JLynn's Softy Reef

[JLynn]

Oh, god. Just when I thought everything was golden...

 

I did the stupidest thing ever, and I ruined it. Last night, I decided to give the heater a shot. I'd been worried a couple months ago about it because I felt like it was turning on too much. But I left it plugged in today when I went to work, and I stupidly didn't even think to check on things at lunchtime.

 

Then I came home. The corals were are closed up as tightly as they could, and nothing was moving inside the tank. And when I looked at the thermometer? It was 95 degrees.

 

I had about 3 gallons of fresh, 75ish degree water, so I did a quick water change with that. I took off the heater right away, of course. I have 5 more gallons of cooler water in the car, but as much as the temperature needs to be lowered, I don't want to do it so quickly as to hurt the corals even more by sending them into shock. So I have several cups of saltwater from the tank in the fridge, now, and in half an hour or so I'll start adding them back to the tank. I set the AC really low, turned on the ceiling fans, and am also floating a bag of frozen veggies in the tank. 

 

The corals are in shock, but alive (they may die later on, of course...). All but one of the snails is accounted for. Hercules is alive (hallelujah) and I have no idea how Maui is. But Sebastian is dead (again), and it's all my fault (again). I haven't seen Flynn anywhere I looked, but if it killed Sebastian, I don't have high hopes for him. 

 

I'll keep you all updated.

[Weetabix7]

[JLynn]

The temperature is now 88 degrees, and Flynn, miraculously, is alive. I've never been so happy to see him as when he poked his little head out from his hideaway. He's super stressed, which is only to be expected, but he's alive. I'm going to give him some live brine shrimp as a treat, asap. 

 

I'm keeping Sebastian in the tank for now, just in case he miraculously revives. It's silly, but. Just for a day, just in case.

[fishfreak0114]

I'm so glad Flynn is alright!  Fingers crossed all your coral bounce back 

[JLynn]

Alright, well I'm going to bed (I have to get up at 5 for work ). The temp is at 81 degrees, now, and by the time I wake up it should be more like 76. I leave too early in the mornings for my corals to be up, but I'm gonna go check on things at lunch tomorrow, and I'll let y'all know where we stand with the corals then. 

 

Surprisingly, Flynn lost his stress coloration about an hour ago and even felt well enough to swim around a bit and pick at some algae. So I end today on an unexpectedly hopeful note.

[JLynn]

Nothing much has changed in the tank. The corals are all still completely withdrawn, and the RFAs are all at least a bit open, but most of them have hidden themselves as deeply into their little crevices as they can. The duncan coral does look like it is a little bit more open than it was this morning, and there are little bumps on the surface of the toadstool where it looks like the polyps kind of want to emerge, so there are little hopeful signs, but still... I know it's stupid to think that they would have recovered enough to open within just a few hours, but I can't deny that I'm disappointed they haven't. 

 

Sebastian is definitely dead and Maui is still MIA, but I do have one bit of truly good news: Hercules has had his first molt! He looks so different now with a brand new, bright white carapace. Very lovely. I'm proud of him.

 

[Lula_Mae]

On 7/18/2017 at 6:15 PM, JLynn said:

Oh, god. Just when I thought everything was golden...

 

I did the stupidest thing ever, and I ruined it. Last night, I decided to give the heater a shot. I'd been worried a couple months ago about it because I felt like it was turning on too much. But I left it plugged in today when I went to work, and I stupidly didn't even think to check on things at lunchtime.

 

Then I came home. The corals were are closed up as tightly as they could, and nothing was moving inside the tank. And when I looked at the thermometer? It was 95 degrees.

 

I had about 3 gallons of fresh, 75ish degree water, so I did a quick water change with that. I took off the heater right away, of course. I have 5 more gallons of cooler water in the car, but as much as the temperature needs to be lowered, I don't want to do it so quickly as to hurt the corals even more by sending them into shock. So I have several cups of saltwater from the tank in the fridge, now, and in half an hour or so I'll start adding them back to the tank. I set the AC really low, turned on the ceiling fans, and am also floating a bag of frozen veggies in the tank. 

 

The corals are in shock, but alive (they may die later on, of course...). All but one of the snails is accounted for. Hercules is alive (hallelujah) and I have no idea how Maui is. But Sebastian is dead (again), and it's all my fault (again). I haven't seen Flynn anywhere I looked, but if it killed Sebastian, I don't have high hopes for him. 

 

I'll keep you all updated.

Oh noooo!  Stupid heater!  Mind sharing what brand it is?  I hope everything else recovers.

[JLynn]

6 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Oh noooo!  Stupid heater!  Mind sharing what brand it is?  I hope everything else recovers.

It's a titanium Finnex heater.

[Lula_Mae]

20 minutes ago, JLynn said:

It's a titanium Finnex heater.

