White patches on SPS

[Steve's reef]

Hi,
I have two pieces of SPS that have started developing white patches, all other pieces are doing fine.
They've been in the tank about 3 weeks as have 3 others that came as part of the same order.

Parameters are:
Ph 8.0
1.024 Salinity
9.3dKH Alk
0.04 ppm Phosphate
0.8 ppm Nitrate
393 ppm Calcium
1280 ppm Magnesium
PAR (Seneye) 240

Pictures taken with lights off.

Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

[jda]

That is tissue necrosis. Not good.

If you have a lot of fish that you are feeding, then your building blocks are fine. Some will tell you that the no3 is too low, but it is not if you have nitrogen in ammonia. My po4 and no3 levels are well lower than those and my acropora are fine, but they have all of the phosphorous and nitrogen that they need in more available sources from the fish waste.

Get back to the basics... check your temp with something with mercury in it. Recalibrate your refractometer. Make sure that you do not have any pests or fish munching on them - everybody first reaction is to dismiss this, but it is a real thing that happens to many.

If everything else is fine and well, then you might just have to let these go. You can risk them trying to do too much.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with some of the above. I think your alk is to high for the low nutrients levels you show. Calcium is slightly low along with magnesium. Par is low also but since newly added that's ok.

How old is the tank?

 

[dwest]

Your tank might need more time before sps too if less than a year or so old.

 

[Steve's reef]

Thanks for your replies, it's much appreciated.

I will double check temp.

I calibrate my refractometer before every use as it's quick and easy.
Do you think my salinity is OK or should I bring it up to 1.025/6?

I have adjusted my doser to bring calcium and magnesium up and Alk down a bit, I'm aiming for 8.5 for Alk.

The tank has been set up a year last month.

I feed the fish once or twice a day with frozen food and add phyto a few times a week.

I also dose a small amount of iodine and manganese as recommended by an ICP test.

Do they look past it or is it worth doing anything to try and save them?

Thanks again.

 

[jda]

I would run 35 PPT. It probably wont change this, but every little thing helps.

If you feel like doing something, then change some water - helps much more than we can think of.

I would not throw the corals out. They could come back. I just would not do too much if everything else is healthy... just for-sure known stuff like salinity, temp and the basics that everything would benefit from.

Iodine is tricky. ICP is horrible at testing is since it combines all of the forms - like telling you that 11 people are present when you want a football team and you need to know the differences in those people to perform right. You might not even be deficient in the kind that matters. Same with dosing... all of the halides are poisons at some level and most forms of iodine are not useful in a reef tank. I hope that you are dosing iodide. Some dose poison, but it usually is at levels that do not matter. Even then, there is no proof that iodide is useful - Dr. RHF has written many times about this.

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks for your replies, it's much appreciated.

I will double check temp.

I calibrate my refractometer before every use as it's quick and easy.
Do you think my salinity is OK or should I bring it up to 1.025/6?

I have adjusted my doser to bring calcium and magnesium up and Alk down a bit, I'm aiming for 8.5 for Alk.

The tank has been set up a year last month.

I feed the fish once or twice a day with frozen food and add phyto a few times a week.

I also dose a small amount of iodine and manganese as recommended by an ICP test.

Do they look past it or is it worth doing anything to try and save them?

Thanks again.

I would turn par up to 300 if you can and dose aminos twice a week if you intend to run ULNS also. Sometimes they come back

 

[Steve's reef]

Thanks for all your replies.
I'll take not of suggestions and see how I/they get on.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Did this happen before or after your fluxrx treatment?

FluxRX, Pistol Shrimp and Elysia crispata (Sea lettuce)

Hi, I have 90 litre mixed reef and have to finally admit defeat with hair algae and think it's time to give FluxRX a go. I have some critters I'm concerned about though, can anyone say if my pistol shrimp, sea lettuce slug (Elysia crispata), peppermint shrimps and Tuxedo Urchin as well as...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Nevermind. I bet your problem is elevated alk combined with over stripping your tank with rowaphos and carbon, all believing this will reduce your hair algae……but it won’t. All it does is kill your acros.

Algae help - hair algae or something else?

Hi, Can anyone ID this algae and how to get rid of it? Thanks. Tank has been set up for a year, parameters are: 90 Litre all in one tank Protein skimmer 24 hours a day Reactor with carbon and Rowaphos Lights on 10 hours which includes ramp up and down of an hour each and using AB+ spectrum...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Steve's reef]

Did this happen before or after your fluxrx treatment?

FluxRX, Pistol Shrimp and Elysia crispata (Sea lettuce)

Hi, I have 90 litre mixed reef and have to finally admit defeat with hair algae and think it's time to give FluxRX a go. I have some critters I'm concerned about though, can anyone say if my pistol shrimp, sea lettuce slug (Elysia crispata), peppermint shrimps and Tuxedo Urchin as well as...

www.reef2reef.com

Hi,
I didn't use FluxRX in the end, I am still persevering without using chemicals.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Hi,
I didn't use FluxRX in the end, I am still persevering without using chemicals.

That’s why I said never mind in my follow up post.
Your algae and your po4 absorbers are consuming the organic po4 before your corals get a chance to utilize it. You’re starving your corals. Get rid of the media.

Or get rid of the algae

Micro dose of flucozanole

I have been battling a bad bryopsis outbreak for over a year. Maybe even longer but the last 12 months have been awful. It seemed to spread exponentially within a couple days each time I would manually remove as much as I could. I actually developed tendinitis in my elbow from spending so much...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

That’s why I said never mind in my follow up post.
Your algae and your po4 absorbers are consuming the organic po4 before your corals get a chance to utilize it. You’re starving your corals. Get rid of the media.

Or get rid of the algae

Micro dose of flucozanole

I have been battling a bad bryopsis outbreak for over a year. Maybe even longer but the last 12 months have been awful. It seemed to spread exponentially within a couple days each time I would manually remove as much as I could. I actually developed tendinitis in my elbow from spending so much...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Steve's reef]

Nevermind. I bet your problem is elevated alk combined with over stripping your tank with rowaphos and carbon, all believing this will reduce your hair algae……but it won’t. All it does is kill your acros.

Algae help - hair algae or something else?

Hi, Can anyone ID this algae and how to get rid of it? Thanks. Tank has been set up for a year, parameters are: 90 Litre all in one tank Protein skimmer 24 hours a day Reactor with carbon and Rowaphos Lights on 10 hours which includes ramp up and down of an hour each and using AB+ spectrum...

www.reef2reef.com

Sorry, I didn't see this comment before replying.

There is very little algae now, what there is I manually remove with my weekly water change.
I have started slowly lowering Alk.
I've also reduced the light period but increased the PAR slightly.
All other corals including acros are doing OK, it's only really one of the acros that has white patches now.

Thanks for the link to the 'Micro doze of Fluconazole' thread.