Flatworm ID?

[xradikalx]

Hello all,

I have had a rash of corals undergoing RTN out of nowhere. Seems to be mostly millepora that are involved. I always do a bayer dip with my new frags, but alas, I think something snuck in.

This afternoon, I saw one of my millepora thats was totally fine last night, starting to suffer RTN from the base. I quickly grabbed him from the tank and did a dip with coral ME, and some stuff certainly came off. I would love help IDing if these are red planaria or AEFW. Im colorblind so dont ask me if they are red, haha.

Of course, any help with treatment would be appreciated. I would love to avoid dragging all of my coral from the display to QT it, but if thats the only option, I suppose its a possibility.

 

[Channas]

Looks like normal flatworm and probebly not the cause of rtn, if i were you i would check alkalinity and salinity and if you do frequent testning of alk make sure not a swing had occur since in my opinion that is the nr1 cause of RTN in sps. I’ve had acropora eating flat worms in the past and it’s more like STN with white dead skeleton spots before it goes down quickly if no action is taken

 

[xradikalx]

Yesterday, no casualties, but today my Optimus prime started to RTN. Haven't changed anything as far as dosing, but I do get swings in alk a bit. Is it too much?

Thanks for your help!!

 

[xradikalx]

Also, ive noticed that when I do a water change, I get a drop in alk, like you see on Apr 16th evening. Then my system tries to play a bit of catch up, I think. I use tropic marin pro salt, double checked with a standard solution and my tank water for salinity. No blips on my salinity readings.

 

[Channas]

In my opinion that is too much of a alk swing, a swing of 0.5dkh is usually fine once in a while (talking once a month or every couple of weeks) but frequent swings of that and above is deadly. What is your alk goal and how much does a freshly mixed bucket of salt contain?

 

[Channas]

Do you have a longer time frame of the recording of your alk? Also how old is the tank? Other parameters? Mg calcium nitrate phosphate? Par value if you have measured the lights?

 

[Channas]

Also can you send a picture of your affected sticks?

 

[xradikalx]

Thanks for helping me troubleshoot this Channas!

Last night I did a water change, and sure enough, the alk in my freshly mixed salt water is much lower than tank:

The test above was of fresh mixed salt water before going into the tank. This is the Tropic marin pro salt mix at 1.026 salinity, same as tank itself.

Here is that data point compared to the normal baseline alk that I run:

The dip on Apr 24 was the tested freshly mixed salt water. I can only show 1 week of readings at a time on the apex it seems, so here is a week before the first data shown(please note the scale is much different along left side compared to previous image):

When the lights come on, I will take some pictures of a large colony that started going down a few days ago and looked really bad yesterday.
Thanks!

 

[xradikalx]

The tank is about 1 year old. I have been fairly meticulous about keeping clean from hitchhikers, so that meant using dry rock instead of live rock, I have bayer dipped every coral before it goes in, and quarantined each fish before being added.

As far as other parameters:

Calcium stays rock solid around 490
Magnesium typically 1330
Alk as you know is around 8.8-9 on average. I had been targetting getting it up to 9 for a bit faster growth

Nitrates and phosphates are almost always 0 on the trident. If I use a hannah checker to double check, phosphates are usually 0.04. Nitrates sometimes register at 0.1 or 0.2 if you catch it just right.


As for lighting, I have 2 AI blades and 3 Radion XR30s over a 300g tank. The topmost rocks registered 400-600 par, middle of tank 300-400, and bottom 150-200. This was when I had the lights at 80%, and I did turn the intensity down a bit to 60%, simply because I was having issues with the topmost corals losing coloration, but I haven't had the PAR remapped since that change.

 

[xradikalx]

Here is a picture of the newest victim. Pictures are 1 month ago (no issues), 1 week ago (tissue under base), and today

 

[Channas]

No problem Yeah probably your salt then, since your other parameters are fine even though calcium is abit on the higher side and magnesium on the lower side, magnesium should be 3x as high as your calcium to maintain equilibrium using kh as a ”referee” and your goal of 9 is solid in my opinion.

What i would do now is i would add in alk/kh to the freshly mixed salt to match your goal before adding it in so the swings dont get so big you could even change the salt brand with higher kh to match your goal better, myself im keeping my kh at 8.5-9 dkH and it fluctuates at that kh a little still because i havent been able to dial in the dosing pumps perfectly yet but my sticks are totaly fine because my kh goes up to 9 during a water change and slowly goes down until next water change

Now 400-600 par is quite high even for sticks to get blasted with straight away, it would be wise to start at lower par when they are new and gradually add them to higher par. I usually acclimate mine at 150 par the first 3 weeks and jump them up by 50 par every 3 weeks until they are at their reightful spot where i want them because if the guy you bought them from keep them under a range of 200-300 par (which is super common) and you place that frag under 400-600 par it will bleach as Well.

 

[xradikalx]

Another update.

I tested the new salt water with a hannah checker and it confirmed alk of 6.9. Since then I have been adding sodium carbonate to new salt water to bring Alk to 8.0. Unfortunately, the slow, progressive bleaching continues. Its always just 1 coral at a time of the 40-50 that are in the tank. Today, out of nowhere, my TSA bo katan started rtn from Base up. This coral has been in the tank for 4-6 months. Grew from a small frag into multiple branches with intense coloration. Honestly it was the picture of health, and there were no major changes to the system. I think Im going to start treating for flatworms just incase it helps

 

[Channas]

Another update.

I tested the new salt water with a hannah checker and it confirmed alk of 6.9. Since then I have been adding sodium carbonate to new salt water to bring Alk to 8.0. Unfortunately, the slow, progressive bleaching continues. Its always just 1 coral at a time of the 40-50 that are in the tank. Today, out of nowhere, my TSA bo katan started rtn from Base up. This coral has been in the tank for 4-6 months. Grew from a small frag into multiple branches with intense coloration. Honestly it was the picture of health, and there were no major changes to the system. I think Im going to start treating for flatworms just incase it helps

Send in a icp test to see whats wrong with the tank as Well as flatworm check , maybe metal has found its way inside