Leptastrea is dying

[vsciacca]

My leptastrea is dying and more and more heads have died off. I first notice this a few days ago and it has accelerated since. Parameters have been stable for the most part besides a nitrate and phosphate spike about two months ago. Calcium is around 430 alk 8.3 mag 1280 temp is 77.

It was doing very well and just recently starting growing onto the rock work and is still growing new heads almost daily, but heads are also dying. The only changes that have been made are the following: added a wave maker near it so flow has definitely increased and I added microbacter clean to battle an algae bloom that started from the nutrient spike I had a couple months ago. I did a 50% water change as soon as I noticed the coral was dying and do weekly 20% changes as well. The only other coral that seems to have been affected is my chalice coral which is showing the same kind of issues, but much more limited. I’m guessing it’s the microbacter, but does anyone have any other thoughts? Also how should I go about mitigating this if it is from the microbacter?

Thanks

 

[penfold2]

I don't know what's in Microbacter Clean, but it looks like you had a moderate amount of algae growth, which may have then died back. If the nutrients and potential toxins from a sudden die-off are not sufficiently removed, they could be contributing to the coral damage.

I would add some activated carbon to remove any toxins, and focus on nutrient export, whether through skimming, siphoning algae/detritus, macroalgae growth, phosphate absorbing media, etc.

 

[Uncle99]

It looks like someone, tasted that coral.
Got anyone, that might do that?

 

[vsciacca]

I don't know what's in Microbacter Clean, but it looks like you had a moderate amount of algae growth, which may have then died back. If the nutrients and potential toxins from a sudden die-off are not sufficiently removed, they could be contributing to the coral damage.

I would add some activated carbon to remove any toxins, and focus on nutrient export, whether through skimming, siphoning algae/detritus, macroalgae growth, phosphate absorbing media, etc.

I’m running a skimmer and carbon with a refugium, so nutrients shouldn’t be getting out of control. I also do weekly water changes (with syphoning of algae and detritus) and did a roughly 50% water change a week after adding microbacter clean which is essentially bacteria that eat and breakdown algae, but I’m reading that it can also affect corals. The bacteria can’t reproduce naturally, so I’m hoping the large water change followed by a smaller 20% water change weekly will remove it all or it will all die off eventually.

Do you think nutrients would cause this? The coral has gone through some extremes in nutrients and not had any significant issues. I’m relatively new to the hobby and the tank is about 1.5 years old and this coral has been with me since month 3 of the tank so it’s seen the worst of the nutrient swings.

 

[vsciacca]

It looks like someone, tasted that coral.
Got anyone, that might do that?

Nothing new has been added and it hasn’t been an issue in the past. Current livestock is clowns, a damsel, a gramma, emerald crab, several blue leg hermits, ceriths, turbo snails, margarita snails, an anemone, and corals. Only thing I could think is maybe the emerald crab??

 

[penfold2]

I’m running a skimmer and carbon with a refugium, so nutrients shouldn’t be getting out of control. I also do weekly water changes (with syphoning of algae and detritus) and did a roughly 50% water change a week after adding microbacter clean which is essentially bacteria that eat and breakdown algae, but I’m reading that it can also affect corals. The bacteria can’t reproduce naturally, so I’m hoping the large water change followed by a smaller 20% water change weekly will remove it all or it will all die off eventually.

Do you think nutrients would cause this? The coral has gone through some extremes in nutrients and not had any significant issues. I’m relatively new to the hobby and the tank is about 1.5 years old and this coral has been with me since month 3 of the tank so it’s seen the worst of the nutrient swings.

I haven't used Microbacter Clean, and don't know what's in it, so I can't say what side effects it might have, but it sounds like you're taking the correct steps. Are there any nearby corals that might be stinging it? Maybe keep an eye on the emerald crab as well. Wish I had more to offer.

