Please help im still losing corals. Lost near 600$ in corals so far

[SaltISlife]

Little update. The spots i dabbed sanitizer aka alcohol on the favia in question still havent been dying in fact they have been growing new tissue. This coral is fast as regrowing tissue. Unfortunatly its getting 3-4 more spots in other areas with the same dying spots.

They all end up looking like the lesions on this picture i already posted which is below. Unfortunatly this seems to be spreading now to my other lps. My bubble coral thats basketball sized is getting random spots where the flesh just melts slowely. It has 4 holes in it now. Two are fairly large. But no brown jelly or anything. The bubble i can see is trying to heal itself. By moving its bubbles to the affected areas and sqeezing itself in those areas to clamp the open wounds. When it seems like its getting better another pin hole opens up that gets bigger and bigger.

I just found two affected heads of my trumpet corals. The flesh looks like its stning but its leaving behind a grey colored detrius in its wake. Which looks identical to the grey detrius you see in my picture below.

All these things is whats been happening to the locals in this local fish store ive been going too. They lose favias acans, bubble coral they had died off. Ive seen torch corals die similarly.

I thought it was his water ( much like you guys think its mine) but he uses rodi and this is a brand new store only a year old. Other people have noticed this in his tanks as well and we all talked and think its bacterial as well or some kind of infection.

And unfortunatly i have it now. The chalices and one favia i lost are one thing. But with it spreading to my basketball sized bubble coral (when inflated) its starting to really worry me. Same with the trumpets.


Back to the favia i used the alcohol santizer on. I dunno what to do with this coral. Im going to pull it out and dab the new 4-5 spots in sanitizer alcohol as it did work to stop the spread in previous areas.

But this wont stop the issue as a whole in the tank though. Im not sure how to progress from here.

Ive brought this up with the store owner and he admits he has seen his LPS decline in his store since he started. And honestly no one can figure it out. And with it spreading to my tank i almost feel like i need to call the name out on this store. Because this isnt funny whats going on right now. I could potentially lose 3,000$ in lps. If this kills my torchs or bubbles or gonis and so forth.

I bought an icp test and mailed it out so well see what that says. But im doubting itll show anything really off whack. Im still doubting its my tap since again that store uses nothing but RODI in its tanks.

Here are the pics. First one i posted.. but you see the detrius in the dead spots ? I see this on all the stony corals when they get these areas. Its wierd. And the spots on the bubble look like somethung tore it or ate it. But it isnt that ive watched by sitting for hours as holes got bigger progressivly over many hours. Flow was always low as well. Right now i made it extremely low in this area so it can try to heal itself as i noticed it covering the wounds with bubbles it looks to be sacrificing bubbles to form new flesh its interesting to watch.

Ive also attached the pic of the trumpet i circle the head. You can see how its dead on half the head now. And leaves behind that detrius i see on the other corals.. im not even going to dip or dsb that head. Ima just cut it off and toss it to try and stop whatever it is from getting to the other trumpets

 

[DeniseAndy]

I would not use alcohol, but maybe peroxide instead. Another option for your large bubble coral is a iodine (lugol's solution) dip. I am really not sure what could be causing your issues. Absolutely no parasites? I hope you find a solution and can keep those nice big corals. You may have to separate into a qt.

 

[SaltISlife]

I would not use alcohol, but maybe peroxide instead. Another option for your large bubble coral is a iodine (lugol's solution) dip. I am really not sure what could be causing your issues. Absolutely no parasites? I hope you find a solution and can keep those nice big corals. You may have to separate into a qt.

I cant find peroxide locally. Its why i had to use the sanitizer or alcohol basically. It did work so it should keep working.

But i wont use it on my bubble. Not sure what to do with it. Ive just been leaving it alone. Some spots seem to be healing like the one you see the septa the skeleton on. Has healed a little. But the other spot in my pics has gotten 2x worse.


Im trying a potassium permanganate dip now for the favia. Ive used potassium permanganate for fresh water diseases with success.. i dipped the favia in question in a 1 gallon solution i made for 15 minutes. Didnt seen to wffect the coral other than some sliming. But it did immediatly kill aome amphipods and brittle stars. This stuff is much stronger than coral dips most people use. Its fungal bacterial and parasitical. People use it for well water to control bacteria ect and many other things.


