeleton, I am pretty skeptical if any will make it.

Any thoughts or suggestions for anything that could possibly help these guys out?

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

Sorry to hear about this. I’m not sure what else you can do other than maybe lower your flow and lighting a bit. Hopefully something will bounce back.

 

[Goaway]

I would question the salt mix before 5 ppm nitrates. Even if it was 90 to 95.

What salt was it? Was it possible a lower sg or higher sg took place? Were temps correct? Any possibility of any other chemicals that could have made contact with the mix?

 

[rzimm33]

I would question the salt mix before 5 ppm nitrates. Even if it was 90 to 95.

What salt was it? Was it possible a lower sg or higher sg took place? Were temps correct? Any possibility of any other chemicals that could have made contact with the mix?

Yeah I presented those questions to him as well. He went from Instant Ocean to Tropic Marin Pro Reef. He assured me both his tank and new salt mix were sitting around 1.024/1.025. All of his softies survived and the fish are doing fine, it mainly effected SPS and LPS.

Luckily my tank is pretty stable and apex controlled, so hopefully they have a fighting chance of recovering. A lot of torches with tons of heads.

 

[Goaway]

Yeah I presented those questions to him as well. He went from Instant Ocean to Tropic Marin Pro Reef. He assured me both his tank and new salt mix were sitting around 1.024/1.025. All of his softies survived and the fish are doing fine, it mainly effected SPS and LPS.

Luckily my tank is pretty stable and apex controlled, so hopefully they have a fighting chance of recovering. A lot of torches with tons of heads.

I wonder if the turkish old clay batch is circulating still... have him check if the made in (location) is on the box

 

[Shirak]

Isn't there a pretty big difference in Alk between IO and TM pro reef? IO is around 11ish and TM pro around 7

A big alk swing could have hit all the stony corals pretty hard.

5ppm NO3 is nothing. I have dosed 20-30ppm NO3 in one shot many many times on my LPS Goni garden.

 

[Arthacker87]

If you have coral growing in your tank, just let them recover. You may lose a few heads but they may come back. Doing too much can also hurt coral. Sometimes patience is key. A few heads look like they will bounce back, a few look pretty empty

 

[vetteguy53081]

Roughly 4-5 days ago, my dad’s reef experienced some type of crash resulting in majority of his coral to either die or retract significantly.

He added nitrate to his system rapidly and went from 0ppm to 5ppm overnight and at the same time switched brands of salts and performed a water change. I theorize one of or both of these happening at the same time resulted in his crash.

Tonight he brought over all “surviving” Euphyllia hoping my system could possibly save them.

I dipped all coral in CoralRx for 10 min and kept the water moving/agitated the whole time. Afterwards I rinsed off in clean new salt water for another 3-5 minutes. I placed all coral on the sand bed to give them the most chance as possible to make a comeback.

Based on their appearance and how retraced they are into their skeleton, I am pretty skeptical if any will make it.

Any thoughts or suggestions for anything that could possibly help these guys out?

These guys are goners for most part. Hammers are intolerant to major swings in water quality, and sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water especially if any tap water was added or within salt mix. Calcium and alk are important parameters that will affect their growth and this coral will start to die off if calcium levels are too low which should be about 400 ppm.
Basically, avoid bright light and water flow and dark lighting. Bright lights cause bleaching and low lighting will cause them to shrink and starve. Maintain moderate light for their photosynthesis and keep it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
I suspect your Po4 if accurate is causing issues

 

[rzimm33]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

Roughly 4 hours in my system last night, most of the Euphyllia started extending their polyps, which is a good sign.

Let’s hope the rest open up and start to recover.

 

[VintageReefer]

@Rocks reef any advice?

 

[Rocks reef]

I'm leaning towards a rapid change in Alk. As @vetteguy53081 mentioned, raising the nitrates wouldn't do that.
Also, if the SG was off that would shock them too with out acclimating them.
I would repeat a coral dip. Do you have any Lugols Iodine? Melafix? Cipro?
If you are able, make a dip with:
500mg Cipro
3 scoops Chemiclean
10ml Restore
10ml amino acids
10ml witch hazel
2 full droppers of Lugols Iodine.

 

[rzimm33]

@VintageReefer @Rocks reef @vetteguy53081

Thank you all, I’m glad to have members like you part of this community!

@Rocks reef - unfortunately I don’t have most of that on hand. I have CoralRx and MediCoral on hand. Thank you again!

 

[kevgib67]

@VintageReefer @Rocks reef @vetteguy53081

Thank you all, I’m glad to have members like you part of this community!

@Rocks reef - unfortunately I don’t have most of that on hand. I have CoralRx and MediCoral on hand. Thank you again!

Most of them you can get on Amazon next day. Cipro will take longer, this is where I get mine without a prescription. Even if they are fully recovered by the time you get it, it is always good to have so if you need it you can act quickly.

 

[Rocks reef]

@VintageReefer @Rocks reef @vetteguy53081

Thank you all, I’m glad to have members like you part of this community!

@Rocks reef - unfortunately I don’t have most of that on hand. I have CoralRx and MediCoral on hand. Thank you again!

You are quite welcome sir. If you need anything, just reach out.
You can order some Lugol's Iodine on Amazon, I'd have some on hand just in case. It's better to have it and not use it, then need it and not have it.

 

[Rocks reef]

Most of them you can get on Amazon next day. Cipro will take longer, this is where I get mine without a prescription. Even if they are fully recovered by the time you get it, it is always good to have so if you need it you can act quickly.

I absolutely agree with this @kevgib67 .

 

[Goaway]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

Roughly 4 hours in my system last night, most of the Euphyllia started extending their polyps, which is a good sign.

Find out whre the tropic pro salt was made. If it was made in turkey, there were issues with it. There was clay added which was killing lots of peoples corals. If you get these to recover and they go back into contaminated salt, it will be history repeating itself.

 

[Rocks reef]

Find out whre the tropic pro salt was made. If it was made in turkey, there were issues with it. There was clay added which was killing lots of peoples corals. If you get these to recover and they go back into contaminated salt, it will be history repeating itself.

Wasn't that issue back in 2022? I never heard of it killing corals, just that it mixed up dirty due to insoluble clay particles.

 

[Goaway]

Wasn't that issue back in 2022? I never heard of it killing corals, just that it mixed up dirty due to insoluble clay particles.

it killed a lot of coral. There could still be buckets out of it. I don't think they actually ever did a recall other than brs... I think

 

[rzimm33]

I’ll have my dad look into it @Goaway.

Just to lighten up this semi depressing thread, here’s a shot of my torches last night

Hopefully my dads will recover and look like mine!

 

[Goaway]

I am just saying as, I have lazy pet stores here who will sell you expired anything. And if they had tm in stock, it would be sitting in the back until the fuss was over and they would resume the sells.

You just never know about vendors.

Because of the tm pro issue, my local fish store switched to aquaforest. He never did switch back from what i was told, as he was too terrified.