Stefaan F
New Member
I have a pest that is killing my acro's/monti's/ seriatopora and stylopora.
I even found it on goniopora and euphyllia, but in low numbers so probably they got there by accident but not really causing a lot of issues?
Video under microscope 100x
https://youtube.com/shorts/WNrUJoQ-dJs?feature=share
It has a pretty strong exosceleton, looks a bit like an ostracod to me.
On the corals it looks like tiny white dots, size of red bugs or even smaller.
They move, but they are slow. They are as visible during the day as they are at night.
If blown from the colony, they are capable of swimming back if there is low to no flow.
The symptoms of the corals are always thesame, first less polyp extension, then a bit of color loss, then some kind of web around the colony, probably just the colony itself sliming? And last stage a slow STN. This takes 1,5-2 months, so pretty slow deterioration.
It is a real pain to see, as it is spreading and dips seem to do more harm to the colony instead of helping.
Does anyone know what this is?
Looks a bit like the 'white bugs' in a few threads on the forum.
Any ideas how I would best treat this?
I am hesitant to use interceptor. Not easy to come by and I have a lot of clean up crew in the tank.
Read about tanks crashing and so on, so tips would be really helpful.
It is a fully stocked 1000 gallon, so taking out all corals or taking out all clean up crew is not an easy job.
But if it needs to be done...
As there probably will be other questions, tank started august 2021, was running great with a lot of growth (also on acros) since about november.
This is 22 march:
https://youtube.com/shorts/DGaUs0xqWJY
There are now still a lot of corals including acros that are doing great, growing rapidly, and seem unaffected.
But there are also a dozen that have already died, and a dozen more that are suffering.
I try to take out badly infected corals and dead parts. I do try to frag when STN'ing, but with a lot of frags I have 0% succes in stopping the STN.
Water parameters are since startup, never gotten far away as I measure frequently:
Salinity 1.025
KH: 8-8,5 checked by GHL KHD and manual measurements
Ca: 410-430
Mg:1360-1380
K: 400-410
NO3: 4-6, it did get to 14 in january, then optimized refugium and before and after january pretty stable.
PO4: 0,04-0,08, It did get to 0,12 in january
Temp: Was 77 °f, In april it got to 79°f or even 80°f a few days. Now I placed ventilators and cooling, so 75 at lowest and 76 highest since 3 weeks.
Other contaminants, I started high in Zn in august, like 170 ppb, slowly got it down over the months to around 40 ppb with water changes.
But it hasn't gone up the last months, so I don't think that is an issue. I do an ICP every month. They are good, not perfect but slowly getting there.
I even found it on goniopora and euphyllia, but in low numbers so probably they got there by accident but not really causing a lot of issues?
Video under microscope 100x
https://youtube.com/shorts/WNrUJoQ-dJs?feature=share
It has a pretty strong exosceleton, looks a bit like an ostracod to me.
On the corals it looks like tiny white dots, size of red bugs or even smaller.
They move, but they are slow. They are as visible during the day as they are at night.
If blown from the colony, they are capable of swimming back if there is low to no flow.
The symptoms of the corals are always thesame, first less polyp extension, then a bit of color loss, then some kind of web around the colony, probably just the colony itself sliming? And last stage a slow STN. This takes 1,5-2 months, so pretty slow deterioration.
It is a real pain to see, as it is spreading and dips seem to do more harm to the colony instead of helping.
Does anyone know what this is?
Looks a bit like the 'white bugs' in a few threads on the forum.
Any ideas how I would best treat this?
I am hesitant to use interceptor. Not easy to come by and I have a lot of clean up crew in the tank.
Read about tanks crashing and so on, so tips would be really helpful.
It is a fully stocked 1000 gallon, so taking out all corals or taking out all clean up crew is not an easy job.
But if it needs to be done...
As there probably will be other questions, tank started august 2021, was running great with a lot of growth (also on acros) since about november.
This is 22 march:
https://youtube.com/shorts/DGaUs0xqWJY
There are now still a lot of corals including acros that are doing great, growing rapidly, and seem unaffected.
But there are also a dozen that have already died, and a dozen more that are suffering.
I try to take out badly infected corals and dead parts. I do try to frag when STN'ing, but with a lot of frags I have 0% succes in stopping the STN.
Water parameters are since startup, never gotten far away as I measure frequently:
Salinity 1.025
KH: 8-8,5 checked by GHL KHD and manual measurements
Ca: 410-430
Mg:1360-1380
K: 400-410
NO3: 4-6, it did get to 14 in january, then optimized refugium and before and after january pretty stable.
PO4: 0,04-0,08, It did get to 0,12 in january
Temp: Was 77 °f, In april it got to 79°f or even 80°f a few days. Now I placed ventilators and cooling, so 75 at lowest and 76 highest since 3 weeks.
Other contaminants, I started high in Zn in august, like 170 ppb, slowly got it down over the months to around 40 ppb with water changes.
But it hasn't gone up the last months, so I don't think that is an issue. I do an ICP every month. They are good, not perfect but slowly getting there.