So im curious to see what will happen with the favia in this dip. I opted to cut thr offending head off the trumpet and tossed it. And dipped it in the PP (potassium permanganate) mix i made.

Well see i guess. Debating on dipping the bubble coral in this or not.

But i might wait to see if itll heal itself. Due to its size i feel it has a better chance of healing than if it were typical smaller sized bubbles.

I mean it inflates fully during the day. So youd never know it had issues. Here it was yesturday

 

[tvan]

Witch-hazel is an antibacterial as well

 

[SaltISlife]

Should also note i have two other reef tanks( mentiomed it before) . Same water same salt. No affected corals. But none of these tanks had any new editions added unlike my main tanks

 

[SaltISlife]

Also i plan to keep the thread updated with progress of my dips. Or other methods to fix this infection going on.

 

[X-37B]

After everything ive read I do believe its a bacterial infection.
You may never get a handle on it as their is so much we still dont know about the subject.
I will still follow as im curious to the outcome if their is one.
My pure guess is it came in on a wild acro from the lfs.
Anyway good luck.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Last warning to all, enough taking shots at other members, this will not be tolerated. Warnings will follow.

 

[SaltISlife]

After everything ive read I do believe its a bacterial infection.
You may never get a handle on it as their is so much we still dont know about the subject.
I will still follow as im curious to the outcome if their is one.
My pure guess is it came in on a wild acro from the lfs.
Anyway good luck.

Thats my worry if its in the tank i may never stop it.

Whats worse is my uv sterilizer burned up 2 days ago. Came home and smelled burned plastic and the Jabao or however they spell there name uv was melted. It was oddly still on.. it wasnt wet, but it burned a hole through the glass and the unit itself on the upper portion where thr bulb plugs into.

So i gatta get a new one. I think if its a pathogen a Uv might help slow it.

I decided to dip my bubble ciral. I didnt want to touch it originally as they can be sensitive. But its just getting more holes all over. Has about 7 or so now. I got sone Lugols from brightwell and did 3 gallons of water ina bucket and did about 100 drops. Due to the size of the bubble i needed 3 gallons to even get it submerged.

The dip didnt seem to bother it. Im going to get some brighwell Coral Recover today and dip it again in that stuff. Supposedly its all natural and promotes healing from injured or fragged corals. I cant find much info on it but i heared wwc and brs uses it. So well see.



I will report the lemon lime favias 3 chunks made a full recovery. They stopped and healed quickly. A platygyra i dipped in doxycycline in the beggining still is showing 0 signs of infection.

The other larger palm sized peice i dipped in potassium permanganate stopped receeding and getting that weird grey detrius on infection areas. However the coral turned brown due to the pink color potassium permanganate and it doesnt seem to have taken it very well. I might done the dip too long. Or too high of a dose. BUT whatever infection it had has fully stopped.

I noticed another head on my green trumpet showing a small hole in it and i witnessed a tiny peice float off like sparkle size. So i dipped it in lugols last night for 10 min.

I also dipped the hand sized favia that ive been spot dabbing with sanitizer (aka alcohol) and it seens to be doing great as well. The santiizer i sware really helped lol it stopped dead in the tracks those spots that were forming and slowly killing the coral. I just did lugols to prevent anymore new ones from forming. Or at least hope it will.


So ive had some success with the different anti bacterial dips using doxycycline, potassium permanganate. Or spot treating with acohol and q tips. Three different anti bacterial methods and they all worked.

So lets hope the lugols helps the bubble. I cant exactly spot treat that coral with alcohol and i dont think i want to go harssh with potassium permanganate so well see.

Ill keep this updated with progress on the lugols dips and that brightwell coral recover. Hopefully i can save the bubble. I wont be dipping it dozens of times. Just a few times. Every couple of days and then observe it as dipping can make things worse if you over do it

 

[SaltISlife]

Well the coral dipped in potassium permanganate is still doing good. Ni signs of further infection. But i did a high dose 0.05grams for 2 quarts of water. Too high of a dose. The favia is alive but deff got stained brown but seems to slowely be coming back.

