mysterious tissue recession

[dontbuyxenia]

Hey everyone, Ive had an issue with tissue recession on my green hammers and a candy cane for the past month now and I am confused as to what it is. I downgraded from a 150 gallon reef to a red sea 250 when I moved to college this past year. I moved about 200 heads of green hammer corals to the tank and have had nothing but issues since. The colony broke apart in transport so I kept about half and sold half. The half I sold is doing great in another person's tank. The bizarre thing is that some of the pieces I kept are very happy and others are slowly dying. Ive attached pictures but basically each head slowly recedes one by one till it dies. Im leaning towards a flow issue or the calothorix algae on the skeleton irritating the coral. The only flow I have is the outflow from the red sea and a decent size return pump(forget the gph). I am installing a powerhead today. Alk is a bit low too but I dont understand how my sps could look okay and not my hammers and have that be the issue. Im also thinking low nutrients but like I said, why would some be doing okay? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

My parameters
Ph: 8
alk: 7.8
calcium: 420
mag: 1350
nitrate: 0-5
Phosphate: 0
nitrite: 0
ammonia: 0

 

[fushi]

I would try stabilizing nutrients and if it continues to spread maybe try the witch hazel stn/rtn treatment, I'm on the second day of it and my corals are looking much better.

https://www.reefmoonshiners.com/witchhazel-reeftank-treatment

 

[99problemsandatankisone]

I would try stabilizing nutrients and if it continues to spread maybe try the witch hazel stn/rtn treatment, I'm on the second day of it and my corals are looking much better.

https://www.reefmoonshiners.com/witchhazel-reeftank-treatment

How did the witch hazel treatment turn out?

 

[fushi]

How did the witch hazel treatment turn out?

It worked pretty well, but the tissue recession kept coming back. It turns out I have red and white bugs, I couldn't see them until they made their way to a more smooth skinned acro by the glass. They are tiny!! I am still waiting on my interceptor to arrive as it has been a process getting it from chewy. The worst part is I know exactly when I got them because I normally cut off plugs bayer dip everything except that one day I was in a rush. So dumb.

So I recommend the witch hazel but recommend finding the true cause to your issue even more. It's probably not what you would expect.

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

I had a recent problem with tissue recession on a candy cane. I thought it was a goner but I took it out and put it in 4 OZ 3% Hydrogen peroxide to 24 OZ tank water. The dip and scrub lasted two minutes, yes scrubbed with a tooth brush, vigorously on skeleton and delicate on tissue. Two months later 100% recovery.
I have two Gonis that were hell in the beginning, I dipped them multiple times to no avail it kept coming back. When I lost half of the colony I went all out no fear. I shot straight 3% Hydrogen peroxide into all the dead pores. I let the straight hydrogen peroxide touch 1/8" of the living flesh afterwards I sealed the wound with coral glue, 1/8" on dead side and 1/8" on live side for a total of 1/4" strip and did not miss a spot. That was a year ago both are doing very well and no more issues. KNOCK WOOD

Reefers please don't beat me up for this advise all I am saying is when nothing works you should at least try it on a piece. The problem is many of your corals are infected and more than likely will reinfect any you heal. Unless someone here can suggest a whole tank solution its going to be ugly. When you have nothing to loose something is better than nothing. Get all your parameters in the same zone as the old tank and get a UV.

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

On another note I have looked at my tank water under the microscope, full of life then add a drop of H202 and KABOOM all dead plankton and all nothing moves. The round spheres are H202

Nice cell structure

After H202 Total warfare see cell structure seems to have changed debris everywhere.

 

[fushi]

I had a recent problem with tissue recession on a candy cane. I thought it was a goner but I took it out and put it in 4 OZ 3% Hydrogen peroxide to 24 OZ tank water.…….

I just wanted to second this advice, I also dip and scrub non tissue areas of coral and plugs (if i need to keep them), it works great.

The one thing I’ll keep on stressing to everyone reading is to stay consistant with your dip/qt procedure. The one time I got lazy is how I got red and white bugs. So far the red bugs were easy to kill but the white bugs are being difficult.


Some dip results:
Potassium chloride (9.78g/950ml water) normally recomended for flatworms does not kill red or white bugs.

Brightwell KoralMD will get all pests to jump off the frag but will kill stressed corals.

Inteceptor dosed at the the reefs.com recommended dosage to the whole tank doesn’t work, I think I‘ll try a double dose next time.

Bayer bioadvanced is still king and I will not skip it again.

My coral qt procedure:
float bags in tank to temp. aclimate
put all frags in a plastic container with their bag water (my container holds about 950ml)
add a splash of bayer (about 10ml)
give each frag a good stir in the water to dislodge any pests
rinse twice in new containers for 5 minutes with tank water
if there is tissue recession dip in broad spectrum antibiotic (amoxicillin trihydrate/tyrosine tartrate mix) 1/2 tsp/1qt water for 20 min.
then into qt tank ( its a 40gal display tank with some frag racks, not all qt tanks need to be ugly)