HELP: Sudden BJD on Priceless Torch Colony

[nanoreefer23]

My prized torch colony that I had inherited from my father recently , had two heads suddenly develop BJD yesterday. In morning they were fine, when I checked at night one head was already dead (siphoned it out) and siphoned of the brown jelly in the split head, which is now covered in it again this morning. Probably already a goner, Parameters are all in check.

What do I do!? I don’t have Cipro, I only have amoxicillin, logols, reef dip by seachem (also iodine) and Hydroplex which I also inherited and not sure if it’d be any help.

I can’t lose this whole torch colony, I’d rather frag them, put some in another tank than have the whole colony die. I have a gryphon band saw coming on Monday because the heads are so thick, I can’t frag the infected heads with clippers.

Any advice would be appreciated!

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[nanoreefer23]

My prized torch colony that I had inherited from my father recently , had two heads suddenly develop BJD yesterday. In morning they were fine, when I checked one head was already dead (siphoned it out) and siphoned of the brown jelly in the split head, which is now covered in it again this morning. Probably already a goner, Parameters are all in check.

What do I do!? I don’t have Cipro, I only have amoxicillin, logols, reef dip by seachem (also iodine) and Hydroplex which I also inherited and not sure if it’d be any help.

I can’t lose this whole torch colony, I’d rather frag them, put some in another tank than have the whole colony die. I have a gryphon band saw coming on Monday because the heads are so thick, I can’t frag the infected heads with clippers.

Any advice would be appreciated!

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Lavey29]

BJD develops when corals are under stress from something way out of balance in their environment. What are your complete parameters?

 

[nanoreefer23]

BJD develops when corals are under stress from something way out of balance in their environment. What are your complete parameters?

Trident:
Alk 11.49 dkH
Calcium: 462
Magnesium: 1300

Nitrates: Between 5-10 (Tropic Marin test)

Hannah
Phosphate: 0.61

Salinity: 35 (calibrated refractometer)

One thing to note is that I normally feed heavy in and heavy out. I went away for a few days and had to use a feeder which fed less but adequate amount. Also, I think because I was tying my kalk dosing to pH of 8.3 which worked great when we could open our doors (very high CO2 in apartment), had to open the doors less because of the cold, which dropped the pH and spiked my alk to 13 a week ago, stopped the kalk to let the numbers fall, did water change etc.

 

[Lavey29]

Trident:
Alk 11.49 dkH
Calcium: 462
Magnesium: 1300

Nitrates: Between 5-10 (Tropic Marin test)

Hannah
Phosphate: 0.61

Salinity: 35 (calibrated refractometer)

One thing to note is that I normally feed heavy in and heavy out. I went away for a few days and had to use a feeder which fed less but adequate amount. Also, I think because I was tying my kalk dosing to pH of 8.3 which worked great when we could open our doors (very high CO2 in apartment), had to open the doors less because of the cold, which dropped the pH and spiked my alk to 13 a week ago, stopped the kalk to let the numbers fall, did water change etc.

Are you positive on the BJD? Did coral have a foul odor?

 

[nanoreefer23]

Are you positive on the BJD? Did coral have a foul odor?

I didn’t pull it out but there was definitely a brown sludge on it with some white which I’m assuming is melted tissue.

 

[nanoreefer23]

The weird thing is this torch has been in aquariums for at least 5 years no problem, it’s been in this tank for 3 months and it was doing great and growing. After I came back from last weekend I had two acros STN as well. I figured it was from the ALK.

 

[nanoreefer23]

Also, I was using Red Sea Pro so Alk of 12 was normal and my corals were fine with it. I’ve switched to Tropic Marin Pro which has 7-8 DKH which I’m slowly changing with. I bought C02 scrubbers, just waiting on the adaptor to fit my skimmers.

 

[Lavey29]

The weird thing is this torch has been in aquariums for at least 5 years no problem, it’s been in this tank for 3 months and it was doing great and growing. After I came back from last weekend I had two acros STN as well. I figured it was from the ALK.

Yes alk is elevated and needs to be brought down slowly. I would frag off any dead or dying heads. Raise magnesium to 1450. Bring phosphate down slowly also. Corals can be under duress for many months before they show visible signs. They decline from the inside out. What is the par? How much flow?

 

[Lavey29]

Trident:
Alk 11.49 dkH
Calcium: 462
Magnesium: 1300

Nitrates: Between 5-10 (Tropic Marin test)

Hannah
Phosphate: 0.61

Salinity: 35 (calibrated refractometer)

One thing to note is that I normally feed heavy in and heavy out. I went away for a few days and had to use a feeder which fed less but adequate amount. Also, I think because I was tying my kalk dosing to pH of 8.3 which worked great when we could open our doors (very high CO2 in apartment), had to open the doors less because of the cold, which dropped the pH and spiked my alk to 13 a week ago, stopped the kalk to let the numbers fall, did water change etc.

I keep a small air purifying fan running near my tank to keep air circulation.

 

[nanoreefer23]

Yes alk is elevated and needs to be brought down slowly. I would frag off any dead or dying heads. Raise magnesium to 1450. Bring phosphate down slowly also. Corals can be under duress for many months before they show visible signs. They decline from the inside out. What is the par? How much flow?