This infection spread my small colony of green trumpets.. so i dipped it in a light dose of potassium permanganate doesnt seem to have caused any reaction well see how it does infection wise though.

I also dipped my large bubble coral in a medium concentration. About 0.15grams for 5 gallons of water. Did 10 min dip. Will report back if it had any effect. The bubble is going down hill fast. Has holes all over it cant even count em.

My large baby blue trumpet colony had an infected head last night i removed. This is just attacking nothing but lps.

When i get more results of these 3 dips. I might be taking my star fish and inverts out of the tank. And dose potassium permanganate in the entire tank. For a 1 hour or so bath. At low doses. This will have affect on my biological filter.. as it kills all bacteria mold. Fungus. And it will most likely kill all my fauna in the tank from pods. To worms ect. But at this point. I dont care about that stuff.

I just want to wipe out this disease in the tank. I cant have it continue attacking lps corals.

Hydrogren peroxide will 100% neutralize the Pp in the tank when im done. So i wont need to do huge water changes and use a crap ton of carbon to get it out.

Will report on progress. Hopefully the dipping in pot perm of the bubble and candycane works like it did on the favia.

Doing some research it seems others have experimented on potassium permanganate on corals. Mainky to kill nudibranchs. It seems be 100% effective in killing those and their eggs. But its hard to find any info other than 1 or 2 accounts of peoole use it in a reef tank.

I know in fresh water ive dosed it in the entire tank before with plants and discus and it didnt kill anything as far as plant life or my fish go. And lots if fresh water people have done this for koi diseases and so forth.

I believe pot perm also kills ich and velvet as it does kill inverts

 

[DeniseAndy]

Man, I am so sorry for this. I had to watch my montis all become infected over months. I could do nothing really. Too large and too covered in rocks. I think mine started with an alk spike. I have not kept montis since. I just got a few for my traveling tank.
I really hope you get some saved. Best luck!

 

[SaltISlife]

Man, I am so sorry for this. I had to watch my montis all become infected over months. I could do nothing really. Too large and too covered in rocks. I think mine started with an alk spike. I have not kept montis since. I just got a few for my traveling tank.
I really hope you get some saved. Best luck!

Thanks

 

[SaltISlife]

Another update. Did a 2nd dip of potassium permanganate this time at higher dosage. One more scoop in 5 gallons of 0.05 grams. When i say one more scoop its the sane red scoops in the salifert test kits. Thats how powerfull potassium permanganate is. The bucket now had 3 total. The bubble coral DID NOT like that 3rd scoop. Again im experiementing here.

So it seems 0.10 grans for 5 gallons is thr better dip solution. Decided to no longer dip the coral and stress it out anymore as it has been through two lugols and two pot perm dips.

I got the Brightwell Koral Recover bottle yesturday.

Smells like Herbtana or Microbe life that petco sells. But then coral RX Smells like it. So this leaves me to believe this bottle has tea tree oil and lavender in it. Not sure what else it has though. It very well could ve the same stuff as herbtana lol. You lut this stuff in your entirr tank for 7 days then another 7 days after. So far it hasnt affected fish, shrimps, snails or crabs or my star fish. My lps did shrink initially but theyre fine now

But hey its worth a try. Im on day 2 of this stuff.

Here is the bubble after the 2nd potassium permanganate dip. And here it is now. I moved it to a diff spot of the aquarium in the 2nd pic. Same bubble though lol.

Day 2 of the brightweel koral recover and it still look good. Granted not basket ball sized.. shredded all over from tissue dying. But if its bubbles are out with so much damage it has sustained then im hopefull it will recover.


I had to remove a 2nd head of my baby blue trumpet corala. Thats 2 heads on my colony that i had to remove due to tissue sloughing off from this infection. My 4 head green trumpets. I dont think will make it. I have three heads left. Two are half gone. One is starting. So i dont have any hopes of that coming back.

I will also report that my brain corals seem infection free. I no longer see any more recession on any of them.

 

[SaltISlife]

Update. Thr bubble keeps deteriotating and whatever it is still spreading in my tank.

I decided to take the two bubbles put them back in my main tank. And I got doxycycline and erythromycin. I opted to go doxy though because it attacks gran positive and negative bacteria and the other antibiotic is mainly positive with some negative.

