Need help identifying long term Acropora disease/condition

[JPergamo]

So, over the last 6 months or so, a few of my colonies have been suffering from what I can only determine is some sort of condition, be it bacterial infection, zooxanthellae issue, or other flesh problem. In between the branches of established colonies, some bleaching occurs. It manifests as either the flesh thinning and turning white, or in some cases the flesh turns darker, while still having the same issue.

This is not a new problem. It has been a long time I have watched it happen to some, then some recover, while others do not. I have ruled out pests. I am a very long time sps keeper and have dealt with the majority of them in my career. This is a clear issue with the acropora flesh itself, internally. I havent added anything to my main system in about a year now. And it is a thriving 180 stick Forest for the most part. The system is about 6 years old and 4 years established after a move.

The issue is in about 5 or 6 colonies amongst 50-60. And has been going on long enough that if it was a pest, even if I couldn't find any traces of them, they would have decimated my entire collection with ease in this amount of time. I quarantine everything in a separate system for usually about a year prior to adding.
The system is a 180 with a 50 gallon frag tank. My parameters are as stable as humanly possible because frankly I'm a loser. I have been obsessed with our hobby for about 17 years now.
Alk- 8
Cal - 420
No3- 5-10
Po4- .1 -.15
Mag- 1280-1320

Lighting is not an issue. I bake my sticks with radiums, always come back to them.

Here is an example of the worst effected. Sad post because this was a beautiful colony.

If any true pros or gurus would like to take a stab at some ideas for what these colonies might be suffering from, Im all ears.
Thanks in advance and as always
Happy Reefing
-James

 

[Yellowsound]

Is there any chance that flow could be the issue? I have seen similar issues when detritus collects in hard to reach places within a colony. You obviously know how to grow acropora, and it doesn’t look like water chemistry or lighting are an issue. When colonies get big like yours - and even when flow appears adequate- the thickets of acro growth can block some of that flow.

Just a thought.

 

[JPergamo]

Is there any chance that flow could be the issue? I have seen similar issues when detritus collects in hard to reach places within a colony. You obviously know how to grow acropora, and it doesn’t look like water chemistry or lighting are an issue. When colonies get big like yours - and even when flow appears adequate- the thickets of acro growth can block some of that flow.

Just a thought.

Anything is possible and thanks for the response. I had this thought a while back but doesn't seem to make a difference if the flow is changed. My 180 has 3 gyres pointing at each other and is pretty turbulent. I recently sold 9 large colonies bigger than the one pictured so I dont believe there is much obstruction due to growth after that small reset. The frags from this particular colony have also shown the similar darkening and tissue issue in my frag tank where they get blasted by gyres as well.

Also wanted to add that I run a quarterly icp test and all has been pretty much on the money over the last 18 months as well.

 

[jda]

Gyre flow is too static for me. I hate them for acropora - too many dead spots even though they move a lot of water. I would lean to flow too, but randomness and back and forth washing more than linear or quantity. You might consider a Tunze wavebox - I love them for colonies since they move all of the tank water at once and keep my colonies from getting anything settled on them. As you know, colonies are a different beast than frags - they require more care and are harder to keep.

 

[JPergamo]

Gyre flow is too static for me. I hate them for acropora - too many dead spots even though they move a lot of water. I would lean to flow too, but randomness and back and forth washing more than linear or quantity. You might consider a Tunze wavebox - I love them for colonies since they move all of the tank water at once and keep my colonies from getting anything settled on them. As you know, colonies are a different beast than frags - they require more care and are harder to keep.

Its interesting, like I said anything is possible with this head scratcher, I will look to add some more random flow and see if maybe I can avoid more detritus settling. I have a pair of mp40s I can add. Here is my scape at the moment in my display.

 

[Yanir34]

So, over the last 6 months or so, a few of my colonies have been suffering from what I can only determine is some sort of condition, be it bacterial infection, zooxanthellae issue, or other flesh problem. In between the branches of established colonies, some bleaching occurs. It manifests as either the flesh thinning and turning white, or in some cases the flesh turns darker, while still having the same issue.

This is not a new problem. It has been a long time I have watched it happen to some, then some recover, while others do not. I have ruled out pests. I am a very long time sps keeper and have dealt with the majority of them in my career. This is a clear issue with the acropora flesh itself, internally. I havent added anything to my main system in about a year now. And it is a thriving 180 stick Forest for the most part. The system is about 6 years old and 4 years established after a move.

The issue is in about 5 or 6 colonies amongst 50-60. And has been going on long enough that if it was a pest, even if I couldn't find any traces of them, they would have decimated my entire collection with ease in this amount of time. I quarantine everything in a separate system for usually about a year prior to adding.
The system is a 180 with a 50 gallon frag tank. My parameters are as stable as humanly possible because frankly I'm a loser. I have been obsessed with our hobby for about 17 years now.
Alk- 8
Cal - 420
No3- 5-10
Po4- .1 -.15
Mag- 1280-1320

Lighting is not an issue. I bake my sticks with radiums, always come back to them.

Here is an example of the worst effected. Sad post because this was a beautiful colony.

If any true pros or gurus would like to take a stab at some ideas for what these colonies might be suffering from, Im all ears.
Thanks in advance and as always
Happy Reefing
-James

Hello friend.
Its seems that some kind of world pandemic, that attacks corals , especially SPS.
Here in israel , we dealing with massive pandemic. I know personally 10 hobbyist that their tanks crashed because of that.
I think it's related to pathogen called VIBRION its know pathogen that attacked many times in the past big natural colonies. it's related to some nasty coral dessise in the wild.
However, there is some hope for your tank ,and for everyone that suffers that problem.
there is 2 products- Blue vet coral rx , Blue vet reef rx . this 2 product's claim to be effective against bacterial diseases , and can be added directly into the tank.
they are reef safe .
I attached 2 pics of this products.
Good luck

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

I would send a sample out for ICP for starters, just for peace of mind. In my public aquarium days, I helped a doctoral student doing coral disease research, sending a lot of samples to histopathology, and I don't recall any actual diseases or bacterial issues identified. This was probably triple digit samples. I agree, it just looks like problems from detritus collecting and smothering the tissue. We had sps colonies over 30", and they had to be fanned off regularly or the detritus just accumulated and caused problems.