@ReeferZ1227
I know your busy at the moment. Can you keep us all updated on your progress and how you deal with these bugs?
Thanks!
@billyocean as well.
Hey just wanted to provide an update on this, since i had committed to do so, things have been out of hand crazy busy.
I didnt leave AKL until near midnight with a 2.5hr drive hhome.we had dipped everything in KCl 2tbsp per gallon for 10-15min, and packed them up in bags and containers. I got home, unpacked all the coolers and insulated boxes into the house, loaded fish in tank, and went to bed. By morning alot of SPS had milky containers/bags.
Long story short, i should have treated with antibiotics, but I handled everything as if it was flatworms. With the wipe out, I had assumed it was bacterial infection. I did see those blue flatworms make a come back a month ago or so and just hit the sticks with KCl dips for a few weeks. I may do a shot of flatworm exit to wrap it all up. Havent seen any signs of them since the first dip, and the tank is growing SPS.
I did not lose a single LPS or soft coral in the transfer. I lost at least 95% of the SPS, before even unpacking. Water had tested good. Perhaps it was a combination of things. I hammered amox and cipro into the tank for a week (500mg 1x per day, 130gal tank) and losses subsided.
Sad story as that was a really incredible SPS tank when i got there, and couldnt believe we were tearing it down. When i woke up the next day and saw the RTN i was pretty crushed.
From an ego perspective im glad they RTNd in the bags and not the tank, as having felt like i killed them in my tank would have really been a miserable blemish on my own reef keeping record.
The only thing I can think is something bacterial in nature, and the mass dipping transferring infection before packaging. Nothing out of the ordinary occured during breakdown. At one point I had written flatworms off entirely due to the extent of RTN with no pests present and every single piece thoroughly dipped. Then i had saw them a month or so later.
There was one anomaly. I went to dip the remaining SPS when the resurgence of blue flatworms occured and there was a few chunks that had a brown goo/paste form underneath the base on them. It was almost like brown jelly. It stuck to the racks. I still have no idea what that was.
Bout all i can provide to conclude this story.