Utter Chaos Polyp in trouble

[Malawi_Illinois]

Hey, I originally posted this in the Tank emergency forum, because I didn't read the 'read this before posting' tab, and now realize it should be here.

I've had this Utter Chaos polyp in my 13.5 gallon Fluval Evo, and it really isnt looking too well. It is closed up, has been all day today, and appeared to be shedding this weird coat. There is no ammonia, no phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, however, the PH was at a low 7.0, and instantly I put in a buffer. The water was only that low in ph for a day, as I had just done a large water change to sift detritus out of the sand and lower the nitrate levels to combat a cyanobacteria problem. I have GFO running in a phosban media reactor. It was fine last night, and today it looked like this. I lowered the lights to try and combat stress and put it in direct flow because it looked like there was debris caught around it keeping it from opening (the polyp). No other corals in my tank (trumpets, mushrooms, zoas) are exhibiting any problems. I simply don't know what happened.
I feed the corals Goniopower every so often as well.

 

[Malawi_Illinois]

Here's a picture of the polyp.

 

[Scotty Buttons]

How long have you had the zoa? Was it ever open?

 

[Malawi_Illinois]

How long have you had the zoa? Was it ever open?

Ive had it for a couple months, its opened every day until now.

 

[Scotty Buttons]

I'd guess it had to do with the swing in PH. Once your water stabilizes it should recover.

 

[John3]

Is the tissue white or does it have a brown film on it? Brown film is a bad sign and will cause zoas to close up and normally then melt away.

The pic appears to have brown film but you can never be certain with pics. In your opinion by eye is it still white?

 

[Malawi_Illinois]

Is the tissue white or does it have a brown film on it? Brown film is a bad sign and will cause zoas to close up and normally then melt away.

The pic appears to have brown film but you can never be certain with pics. In your opinion by eye is it still white?

It was a darker brownish film, and the polyp is still closed up and getting worse in appearance.

 

[John3]

I don’t know exactly what this is but they won’t open til it’s gone and it won’t go away by itself. I have had a pretty good success rate using a hydrogen peroxide dip. It will kill the brown film, you will see bubble start coming off it. I normally do 50/50 water/peroxide. I only dip for 1 min. It usually takes 1-2 weeks for full recovery if your water is good.

I have seen this brown film come out of nowhere. I have recently been thinking it might have to do with my skimmer not working great because it needs a cleaning. I can’t say for sure but I’m trying to track this theory now.

 

[Malawi_Illinois]

I don’t know exactly what this is but they won’t open til it’s gone and it won’t go away by itself. I have had a pretty good success rate using a hydrogen peroxide dip. It will kill the brown film, you will see bubble start coming off it. I normally do 50/50 water/peroxide. I only dip for 1 min. It usually takes 1-2 weeks for full recovery if your water is good.

I have seen this brown film come out of nowhere. I have recently been thinking it might have to do with my skimmer not working great because it needs a cleaning. I can’t say for sure but I’m trying to track this theory now.

Yeah, i have a lot of detritus in the water, and a rather good clean up crew composed of hermits and snails. However, do to the nature of the design of this tank I bought, the flow is very poor if the sponge filter is in there, so i switch between using and not using the sponge which ends up messing with my water quality. I basted the corals with a small dropper to force some of the slime off of them with higher pressure water, and they look to be do something different now, i'll have to keep a close eye on them.

 

[Malawi_Illinois]

Update, it was brown fungus, and it killed the utter chaos polyp and a tiny rose bubble anem I had. The anem was doing just fine when i had turned off the lights, and was decaying already when i turned the lights on in the morning. The toxins from the anem took one of my clown fish as well.