Huh, I thought those were usually pretty good.  Even the good ones have their lemons I reckon. Hope things are looking better today.

[JLynn]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

Huh, I thought those were usually pretty good.  Even the good ones have their lemons I reckon. Hope things are looking better today.

Yeah. 

 

Unfortunately, I have one bit of good news, mixed in with a whole lotta bad. The good news first: I caught a glimpse of Maui this morning. 

 

Onto the copious bad news: I just came back from work to find what I can only assume to be the innards of my duncan coral waving in the current from it's mouth. Then I saw something brown on one of the orange ricordeas, and when I went to wipe it off, the two orange ones literally began to dissolve. Then I noticed my beautiful new finger leather had turned almost completely black. And of course the kenya tree coral remained as limp as ever, but when I went to give it a bit of a poke, part of it began to dissolve into the current as well. So I removed the orange ricordeas, the duncan, the kenya tree, and the finger leather. I prodded the blue and green ricordea a bit, but they seem fine, for now, even though they are still very tightly retracted in on themselves. So that leaves me with the devil's hand leather, two ricordeas, three gorgonians, and (hallelujah) my majestic toadstool leather, as far as corals go. With corals having literally dissolved when prodded, I'm gonna grab some carbon on Friday or Saturday to clean up any nasty chemicals they may have released in their death throws. 

 

I'm not sure about the future of the ricordeas or the devil's hand leather, but things remain hopeful for the toadstool and gorgonians. The toadstool's polyp-bumps are noticeably more pronounced today than they were yesterday, and all three gorgonians are beginning to show some polyp-bumping of their own. I feel pretty comfortable in saying that they will survive this ordeal.

[Lula_Mae]

Sorry for the losses.  Do you have Lugol's iodine on hand in case you need to do any dips?

[JLynn]

Just when I thought I things were getting better...

 

I looked at the gorgonians and saw that they are beginning to melt away in places. Especially the yellow ones. They're far from dead yet, it's only just beginning, but... should I cut my losses? Just throw them away before they can decay in my tank? I'm so tired of watching things die. 

 

As far as the other corals go, no change in any of them. I just put carbon in the tank, so maybe that will help somehow.

[Lula_Mae]

1 minute ago, JLynn said:

Just when I thought I things were getting better...

 

I looked at the gorgonians and saw that they are beginning to melt away in places. Especially the yellow ones. They're far from dead yet, it's only just beginning, but... should I cut my losses? Just throw them away before they can decay in my tank? I'm so tired of watching things die. 

 

As far as the other corals go, no change in any of them. I just put carbon in the tank, so maybe that will help somehow.

I think you could try fragging them maybe?  And I dunno if it would help gorgs but a lot of corals can be helped by a Lugol's iodine dip if you have any on hand.  I know what you mean, though, I had a tank crash back in March that dragged on for a good two weeks, water changes almost every day, things continuing to decline...it was miserable.  If you have carbon, make sure you're running it to absorb any yuckiness from stuff po'd or dying.  Sorry you're going through this.

[JLynn]

15 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

I think you could try fragging them maybe?  And I dunno if it would help gorgs but a lot of corals can be helped by a Lugol's iodine dip if you have any on hand.  I know what you mean, though, I had a tank crash back in March that dragged on for a good two weeks, water changes almost every day, things continuing to decline...it was miserable.  If you have carbon, make sure you're running it to absorb any yuckiness from stuff po'd or dying.  Sorry you're going through this.

Thanks. Yeah, I'm running carbon now - I grabbed some from the LFS yesterday, since I didn't have any on hand. 

 

Well, the gorgonians are dead. That was immediately clear to me when I woke up and checked on the tank. Where yesterday there had only been a couple little patches of decay spattered about, today there was decay all over, and when I went to pull them out of the tank, they literally disintegrated at the touch. Clearly, no amount of fragging or dipping could have saved them.

 

I've ordered their replacements from KP Aquatics. But unless I see anything on Diver's Den, at the LFS, or on another site with WYSIWYG, I'll be waiting till MACNA to replace my other lost corals.

 

Speaking of the other corals, I am getting polyp extension from the devil's hand leather now. The toadstool and remaining ricordeas are unchanged. I guess it's just a waiting game with them.

[LazyFish]

I would keep the gorgs if there is ANY tissue left no matter how small. Just keep removing the dead tissue as it dies back cut into the living tissue just a smidge incase it has any infection. You can scrape it off the um skeleton easily. ANY living tissue may regenerate the whole coral. I had a very large one that did not fair well in shipping. It had about 85%-90% dead tissue & is now fully recovered & re-encrusted onto its um...skeleton.

