ManGups Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Check for pest first as other suggested. Take a white container with tank water - use a turkey baster and see if anything falls out. Night stakeout with flashlight also before u start diping. Hopefully it is no pests. If no pest superglue the white area. I agree this is frustrating. I have RTN on 3 of my easy SPS while the tough one is doing fine with polyp growth. My red planet acro has no polpys showing for a week but no RTN. My red digits is growing white with little polyp extension and I can't figure out what happened. Did a couple of night stakeout and did not find any find any pests. I have just left is like that for now and just trying to get my tank a little dirty. Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Ya I still am leaning toward something eating it unfortunately. Me too. those are bite marks IMO. Where is Markalot? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Check for pest first as other suggested. Take a white container with tank water - use a turkey baster and see if anything falls out. Me too. those are bite marks IMO. Where is Markalot? I basted the colony but only pods popped off. My plan right now is to iodine dip the colony tonight, and see if I can get anything weird to come off, plus it acts as a guard against possible bacterial infection. Does that seem like a solid plan? Mark, pls chime in! Link to comment
Bingo1213 Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Sounds good to me! I am all about coral dipping. I do not feel it causes additional stress. Ik everyone has a different opinion on that so take it with a grain of salt! My dip of choice is CoralRX its all I have ever used. And I see not additional stress from dips! Best of luck! Moreso than bacteria? I'm trying to figure out how I should proceed. Should I iodine dip it, and follow it with a bayer dip? What's the proper procedure here? It could be bacteria as well but I still think pests. Either way a dip will help! Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Sounds good to me! I am all about coral dipping. I do not feel it causes additional stress. Ik everyone has a different opinion on that so take it with a grain of salt! My dip of choice is CoralRX its all I have ever used. And I see not additional stress from dips! Best of luck! It could be bacteria as well but I still think pests. Either way a dip will help! Great. Hopefully this iodine dip will help. RIP Acrocrabs though. I'm actually gonna see if I can use a toothpick to flick the crabs out. Link to comment
markalot Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Looks very familiar to how I used to lose SPS. Phosphate swing by overuse of GFO was my issue, but any swing will do it, not just PO4 and KH. I haven't read the whole thread but what changed? What, if any, maintenance was done? Do you have a calibrated refractometer to verify proper salinity? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Looks very familiar to how I used to lose SPS. Phosphate swing by overuse of GFO was my issue, but any swing will do it, not just PO4 and KH. I haven't read the whole thread but what changed? What, if any, maintenance was done? Do you have a calibrated refractometer to verify proper salinity? There have been a few changes, here are the most notable ones. Maintenance: Every other day water changes (1 gallon) instead of 5 gallons at the end of the week. I realized that my alk was swinging from 7dKH up to 10dKH whenever I used to do water changes, so I started doing 1 gallon water changes 2 weeks ago. Food: Decreased feedings slightly, went from 1.75 cubes + Zeovit + BRS Reef Chili a week down to 1 cube a week + Zeovit + BRS Reef Chili Refractometer: Was the first thing I checked. When this happened, I recalibrated it and checked salinity, it was still 1.025 Frags: Added 3 new frags, two of which have RTN'd away. Lights: No Change Water Flow: No Change Filtration: No Change (Still using biopellets and KNO3 dosing with weekly MB7 redoses). Link to comment
uwdanno Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I had similar tissue loss on my millie just this week. I dipped and turkey basted it too. Lots of flesh came off in that processes but it appears to have stabilized. I'm convinced it was a pest as well. Link to comment
Bingo1213 Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 You can save your acro crabs you just have to be super fast! I've done it before and it's a small feat. What you need to do is dip the coral and 90 percent of the time the acro crabs freak out and let go of the coral. When they do this you only have seconds to grab them before the die. Have some good tank water ready in a cup for them to go in. Then after you dip the acro clean it in tank water and then put it in the container with the acro crabs. They usually go back in no problem. It's just a matter of them letting go and you catching them in time! May the odds be ever in your favor! Hahahaha Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Mark, are you thinking this is nutrient related and not pests? Link to comment
Bingo1213 Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 There have been a few changes, here are the most notable ones. Maintenance: Every other day water changes (1 gallon) instead of 5 gallons at the end of the week. I realized that my alk was swinging from 7dKH up to 10dKH whenever I used to do water changes, so I started doing 1 gallon water changes 2 weeks ago. Food: Decreased feedings slightly, went from 1.75 cubes + Zeovit + BRS Reef Chili a week down to 1 cube a week + Zeovit + BRS Reef Chili Refractometer: Was the first thing I checked. When this happened, I recalibrated it and checked salinity, it was still 1.025 Frags: Added 3 new frags, two of which have RTN'd away. Lights: No Change Water Flow: No Change Filtration: No Change (Still using biopellets and KNO3 dosing with weekly MB7 redoses). I didn't realize you were using zeovit and Reef Chili I must have missed that. With that I don't think it is nutrient deprived at all! It could still be nutrient swings such as phosphate. But I really really doubt its a lack of nutrients! Have you had any swings in alk since you started doing every other day water changes? Link to comment
