Dying gorgonian

[Squared]

I have had this gorgonian (might be a eunicea species) for over a year with no problems. It's gone for months without food, but I've recently been feeding it every week with reef roids. It's photosynthetic. However, its tissue recently (within the last week or two) started falling off, and parts of it look like this: 

 

 

Water parameters:

nitrate: 0

phosphate: 0

alk: 6 (trying to bring up)

Others: idk

 

Anyone have any experience with this type of issue? This is the only coral in my tank having problems, I even have two other photosynthetic gorgs that look fine. 

I have been dosing seachem iron, trace elements (very sparingly), and I do water changes every month.

 

 

[sublunary]

I have a red photosynthetic gorgonian that did the same a couple months ago. I haven't figured out a cause. I did frag it at the spots it lost flesh, and the smaller frags have not shown any signs of trouble. The main colony continues to lose flesh slowly.  

 

I think your best bet is fragging at the spot of tissue loss, so you at least have more chance of saving some of it.  I hope you figure out a cause or clearer action plan. 

[mcarroll]

On 4/29/2018 at 8:09 PM, Squared said:

nitrate: 0

phosphate: 0

alk: 6 (trying to bring up)

Along with the recent change in feeding routine, which sounds like it could be a little drastic, above you have a trifecta of bad – each of which could fully explain your coral's condition.

 

Do you know why nutrient levels are so low and how long have they been like that?

 

Are the low nutrient levels related to the sudden increase in feeding?

 

And why is alkalinity so low as well? Can you take any measures to prevent that in the future?

[Squared]

My alk has always been low. I think it's salt I use (forget what, I get it at the LFS), because I only have a few LPS.

 

It looks a little better, I moved it to an area with a lot of flow. I still need to cut away the necrotic tissue.

 

I have a lot of macroalgae growth. I feed my tank very generously, considering I only have one fish in a 20L. This is not new either, I tested phosphate because I read high phosphate is bad for gorgonians.

 

Before I moved it, it was in an area that may not have been receiving a lot of water movement. Normally it does, but I left the pump clogged with macros for a while. 

[Mariaface]

Any chance the increase in feeding has also increased bandwidth for harmful bacteria, and those spots of flesh were infected? Do you do any regular dosing of beneficial bacteria to help compete?

[Squared]

I started increasing feeding around january. The necrosis started 3 weeks ago.

 

I do not dose bacteria, I've actually never heard of that being done as a regular supplement.

 

Every time I dose iron, my water gets cloudy for a while. This didn't use to be the case, so I'm not sure if it's something in the iron supplement.

 

Can you dip gorgs in iodine (lugol's) or are they sensitive?

[sublunary]

I've dipped mine in iodine with no issue.

[Squared]

Cut away as much of the necrotic tissue as I could and dipped it. Looks much better, but the polyps are not fully open yet. Guess I'll keep dipping.

 

Also brought my alk up to around 7 or 8 dkh.

[Stoops718]

When I had my old Fluval Edge running I was so bad with water changes. My gorgs thrived. I read somewhere that they like higher nutrient water.

[Squared]

16 minutes ago, Stoops718 said:

When I had my old Fluval Edge running I was so bad with water changes. My gorgs thrived. I read somewhere that they like higher nutrient water.

Im really trying to go for that. I dump food in my tank. Algae eats it up

[mcarroll]

Instead of feeding more, which adds more or less all nutrients to the system, I would consider dosing only nitrates and phosphates to establish normal levels of those.  (And go back to normal feeding.)

 

Also, have you been able to get a lock on that alkalinity yet?

[Squared]

On 5/6/2018 at 9:38 AM, mcarroll said:

Instead of feeding more, which adds more or less all nutrients to the system, I would consider dosing only nitrates and phosphates to establish normal levels of those.  (And go back to normal feeding.)

 

Also, have you been able to get a lock on that alkalinity yet?

Thanks for the tip, but I'd rather just feed. I have a lot LPS and filter feeders so dosing nitrates seems like a little much.

2/3 pieces I cut up are almost, if not, back to normal and healed up. One them is starting to look bad again, not sure why, I did the same thing to all the frags. I wonder if it was a disease.

 

Like I said, I'm not really worried about alk. I doubt that is what cased this, but who knows. Just in case I'm starting to dose 2-part again, about twice a week to keep it above 7 dkh.

[Squared]

I cut off the necrotic tissue and gave the frag an iodine dip, looks a lot better.

 

Cutting + iodine seems to be the cure.

 

wonder why this happened in the first place though.

[mcarroll]

On 5/13/2018 at 6:33 PM, Squared said:

wonder why this happened in the first place though.

Why do you think it was not zero nitrates zero phosphates combined with dipping alkalinity?  Seems strange just to brush these major things off – they are from your own data and all of those are known issues for coral.  Phosphates in particular need to be >0 (>0.03, actually) and alkalinity needs to be stable if you have stony corals.

 

Drastic feeding changes are at least as likely to cause algae issues as they are to help if there's any nutrient limitation going on.  It's a shotgun approach.

 

I don't think the iodine dip is related, but gorgonians are known to have a need for iodine in the water.  Seems like feeding generally takes care of this need if you use quality food items though.  

 

That said, a little conservative iodine dosing might be worth trying....I'm not aware of any downsides to dosing...usually just no upside for most tanks.  (No gorgonians.)

[Squared]

Ioddine dipping is helping. When I notice the necrosis come back, iodine dipping perks it right back up. I think it's a bacteria infection.