Im on day 4 of antibiotics after day 2 and 3 i noticed whatever is killing my corals stopped. My trumpets that were infected have stopped receeding. The 2nd bubble coral stopped receeding. And unfortunatly the big green bubble its a little too late as its 80% dead but it might make it and come backcand regrow if i can stop this.

I decided on day 4 to dose both doxy and erythromycin together. Ive also been dosing the koral recover which usues those essential oils like tea trea and so forth in conjunction.

I read papers where topical ointments used with essential oils and doxycycline increased the rate of bacterial death. So why not use em together in my tank. Same goes with erythromycin. I decided to add it together on day 4 to make sure thr bacteria doesnt get resistant to my doxycycline and if it does the other antibiotic should take care of it.

I have only enough doxy to go two more days for 6 days. And enough erythromycin to go 3 more days. So ill go for the 3 more todays total. And leave it in my tank for another 24 to 48 hours. So 9 days total of antibiotics maybe 10 days but im not sure how effective the existing antibtiotics in the water will be for 2 or 3 days of not dosing.

Anyway. After that ill do a water change use carbon and poly filter to remove everything. And hopefully this stops it.

If 7-10 days of antibiotics doesnt stop it i dunno what will.

The only side effect im noticing is thr doxy is turning my water pink. And now its dark purple. Its so dark its shadowing my light and my corals are reaching way up to get any light. Its actually way darker than this picture.

But again after day 2 and 3 i noticed the trumpets that were dying had stopped 90-100% and day 4 same thing.. no more recession. Theyd be dead by the 2nd or 3rd day after they got infected.

So i am 100% positive this is working

 

[SaltISlife]

Well final update.. did 7 days of doxycycline. Then did a 50 gallons water chabge. And added poly fill and 6 filter sicks if carbon. Bout 22oz wirth.

Took 3 days ti clear up fully. Did a 2nd 50 gallon water change. My 2nd infected bubble is clear now. It loiks great. The big green one stopped dying although it died 90% of the way as i started thr antibiotics to late. My favias all look good. My acans look great. And my trumpets stopped dying too.

So the doxycycline worked. And i saved my LPS corals. So glad i listened ti myself and not everyone on here about my tap being the cause. I knew it was an infection.

Anyway. This will be my last update. I hope it helps someone that searchs.

Fyi went to the local fish stire that was the cause of the infection.. yep still has coral dying. Look at this plate coral. All its skeleton is showing 30% of the coral is dead on one half. Its hardee ti see in the pic than in person but yea... Its identical looking to what my corals were going through

 

[Dkmoo]

I'll be sure to save this for when I run into bacterial issues and be sure to ask yiu!

 

[DeniseAndy]

Nicely done and thanks for sharing.

 

[SaltISlife]

Thank you. Yea i just took the 6 bags of carbon out 22oz worth. They smell of that herbal koral recover. So i think theyre exausted already after 3-4 days. I decided to buy more carbon and empty the bags and refill. So another 22oz is in the tank. Just to be sure i get all that herbal oil stuff out and antibiotics.

 

[afishbestservedcold]

Well final update.. did 7 days of doxycycline. Then did a 50 gallons water chabge. And added poly fill and 6 filter sicks if carbon. Bout 22oz wirth.

Took 3 days ti clear up fully. Did a 2nd 50 gallon water change. My 2nd infected bubble is clear now. It loiks great. The big green one stopped dying although it died 90% of the way as i started thr antibiotics to late. My favias all look good. My acans look great. And my trumpets stopped dying too.

So the doxycycline worked. And i saved my LPS corals. So glad i listened ti myself and not everyone on here about my tap being the cause. I knew it was an infection.

Anyway. This will be my last update. I hope it helps someone that searchs.

Fyi went to the local fish stire that was the cause of the infection.. yep still has coral dying. Look at this plate coral. All its skeleton is showing 30% of the coral is dead on one half. Its hardee ti see in the pic than in person but yea... Its identical looking to what my corals were going through

WAIT ONE MINUTE. are you telling me you live in NYC and use tap...green light me please I cant stand buying water anymore!!

 

[afishbestservedcold]

Also, OP, could you please tell us what store you got the rock/products from?? Good work on solving it, don't mind the bozos.