ndrobey Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I see what look like crab claw marks on the denuded areas. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 I didn't realize you were using zeovit and Reef Chili I must have missed that. With that I don't think it is nutrient deprived at all! It could still be nutrient swings such as phosphate. But I really really doubt its a lack of nutrients! Have you had any swings in alk since you started doing every other day water changes? My alk has slowly climbed to 8-9 dkH. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 That iodine dip might have been the best idea I've done. After I dipped all of my acros in Iodine Tincture + Salt water, I didn't notice too much in the water (only a few black spots that moved around, and what looked like a purple bordered flatworm). The SPS looked like they were pissed as shit however. 8 hours post-dip, I checked on the tank this morning. This is the first time I've ever gotten night-time polyp extension on my acros in a long time. Perhaps the dip did kill something that was pissing off the acro. Unfortunately, one of my acrocrabs is missing but the other one is still alive! I think the other one took too long to freak out and let go of the acro when I dipped it. Will continue updating. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 I really don't know what caused my STN, whether it was pests or phosphates/nitrates dropping too quickly, too low. The iodine dip seemed to halt the STN so far though. I'm also still getting more polyp extension than I've gotten in the past few months, which is a relief. Although iodine dipping seems like it was effective, I think what Mark said has a lot of merit. Yesterday morning, I was reading at 3-4 ppm nitrates, so I did not dose KNO3. As per my usual routine, I fed 1 drop of Zeovit Coral Vitalizer and 2 drops of Sponge Power and 1 scoop of BRS Reef Chili in the morning, followed by 1/4 cube of mysis in the evening. When I tested my nitrates this morning, they had dropped down to barely detectable levels on my API nitrate test (my salifert test can't come in soon enough). I was stunned to see the tank was process so much food plus that much nitrate in 24 hours. I think it might have been a combination of factors. I suspect that when the biopellets kicked in, they dropped my nutrients so quickly that my acros became stressed, which led to increased pest-susceptibility. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Started STNing again 2 days ago, so I iodine dipped it again yesterday. Man, this is a headache. Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 SPS like stability. That is the bottom line. Your particular stability could be low levels of all parameters, mid level, or high, the point is that fluctuations are what stresses them and causes problems. If your tank is processing that much nitrate then adding nitrates to your dosing routine might be the solution. Further testing is needed to determine your consumption. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 SPS like stability. That is the bottom line. Your particular stability could be low levels of all parameters, mid level, or high, the point is that fluctuations are what stresses them and causes problems. If your tank is processing that much nitrate then adding nitrates to your dosing routine might be the solution. Further testing is needed to determine your consumption. I think your statement is exactly on point. My higher-resolution nitrate test kit and phosphate kits should be arriving sometime this week. I suspect that I will need to come up with a nitrate dosing regimen that will minimize the amount of spikes & dips during the day. Perhaps 2 half doses daily instead of 1 full dose. I'll keep you guys posted. Furthermore, I've been trying to keep my alk relatively stable by doing half gallon water changes when I get down to 7dKH to bring it back to 7.5-8dKH. In the past, I use to do 5 gallon water changes, and would spike the alk from 7 all the way up to 10 dkH (surprisingly, nothing died when I used to do this). Like Mark said, small changes, slowly. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 Do you dose Alk? Nada. Hoping WC will keep it up. So far the tank hasn't consumed too much alk. Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 After you next water change, measure alk daily till your next water change. This gives you daily consumption and a baseline. As coralline grows, SPs grow, LPS build new skeleton, consumption of calcium and ALk will increase. Helps to have a baseline in that case so that if you need to dose, it can be a decision made without guesswork. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 My baseline is about 0.25-0.5 dKH a day. I've been doing exactly what you suggested for the past 2 weeks. I test every morning, and if my dKH has dropped down near 7, I do a small WC to bring it back up. Should I be dosing Alk instead of doing WC? Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 My baseline is about 0.25-0.5 dKH a day. I've been doing exactly what you suggested for the past 2 weeks. I test every morning, and if my dKH has dropped down near 7, I do a small WC to bring it back up. Should I be dosing Alk instead of doing WC? My personal preference would be dosing but if WC work for you then do that. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 My personal preference would be dosing but if WC work for you then do that. I do the WC simply because reef crystals mixes up at 12dKH, so if I didn't do small WC's, I would almost never be able to do WC without having a huge spike :/. Furthermore, I'm hoping that the WC will replenish some of the other micro-ions which may have also decreased with time. Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 So what level does the tank read after your water change? Link to comment
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