Help me save this wild SPS

[Reedc200177]

Hi,

A few have probably already seen my requests for help with this wild colony of Oculina robusta that rode in on gulf live rock to my tank.

A month or two ago it started some recession at the base that I attributed to contact with a rock flower anemone. I've since removed the anemone that was touching it but the recession has continued in an area that definitely wasn't in contact with the nem.

Over the past two weeks the stn or recession has accelerated and there are patches where the skeleton is showing now. I don't know what the problem is or how to stop it, it doesn't look like the stn I've seen from researching it, but this is not a coral I can easily find info on.

Tank params:

Alk 7.7-8
Ca 420
Mag 1350
Ph 8.0 to 8 2
Temp 78 to 79 degrees
Nitrates approx 10 to 15 ppm
Phos 0.03 to 0.05 (I find these tests hard to interpret. I use both salifert and ATI to approximate)
SG 1026
Salt mix is red sea blue
Lighting Is Fluval Marine 3.0, using a Sicce 0.5 return pump and an aqamai KPS

This area that is showing recession is admittedly not getting much light. I asked in the lighting forum about spotlighting the affected area with an Led through the side of the tank, but got not responses. There are no parasites that I can detect.

The rest of the coral appears to be growing and showing good polyp extension except around this affected area, but I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to watch it slowly die. I have birdsnest, purple stylophora, and montipora frags in same tank that are growing well.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I've attached a few pictures for reference

 

[blaxsun]

What about adding another Fluval Marine 3.0?

 

[Reedc200177]

It's a fluval evo 13.5, I don't have enough room for another light over the tank :( but was thinking of trying the through the side lighting Or adding another led strip angled at top?

 

[Chrisv.]

Are you feeding this reef roids or similar? From what I recall, these rely more on eating then other sps. Maybe reef roids and aminos are in order.

 

[Reedc200177]

Yeah, I'm actually feeding reef roids and mysis about every other day. I also alternate coral energy ab from red sea and oyster feast all mixed together. I also dose fuel twice weekly at half the recommended dose for trace elements.

Maybe I should pick one and stick with it but I read conflicting opinions about all of them

 

[Chrisv.]

Yeah, I'm actually feeding reef roids and mysis about every other day. I also alternate coral energy ab from red sea and oyster feast all mixed together. I also dose fuel twice weekly at half the recommended dose for trace elements.

Maybe I should pick one and stick with it but I read conflicting opinions about all of them

Most of them bring a fair amount of nutrients, so just keep an eye on that.

As for light, any chance of switching to an AI prime?

 

[blaxsun]

Your only real option is to ditch the lid on the Evo 13.5 for either another Marine 3.0 or something else entirely. The flip side is that your evaporation is going to pick up exponentially without the lid.

 

[Chrisv.]

Depending on how adventurous you're feeling, I did mod a fluval lid and build a manifold to hold a full size kessil a360we in mine. I have almost no evaporation.

 

[Reedc200177]

So you guys think it's probably a light issue then? I'm actually only running the 3.0 at 80% because some of my other corals don't seem to open as much at the higher settings but I can gradually increase it to 100%

Yeah I'd really to keep the lid, we have two cats and I don't have an ato. But if that's what it comes down to I'm willing to try. I just paid 150 for the marine 3.0 though lol

 

[Chrisv.]

So you guys think it's probably a light issue then? I'm actually only running the 3.0 at 80% because some of my other corals don't seem to open as much at the higher settings but I can gradually increase it to 100%

Yeah I'd really to keep the lid, we have two cats and I don't have an ato. But if that's what it comes down to I'm willing to try. I just paid 150 for the marine 3.0 though lol

I'm not familiar with the stock evo light (my fluval is a flex). That being said, most people who keep sps opt for using something other than the stock fluval LED. Do you have a local club or lfs that to you could borrow a par meter from?

 

[Reedc200177]

This 3.0 was actually an upgrade for the stock EVO light, but I will call my local reef store tomorrow and see if they have a PAR meter I can rent.

I will say though that the affected area is definitely heavily shaded by the coral itself.

 

[Chrisv.]

This 3.0 was actually an upgrade for the stock EVO light, but I will call my local reef store tomorrow and see if they have a PAR meter I can rent.

I will say though that the affected area is definitely heavily shaded by the coral itself.

Ah. Sorry. I'm quite uninformed about fluval's lights. It may very well be fine. A par meter (a proper one!) Is really the best way to know.

I will say that even with my kessil, is see corals that are not as uniformly colored as "back in the good old days" when we ran halides and chillers and had electric bills that resulted in divorce.

It could be that a shaded part of the coral never really properly colors up, or that it even dies back. As long as the rest of the coral is healthy you should see continuing growth.

Hopefully others with more experience using this light will chime in.

Good luck with your coral, it's a neat find! I saw that you have had it alive since February. You're on the right track!

 

[Reedc200177]

Thanks! Yeah it really did great for a good 3 or 4 months right up until about 4 to 6 weeks ago when all this started.

I think the light is probably not right, but when I turn it up I feel like the upper branches pale actually, so I'm torn as to what to do. It doesn't make sense to me that this light should bleach the tallest areas, but I feel like it and other corals actually don't like the higher levels as much, don't open or even had one bleach right after I put it in.