Tons of flow, have a red sea

Yes alk is elevated and needs to be brought down slowly. I would frag off any dead or dying heads. Raise magnesium to 1450. Bring phosphate down slowly also. Corals can be under duress for many months before they show visible signs. They decline from the inside out. What is the par? How much flow?

yes I gave a reef wave 45 for circulation and another small hyger gyre but I positioned them to make sure the torches were waving but not getting blasted. I also have a fan cooler on top. Par is 120-140 at the torch, which is what it was at in my Dads tank for months.

 

[nanoreefer23]

One other thought I had was that since I wasn’t feeding heavy for a few days and I have a cleaner shrimp and many hermits, that they couldn’t find enough food and started picking at the torch. I have no idea though, I just need to save at least one head. When I get my gryphon band saw I’m not sure if I should frag off just the infected heads or frag up the colony and place one in another tank and the others in different locations to improve the likelihood that one will survive and regrow the colony. Also not sure if I should proactively dip the surviving colony if they have the brown jelly and I just can’t see it.

I’ve read various advice on here, some say cipro is best but need a script, vet is closed and not even sure if they would even treat a coral and prescribe cipro.

I could do an Iodine dip though.

 

[Lavey29]

One other thought I had was that since I wasn’t feeding heavy for a few days and I have a cleaner shrimp and many hermits, that they couldn’t find enough food and started picking at the torch. I have no idea though, I just need to save at least one head. When I get my gryphon band saw I’m not sure if I should frag off just the infected heads or frag up the colony and place one in another tank and the others in different locations to improve the likelihood that one will survive and regrow the colony. Also not sure if I should proactively dip the surviving colony if they have the brown jelly and I just can’t see it.

I’ve read various advice on here, some say cipro is best but need a script, vet is closed and not even sure if they would even treat a coral and prescribe cipro.

I could do an Iodine dip though.

People have had success with KFC dips for bacterial infections. Because you have other corals in decline also I would say the high alk spike caused coral stress in your system which causes corals immune systems to weaken and let bacteria get hold. Frag off the STN parts on the acros. Frag dead heads on torch and give it an iodine dip. Get your parameters back in normal ranges. My torches sit in 250 par with low moderate flow.

 

[nanoreefer23]

People have had success with KFC dips for bacterial infections. Because you have other corals in decline also I would say the high alk spike caused coral stress in your system which causes corals immune systems to weaken and let bacteria get hold. Frag off the STN parts on the acros. Frag dead heads on torch and give it an iodine dip. Get your parameters back in normal ranges. My torches sit in 250 par with low moderate flow.

Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, I’m slowly dropping ALK now by both not dosing kalk and 10% water changes with Tropic Marin Pro. Will have to supplement Calcium while it’s dropping and upping my mag to 1350. I’ve been slowly raising my mag already.

 

[Lavey29]

Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, I’m slowly dropping ALK now by both not dosing kalk and 10% water changes with Tropic Marin Pro. Will have to supplement Calcium while it’s dropping and upping my mag to 1350. I’ve been slowly raising my mag already.

I hope it works out for you. Get an ICP done also when you can to check for any contaminants and your trace elements. Euphyllia seem to like more magnesium. Mine is at 1500.

 

[nanoreefer23]

I hope it works out for you. Get an ICP done also when you can to check for any contaminants and your trace elements. Euphyllia seem to like more magnesium. Mine is at 1500.

Thanks, I already have two sets of tests. I’ll send one in.

 

[kevgib67]

@Lavey29 gave you great advice. Iodine and cypro are two ingredients in the kFC dip. I would start with an iodine dip since you have it on hand. I got my Cipro from Thefishaid, google it, without a prescription. Good luck, I’m pulling for you.

 

[nanoreefer23]

@Lavey29 gave you great advice. Iodine and cypro are two ingredients in the kFC dip. I would start with an iodine dip since you have it on hand. I got my Cipro from Thefishaid, google it, without a prescription. Good luck, I’m pulling for you.

Oh wow it’s a homemade dip, so to speak. I was thinking it was an already made dip. It also says 2-6 hrs, that’s pretty crazy. How risky is this dip, as in killing my torch itself instead of the BJD? I might consider splitting the colony and just doing iodine on one half and the KFC dip on the other to give myself the best chance of saving a few heads at least.

 

[kevgib67]

Oh wow it’s a homemade dip, so to speak. I was thinking it was an already made dip. It also says 2-6 hrs, that’s pretty crazy. How risky is this dip, as in killing my torch itself instead of the BJD? I might consider splitting the colony and just doing iodine on one half and the KFC dip on the other to give myself the best chance of saving a few heads at least.

I have read that there aren’t any cons to using it and it’s nearly 100% effective against BJD. I keep a box of the ingredients just in case after I had BJD almost 2 years ago. If it was me, I’d do the iodine dip asap and order the Cipro and do a whole tank treatment, take out carbon and turn off skimmer, while you are collecting the rest of the ingredients. Hopefully you won’t have to do the KFC dip and the other two treatments worked but you’ll have it on hand for the future.

 

[nanoreefer23]

Update: removed infected head/s and then gave a 30 minute bath in seachem reef dip iodine. Added some brightwell aquatics Restore to the tank. Torch looks good so far. Went to see famous LFS nearby yesterday and they advised fragging the colony up. I could do that, but I’d rather not if I don’t have to. Don’t see any signs of BJD on any of the other heads. What do you all think about a preemptive fragging of each branch. They all have two heads.