 

[Uncle99]

Nothing new has been added and it hasn’t been an issue in the past. Current livestock is clowns, a damsel, a gramma, emerald crab, several blue leg hermits, ceriths, turbo snails, margarita snails, an anemone, and corals. Only thing I could think is maybe the emerald crab??

I don’t keep any crabs at all.
Not trusted

 

[BryanM]

Nothing new has been added and it hasn’t been an issue in the past. Current livestock is clowns, a damsel, a gramma, emerald crab, several blue leg hermits, ceriths, turbo snails, margarita snails, an anemone, and corals. Only thing I could think is maybe the emerald crab??

Crabs indeed are not to be trusted. May or may not be the emerald, but mine started nipping at corals, and was finally caught and re-homed

 

[Science/G]

If you can, get an ICP test. I have an Oblivion Chalice that was doing great for a year then suddenly started dying back. All my other corals are doing well. I got an ICP test done and it showed I had low iodine, flourine, and extremely low potassium. My salinity was a little high also. Once I corrected the imbalance, the coral started making a comeback.

 

[vsciacca]

Crabs indeed are not to be trusted. May or may not be the emerald, but mine started nipping at corals, and was finally caught and re-homed

It seems like the damage gets worse overnight so I think it could definitely be the emerald. Pretty sad close to 30% of the coral is now gone. I’m gonna try to keep an eye on the tank at night and see if I can catch the culprit

 

[vsciacca]

If you can, get an ICP test. I have an Oblivion Chalice that was doing great for a year then suddenly started dying back. All my other corals are doing well. I got an ICP test done and it showed I had low iodine, flourine, and extremely low potassium. My salinity was a little high also. Once I corrected the imbalance, the coral started making a comeback.

I’ll give this a shot as well. I did start adding sps corals recently. Is there any chance they would be causing the imbalance in some of those necessary nutrients? I’m just confused what would have resulted in such a drastic change in just a matter of two weeks. This coral was growing faster than it ever has and still is growing at that pace, but it’s dying off faster than it’s growing

 

[BryanM]

It seems like the damage gets worse overnight so I think it could definitely be the emerald. Pretty sad close to 30% of the coral is now gone. I’m gonna try to keep an eye on the tank at night and see if I can catch the culprit

If you have an isolation box you could put the coral in there to protect it.

I hated rehoming our crab, my wife and I both liked it a lot.

 

[Shirak]

You never said what your current nutrients are. So yes it could be nutrients as the chalice is also affected if nothing else obvious is an issue and all other parameters are stable. It's unlikely the emerald crab if more than one coral is dying back.

Yes also to the sps. Are they growing? They can pull the alk down, as well as nutrients, if they are growing.

 

[vsciacca]

If you have an isolation box you could put the coral in there to protect it.

I hated rehoming our crab, my wife and I both liked it a lot.

Decided to move the crab to my sump instead. Plenty of rocks for him to hang out in and plenty of algae to eat

 

[vsciacca]

You never said what your current nutrients are. So yes it could be nutrients as the chalice is also affected if nothing else obvious is an issue and all other parameters are stable. It's unlikely the emerald crab if more than one coral is dying back.

Yes also to the sps. Are they growing? They can pull the alk down, as well as nutrients, if they are growing.

The sps are definitely growing. Slowly but they are growing. I don’t have a an effective test yet for phosphate and nitrates because I’m using the salifert kits, so all I know is that it’s reading somewhere in what looks like a safe range. As for alk, mag, and ca, they are 8.3, 1290, and 430 respectively as of this morning. I did notice I had to increase my two part dosing to keep up with the newly added sps.

The chalice only had one small area die back and hasn’t shown any more damage. The lepta however is in rough shape. I didn’t directly catch my emerald crab eating it, but I have seen it hanging out near it more regularly now, so I decided to move him to the sump and see if the coral recovers. I also directly fed the crab yesterday pretty heavily and noticed that the lepta isn’t showing any new damage this morning. I’m fairly confident the crab was the culprit