It's entirely possible I'm completely wrong about this though and just misinterpreting what I'm seeing

 

[sculpin01]

Sounds like you need to treat it as an infection. Dip the coral (I like potassium based dips like Reef Primer) and look for "bugs". If no bugs, consider treating for flagellates with a metronidazole and/or clove oil dip (1-2 hours for the first and 10 minutes for the second). If no response to this, send off a water sample to Aquabiomics to look for Arcobacter.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rspb.2014.0094

Clove Oil Procedure to combat cilliate protozoan infections in reef tanks

Hypothesis: Metroplex-resistant cilliate protozoan can be managed by using a 1500ppm clove oil solution bath dip (e.g. 100% clove oil extract, w/o ethanol) for no longer than 10mins. Background Information: Due to the sensitive nature of dosing medications in a reef-seahorse display tanks/reef...

www.reef2reef.com

Ciliate and bacterial communities associated with White Syndrome and Brown Band Disease in reef-building corals - PMC

White Syndrome (WS) and Brown Band Disease (BrB) are important causes of reef coral mortality for which causal agents have not been definitively identified. Here we use culture-independent molecular techniques (DGGE and clone libraries) to ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Reedc200177]

Hey thanks for the reply and articles!
This colony is pretty large and is encrusted on the rock its on so I don't know how I could isolate or dip it, but am open to suggestions. I have a feeling I know the answer to this but are there any safe in tank treatments I can try?

I haven't noticed any parasites, I try to check several hours after lights out. I did notice a bristle worm or other worm had a hole at the base of the coral and actually was crawling over this area so I sealed it with F aiptasia, but this has been several weeks ago.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

This is just my opinion and you can take it with a grain of salt if you like. In reading all that you’re doing and dosing (that you cant test for), I’m amazed the coral only has a few spots of recession. SPS do not need all the feedings of roids, amino acids, oyster feast etc. to thrive. You’re likely polluting the water more than helping the coral. Test your PO4 & NO3 and only dose something based on what tests tell you. Not just because the bottle tells you that you should. Aminos can be harmful to SPS if they reach pollution levels. And that doesn’t take much in my experience. And since you can’t test for aminos, you have no idea where you’re at!

The first and most important things I immediately noticed right off the bat is that you’re using Salifert and ATI test kits for PO4 (phosphate) testing. Both those kits are notoriously inaccurate. You absolutely should have a Hanna PO4 checker for phosphate. That is a bare minimum for keeping SPS. You could be starving the coral of phosphate or polluting the tank with phosphate from the Roids and not even know it. You must get a true level of PO4 ASAP.

The next issue is that you have no idea what the PAR is for where the piece sits under your lighting! I’m amazed at all the suggestions to change the light, add this light, run this combo, etc when there is no idea what the PAR is right now. How can anyone make a recommendation without the appropriate data? That is probably in the top 3 most important things to know when trying to diagnose SPS problems! Understand that any change you make to the tank or lighting is going to stress the coral. So it is vital to know where you are before making changes.

I would get these 2 things figured out before doing or “fixing” anything else.

 

[Chrisv.]

This is just my opinion and you can take it with a grain of salt if you like. In reading all that you’re doing and dosing (that you cant test for), I’m amazed the coral only has a few spots of recession. SPS do not need all the feedings of roids, amino acids, oyster feast etc. to thrive. You’re likely polluting the water more than helping the coral. Test your PO4 & NO3 and only dose something based on what tests tell you. Not just because the bottle tells you that you should. Aminos can be harmful to SPS if they reach pollution levels. And that doesn’t take much in my experience. And since you can’t test for aminos, you have no idea where you’re at!

The first and most important things I immediately noticed right off the bat is that you’re using Salifert and ATI test kits for PO4 (phosphate) testing. Both those kits are notoriously inaccurate. You absolutely should have a Hanna PO4 checker for phosphate. That is a bare minimum for keeping SPS. You could be starving the coral of phosphate or polluting the tank with phosphate from the Roids and not even know it. You must get a true level of PO4 ASAP.

The next issue is that you have no idea what the PAR is for where the piece sits under your lighting! I’m amazed at all the suggestions to change the light, add this light, run this combo, etc when there is no idea what the PAR is right now. How can anyone make a recommendation without the appropriate data? That is probably in the top 3 most important things to know when trying to diagnose SPS problems! Understand that any change you make to the tank or lighting is going to stress the coral. So it is vital to know where you are before making changes.

I would get these 2 things figured out before doing or “fixing” anything else.

100% agree on moving to Hanna checkers, they are great. My vote it to go with Hanna for basically everything but calcium. It can be a big hit for a new reefer to buy them all at once though. Phosphate is particularly good.

 

[Chrisv.]

OP, what's your water change schedule? I'm less concerned about heavy feeding if you're regularly doing decent water changes. In a 13 gallon tank (with rock) a 1 gallon water change each week would be 10%, which would go a long way towards resolving pollution concerns.

 

[Reedc200177]

Water change schedule is about 15 percent weekly. I'm willing to try anything at this point, I definitely have considered the possibility I'm overdoing it with feedings too. Will look into a Hanna phosphate checker asap

 

[Chrisv.]

Water change schedule is about 15 percent weekly. I'm willing to try anything at this point, I definitely have considered the possibility I'm overdoing it with feedings too. Will look into a Hanna phosphate checker asap

There are several models. I prefer the Phosphate Ultra Low Range PPM Colorimeter HI774 Hanna Checker.