Black bugs? Please help ID

Wiz

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Okay. I think I may have finally run into another one of them common hitchhikers. One that is very undesirable. And I dread you people confirming it. LOL
Little backstory, before I moved about eight months ago all of my montipora started to die. They were getting white patches here and there in the middle of the plates. I do not think that that was part of this. However I figured it was pertinent information. After I moved I had done pretty much a 75% water change. All of my motipora started to recover. I assumed it was something missing in the water. As I do not normally do water changes. So I started doing a 50% water change every six months.
About a month-and-a-half after everything was looking better A lot of my SPS and some of my LPS started to decline. Not just a montipora this time. Montipora, acropora , cup Coral, trumpet. almost anything with a skeleton. There are still a lot that look fine. But this time it was a variety of coral. Oddly similar corals would do well while similar ones are not. My candy cane seems okay. And my red planet seems ok, gonnipora seems okay. After about 2 weeks of searching I found a broken glass thermometer in my Sump. Metal beads in there and whatever chemicals were inside were in my system. I assumed that that was the issue. So I cleaned out the sump thoroughly using a magnet. And did too big water changes. Things look slightly better for a day or two. But quickly started receding again.
I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what might be the issue. So I started night spotting all the corals. I have found two types of bugs on or around the coral not including asternia at micro brittles. I believe that the bigger and first of the bugs I found has already been id by @Lionfish Lair and is not a danger. But a bunch of little black specks I found on one of my Monti caps has not. And this is what's worrying me. Here are a few pictures of the hurt Coral. As well as videos of both bugs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also noticed that brown algae is growing on every affected Coral. I don't know if the bugs are doing it or maybe the algae is attacking the Corals. I do not want to jump to conclusions.







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Screenshot_2017-02-05-14-50-07.png


Screenshot_2017-02-05-14-51-04.png
 
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Wiz

Wiz

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No I do not have a microscope. I am really hoping that the bugs were attracted by the algae. And the algae is the problem. I know the bigger bug was id'd before and was told that it was not dangerous.
 
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Wiz

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Don't think they're worms. They move like bugs
 

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Not sure if this is the same, but no treatment that i tried worked. I tried interceptor, coralrx, couple of other coral dips and even put a completely dead acro frag in fresh ro water overnight and they didn't come off. It is like mine rooted in to the coral skeleton. I feel for ya and anyone that gets them. I am a dipping before entering and these went past the initial dip. Only thing i was able to do is cut it about an 1/8 or so above the damage and tried salvaging. I have hopefully rid them so far nothing is showing signs after a few. The only difference i see between them is i could never catch them moving like yours. Good luck

IMG_3138.JPG
 
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Wiz

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I've done fairly well keeping out pests
Figures I'd get an unknown super bug. I've tried a few dips as well. No luck so far. But I would imagine they are in the tank now. The only thing positive for me is that the areas I see them are not dead So I'm unsure it's truly the issue.
Not sure if this is the same, but no treatment that i tried worked. I tried interceptor, coralrx, couple of other coral dips and even put a completely dead acro frag in fresh ro water overnight and they didn't come off. It is like mine rooted in to the coral skeleton. I feel for ya and anyone that gets them. I am a dipping before entering and these went past the initial dip. Only thing i was able to do is cut it about an 1/8 or so above the damage and tried salvaging. I have hopefully rid them so far nothing is showing signs after a few. The only difference i see between them is i could never catch them moving like yours. Good luck

IMG_3138.JPG
 

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I've done fairly well keeping out pests
Figures I'd get an unknown super bug. I've tried a few dips as well. No luck so far. But I would imagine they are in the tank now. The only thing positive for me is that the areas I see them are not dead So I'm unsure it's truly the issue.

any update here??
 
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Wiz

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Well I lost all the Monty's. Not one Monte in my tank survived. The LPS all recovered though. And at this point I do not think the black specks or bugs were the problem. I don't know if I'll be able to tell what the problem was. What I know is I cannot keep Monty's anymore and that is ridiculously upsetting to me. They are my favorite SPS by far. I am keeping red planet Acro as well as a few others all my LPS zoanthid softies psammaCora all alive and healthy. So I cannot figure out for the life of me what the problem is
 
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Wiz

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I did buy tests for potassium strontium and iodine. Iodine is non-existent in my system which is a problem I think. Both potassium and strontium were low. I don't know if that could have caused the problem but I am correcting it. When I bought the tests I bought all new tests. I also found out that my old calcium and alkalinity tests were no longer accurate. Calcium and alkalinity were both High. I have been trying to correct it. I have gone 6 days without adding barely any calcium or alkalinity. And I have been testing for about two and a half weeks now daily. Also realize that my nitrates which I had not tested for a while had popped up to about 40. I have them down to about 15 now and dropping. I would imagine that the akros would have suffered as well though. So I just really don't know
 

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Not sure if this is the same, but no treatment that i tried worked. I tried interceptor, coralrx, couple of other coral dips and even put a completely dead acro frag in fresh ro water overnight and they didn't come off. It is like mine rooted in to the coral skeleton. I feel for ya and anyone that gets them. I am a dipping before entering and these went past the initial dip. Only thing i was able to do is cut it about an 1/8 or so above the damage and tried salvaging. I have hopefully rid them so far nothing is showing signs after a few. The only difference i see between them is i could never catch them moving like yours. Good luck

IMG_3138.JPG

How were the results of clipping the acro? did the black spots come back? I have the same thing happening to my Echinata but it isn't effecting any of my other Acro's.
 

305Reefer

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Sounds like you definitely had black bugs. I have them right now. Im cutting all my SPS down to small frags and dipping heavily in a QT tank for the next 8 weeks. Going to let the tank run Acroless for atleast 4 months. Not sure if its going to work, Ive already lost several thousand dollars worth of high end corals. ***.
 

reef lover

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They suck...but this thread is old and i havent seen wiz around in a looong time....maybe start a new thread...
 

Will W

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Not sure if this is the same, but no treatment that i tried worked. I tried interceptor, coralrx, couple of other coral dips and even put a completely dead acro frag in fresh ro water overnight and they didn't come off. It is like mine rooted in to the coral skeleton. I feel for ya and anyone that gets them. I am a dipping before entering and these went past the initial dip. Only thing i was able to do is cut it about an 1/8 or so above the damage and tried salvaging. I have hopefully rid them so far nothing is showing signs after a few. The only difference i see between them is i could never catch them moving like yours. Good luck

IMG_3138.JPG

I had the exact same thing. it seems to start at the base and as it starts dying you start seeing the Black pests. what I did that worked was cutting the frag and tossing the base. I cut about a half an inch of the acro just to make sure I wasnt taking any more chances. that happened a year ago and all my acros are thriving and I havent had an issue since.
 

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