[JLynn]

3 hours ago, LazyFish said:

I would keep the gorgs if there is ANY tissue left no matter how small. Just keep removing the dead tissue as it dies back cut into the living tissue just a smidge incase it has any infection. You can scrape it off the um skeleton easily. ANY living tissue may regenerate the whole coral. I had a very large one that did not fair well in shipping. It had about 85%-90% dead tissue & is now fully recovered & re-encrusted onto its um...skeleton.

Too late for that, I'm afraid. But I think in this case it was all dead, because literally every part of it I touched turned to dust, even the parts that looked just fine.

 

Still, thanks for the advice! I'm really glad that worked out for you.

[LazyFish]

Aww sorry to hear that.

[Lula_Mae]

Sounds like my little gorg frag in my tank crash, it literally disintegrated from one end to the other.

[JLynn]

Well there has been a change in the tank at last, but unfortunately not for the better. Two days ago I noticed a kind of wound in the stalk of my beloved toadstool, and yesterday when I prodded a bit at that would in began to spew... something into the water - it was wispy like smoke. I did, obviously, take this as a very bad sign, but I didn't want to think the worst, not about such a big, beautiful coral. But when I came back from work today it was worse. The head of the toadstool still looked alive, though I've yet to get real polyp extension from it, so I took the rock out of the water (the stem of the toadstool was encrusted onto the rock, so I had to), and cut off the head of the coral as best as I was able to. There's some stem left, but not much. Hopefully if what I saw was some kind of infection this will have stopped it, though even if it does, the stress of the fragging may prove too much and kill it anyways. 

 

It seems that this is my last hope for saving the toadstool. If this fails, I guess I'll just have to let go of this toadstool, and accept that my best was not enough. 

 

It's not all doom and gloom, though: the gorgonians are arriving tomorrow.

[Lula_Mae]

Hope your toadie pulls through!  And hope the dying stops soon, it's so hard to watch things die one by one.

[JLynn]

Well, I came home from lunch to acclimate the gorgonians and check on the toadstool, and it seems that the fragging, far from causing a relapse, has actually done the toadstool some good: it's even closer to polyp extension now than it was before. It looks really weird without it's stem, though.

[fishfreak0114]

Finally some good news!  It's stem should grow back with time, I once fragged a part of mine's stem off because I thought there was something eating it inside like what I found when I bought it (there wasn't), but since then it has grown several inches taller. 

[JLynn]

4 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Finally some good news!  It's stem should grow back with time, I once fragged a part of mine's stem off because I thought there was something eating it inside like what I found when I bought it (there wasn't), but since then it has grown several inches taller. 

Oh, you've fragged their stem before too? Okay, so is there supposed to be brownish-green liquid inside the stem? Cause there was, and it was real gross, and I'm still not sure whether that was supposed to be there or whether it was because of the heater failure. Google, unfortunately, had no answers for me on what the inside of a toadstool stem is supposed to look like.

 

Anyways, just wanted to give a little update on the gorgonians. I ordered two of the purple candelabras (to double the chances that I'll have one after the stress from shipping) and this time I got the medium size, because I had wished my old one was a couple inches taller. I regret that now, because the scale of these really does not work in my aquascape. Like it fits in the tank, but the branches are so thick (like 1/2" - 3/4") that it screws with the sense of scale. Oh well. I haven't glued them down, I've just laid them on the rockwork so I can wait and see if they are gonna rot away before committing to anything, you know? Supposing that one does, I'll just try to trim it down so it looks more reasonable next to the other corals. I got the purple feather coral, of course, and I also got it in medium. I had some trouble gluing it down, but now that I have I'm very happy with the look. Lastly, I got two yellow sea whips, both in the nano size. Except only one of them is really nano-sized... the other one is almost twice the size. I'm going to have to cut it down, too. I think I'll attach the branches I cut to some rubble and sell the resulting frags, once they've had some time to grow.

 

Lastly, this is by no means news, but a film of algae has grown on the glass, and while I was eating my dinner, Flynn was munching on that. That was cute enough, but then when I changed positions and looked again, I could see all his little mouth marks where he'd eaten away the algae, and it was super cute .

[fishfreak0114]

Well there wasn't any brownish/greenish stuff, but there was some whiter sliminess being released if I remember correctly.  Fingers crossed yours heals up alright!  Looking forward to pics of the new stuff

[JLynn]

On 7/26/2017 at 6:39 PM, fishfreak0114 said:

Well there wasn't any brownish/greenish stuff, but there was some whiter sliminess being released if I remember correctly.  Fingers crossed yours heals up alright!  Looking forward to pics of the new stuff

Well here you go, then. For comparison purposes, I'm including my last pre-disaster FTS, too.

 

Before & After:

 

 

Here's a closer picture of my poor, beleaguered toadstool and some of the new gorgonians: