Spotty SPS Tissue Loss Over the Past Year

[JBertram1245]

Hi all,

Over the past year, I have been struggling with an on-and-off issue with my sps corals. I have looked through countless threads to try and determine a solution but I have yet to prevail. The issue I am having has been very difficult to pinpoint, my system will be doing great for a month of good growth on all corals, and then poof I get these weird areas of tissue loss on some of the sps corals. I don’t believe it is stn because the affected area never spreads and the tissue repairs itself within a couple of weeks. This is a repetitive cycle that affects almost all of my sps corals on and off but never more than 2 colonies at a time. I have maintained these parameters consistently throughout the past year plus.



Alk- 8.5-8.8 DKH (Trident/Hanna)

Cal – 425-450 ppm (Trident)

Mag – 1300 ppm (Trident)

Nitrate – 10-12 (Hanna)

Phosphate – 0.06-0.8 (Hanna)

Daily Ph 7.9 – 8.32 (Hanna)



Dosing –

All for reef and Kalkwasser (Trying to wean off AFR)

NeoNitro

NeoPhos

Once a week Acropower



I have had aefw before so I know what to look for and there is no signs of bite marks on any of the corals, I have tried dipping the affected corals and nothing but pods have ever been discovered on the plugs. All of my sps corals have plenty of flow and at a minimum 275 par, max around 350. I do bi-weekly water changes, and feed 3 times a day. At this point, I have no idea what could be causing this issue. The one thing I have noticed is that the tissue loss is always in areas of the most flow. Im not sure if something is burning the tissue? Could too much AFR cause something like this? Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? I have been stumped for over a year now. Any advice would be great!



Thanks!

-Jack

 

[Dburr1014]

What's your stocking list? Fish, cuc, ect?

 

[JBertram1245]

What's your stocking list? Fish, cuc, ect?

Sailfin, Blue Hippo Tang, Yellow Tang, Chromis, Clowfish, Possum Wrasse, and a cleaner Shrimp. Several Trocus Snails

 

[Dburr1014]

How are you dosing Kalk and how long have you been doing it?
Those marks are strange. It's it possible Kalk is getting to it and burning it?

 

[Reeflix]

sooo .8 phos is wayyyyy to high... phos is a toxin in large amounts and can "burn coral". it is where the coral is growing a new skeleton and the chemicals used for making the skeleton atracts phos and the phos sticks to the new skeleton and the coral cant grow the "skin" there. my second guess is some kind of white band disease but not exactly that

 

[Sabellafella]

Hi all,

Over the past year, I have been struggling with an on-and-off issue with my sps corals. I have looked through countless threads to try and determine a solution but I have yet to prevail. The issue I am having has been very difficult to pinpoint, my system will be doing great for a month of good growth on all corals, and then poof I get these weird areas of tissue loss on some of the sps corals. I don’t believe it is stn because the affected area never spreads and the tissue repairs itself within a couple of weeks. This is a repetitive cycle that affects almost all of my sps corals on and off but never more than 2 colonies at a time. I have maintained these parameters consistently throughout the past year plus.



Alk- 8.5-8.8 DKH (Trident/Hanna)

Cal – 425-450 ppm (Trident)

Mag – 1300 ppm (Trident)

Nitrate – 10-12 (Hanna)

Phosphate – 0.06-0.8 (Hanna)

Daily Ph 7.9 – 8.32 (Hanna)



Dosing –

All for reef and Kalkwasser (Trying to wean off AFR)

NeoNitro

NeoPhos

Once a week Acropower



I have had aefw before so I know what to look for and there is no signs of bite marks on any of the corals, I have tried dipping the affected corals and nothing but pods have ever been discovered on the plugs. All of my sps corals have plenty of flow and at a minimum 275 par, max around 350. I do bi-weekly water changes, and feed 3 times a day. At this point, I have no idea what could be causing this issue. The one thing I have noticed is that the tissue loss is always in areas of the most flow. Im not sure if something is burning the tissue? Could too much AFR cause something like this? Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? I have been stumped for over a year now. Any advice would be great!



Thanks!

-Jack

If they are lacking PE, could be something parasitic. Might need a closer look

I've had euphyllia polyps float around my tank before, burn up some holes in my acros from time to time.

 

[Dburr1014]

sooo .8 phos is wayyyyy to high... phos is a toxin in large amounts and can "burn coral". it is where the coral is growing a new skeleton and the chemicals used for making the skeleton atracts phos and the phos sticks to the new skeleton and the coral cant grow the "skin" there. my second guess is some kind of white band disease but not exactly that

I think he missed a zero.
Po4 0.06-0.8 I think should read...po4 0.06-0.08

 

[Reeflix]

i was gonna say...

 

[Reeflix]

I think he missed a zero.
Po4 0.06-0.8 I think should read...po4 0.06-0.08

that seems right. .08

 

[JBertram1245]

sooo .8 phos is wayyyyy to high... phos is a toxin in large amounts and can "burn coral". it is where the coral is growing a new skeleton and the chemicals used for making the skeleton atracts phos and the phos sticks to the new skeleton and the coral cant grow the "skin" there. my second guess is some kind of white band disease but not exactly that

Sorry, yes I did miss a zero

 

[JBertram1245]

If they are lacking PE, could be something parasitic. Might need a closer look

I've had euphyllia polyps float around my tank before, burn up some holes in my acros from time to time.

The affected corals lack good PE when they get those marks but after a few weeks PE returns and the spots heal over. How would you recommend diagnosing for a parasite. Microscope?

 

[JBertram1245]

How are you dosing Kalk and how long have you been doing it?
Those marks are strange. It's it possible Kalk is getting to it and burning it?

Ive been dosing kalk into my overflow for 6 months now. Everything should have time to mix into the water column by the time it returns from the sump.

 

[ScottB]

Pure speculation, but since you did not list shrimp or crabs in your stock list there is no harm mentioning the possibility of parasitic pods. Too small to see without magnification. Do some research on Interceptor (milbemycin oxime) dosing. Safe for fish/coral/snails but deadly for shrimp & crabs.

@sculpin01 has a name & pics for the buggers I had. I no longer have those images tho. Super small but can severely irritate & kill some acros. Not big on chemicals myself but in my case it made a huge difference. Several acro vendors here dose the stuff prophylactically every 6 months or so.

 

[sculpin01]

Alteuthellopsis corallina. Dies in KCl dip (10 g/L tank water for 5-10 minutes). Probably susceptible to milbemycin.

 

[JBertram1245]

Thank you @sculpin01 and @ScottB for the advice! Definitely going to do some more research on your suggestions. It would definitely be worth the try. I'm out of options at this point. I think i'm going to get a microscope as well, hopefully that will help narrow down the culprit. Thanks again!