Brown slime on birds nest tips

[Sundevil_B]

Want to try and figure this out to see if I can help the frag. It was a impulse buy at the LFS because it was in their bargain frag tank @ $5. It's been in my tank a while but hasn't grown much, at least that I can tell. The past couples of days I think I am seeing brown slime or algae growing on two of the tips of the frag.

This pic you (or at least I) can see the brown at the tips of the two middle points.

 

And here is a pulled out shot. There is some brown slime/algae that has been growing to the left of the frag. Haven't Identified it yet but was so far not bothering corals that I could tell.

 

Does anyone know what the brown slime on the tips of the birds nest is and how to treat? Keep up on water changes?

[shermoen]

Wow I literally was going to ask this same question as I seem to be having a similar issue. I'm following 

[WhatsReef]

I'd have to guess they are dying off starting at the tips and the slime is forming on the dead tissue.

[Aurortpa]

Looks like possible burn, what is your dkh, nitrates, feeding schedule?  

[coryscritch]

I have had this happen twice due to alkalinity swings. 

[Clown79]

When spa dies algae grows in place. Snap the tips off.

 

This can be due to alk swings, high alk/low nutrients, or rtn.

[jservedio]

43 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

This can be due to alk swings, high alk/low nutrients, or rtn.

You will know very quickly if it's the last one (rtn)! If not, they generally recover very quickly since they grow so fast.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

It looks like cyano. I lost an entire pocillopora to cyano after my peppermint shrimp went after it.

[Clown79]

22 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

It looks like cyano. I lost an entire pocillopora to cyano after my peppermint shrimp went after it.

Evil shrimp😁

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

12 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Evil shrimp😁

He was, he is gone now😁. Let my LFS deal with him

[Clown79]

2 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

He was, he is gone now😁. Let my LFS deal with him

I had the same issue with mine. They are gone too.

[jservedio]

51 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I had the same issue with mine. They are gone too.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...outside of the ocean, this is the only proper place to house a shrimp:

 

Edited to Add: Apologies if your Australian, I know you have a slightly different method that some may argue works even better.

[Sundevil_B]

21 hours ago, Aurortpa said:

Looks like possible burn, what is your dkh, nitrates, feeding schedule?  

I just have the API test strips so very little accuracy besides is ok or probably not ok. But it looks like the carbonate hardness is 120-180 mg/L, nitrates are zero or near zero, scale jumps from 0 to 20 bing just a little pink and it didn't really change. Feeding is once a week the day before water changes because I don't have any fish. Just snails and a hermit. 

 

Sounds like low nutrients might be part of the issue. Should I start feeding more times a week? 

 

I also top off with Kalkwasser, could that also be an issue? I don't have a dosing pump but try not to add too much at a time, however it's just a 5 gallon so maybe a little at a time is still too much?

[WhatsReef]

Just do water changes with reef crystals and that will keep your numbers in pretty good shape. If you're not going to invest in the Hanna meters (or other good tester) for calcium/alk then I wouldn't be dosing calcium/alk.

[Sundevil_B]

I've been using Fritz RPM. Also been cutting back on Kalkwaser, 8-10ml per top up and I top up evaporated water about 1-3times a day. The rest is distilled water.  Been blasting off the coral if the slime gets bad. I also just cut my light down a little in case I was hitting it with too much light. I just turned down the lights today so I'll see how it responds. Tips are still not looking great but seems like the lower section might be growing. 

 

Should I Frag a healthy piece and move it to a different location in the tank?

[WhatsReef]

The dying probably doesn't have to do with the location. If I had to guess it probably has to do with water chemistry and/or water chemistry swings. Since it's already struggling I'd think fragging might just make the problem worse if anything. If you fix the problem it should stabilize and the slime should go away once there's no more decaying tissue left.

 

Not sure if cutting back on light is necessary as too much light probably isn't the problem... that being said I don't really know enough to say that for sure.

[mcarroll]

Test strips are OK for a fish tank.

 

You need a real alkalinity test.  (eg Salifer, others)

 

And you need to make sure that parameter becomes stable once you have the ability to properly monitor it. 

 

Do not dose kalkwasser without the ability to test and determine the proper dosage...it is much more risky that doing the same thing with two-part.  (Which is still risky....use test kits when you begin dosing...no exceptions.)

 

If it's any consolation, these are very sensitive corals....but fast growing and beautiful if you can get them settled in.