Cabbage coral toxin?

[Superdave]

My large (dinner plate sized) cabbage coral secreted a bunch of whitish mucus type gunk in my tank earlier this week.  I siphoned off as much as I could as used a net to retrieve more.  

 

A couple of days late, the tank is very cloudy.  I had my water checked at the local fish store (it is a good one so I trust their readings) and they said the water chemically was fine.  

 

All of my snails, crabs and tiger conch snail are all dead.  I had tons of pods, some quite large, and they have all disappeared as well.  I have plenty of rather larger bristleworms and they would be all over the dead stuff but I don't see a single one of them either.  I had had a bit of cyano developing and that was scaled back quite a bit as well.  

 

I didn't have any fish and this is an established tank, as in I first set it up in 2003.  It's been upgraded a couple of times to the current 20 gallon UNS.  

 

Some of the corals (all are softies) are looking wilted, but most look more or less okay.  

 

I did a full five gallon water change and added some poly filter pad.  

 

The water is a bit less cloudy, but still noticeable less than clear.  

 

I assume the whitish gunk was some kind of toxin and thus the clouded water and some die off.  

 

I wonder if some of the corals are okay if the beneficial bacteria is okay as well?  

 

I've thought about adding a hang on back filter with some carbon to help clear out the toxin as it looks like the same coral is secreting a bit more.  

 

I've got some phosguard as my only other "chemical" filtration.  There is tons of live rock as some ceramic bio media in the overflow chamber as well.  

 

Any advice is much appreciated!  

[Tired]

The beneficial bacteria should be fine, that stuff's hardy. Carbon will definitely help if you run enough of it, assuming the problem is toxins. 

 

What numbers exactly did the LFS give? At minimum, I'd expect to see ammonia present from all the die-off, so it's a bit odd they'd say it was fine.

[Superdave]

1 minute ago, Tired said:

The beneficial bacteria should be fine, that stuff's hardy. Carbon will definitely help if you run enough of it, assuming the problem is toxins. 

 

What numbers exactly did the LFS give? At minimum, I'd expect to see ammonia present from all the die-off, so it's a bit odd they'd say it was fine.

I didn't take a picture of their results.  There was just a tiny bit of ammonia they said, but nothing high enough to warrant concern.  I thought I might go back in a few days to see what it is.  I have kits at home as well I can use.  My clean up crew wasn't massive by any means.  I think the bristle worms were doing the bulk of the work as I was only added food for the corals (reef roids, zooplanktos) maybe 3 times a month so not much bio load.  

 

I figure if the majority of the corals aren't dead and looking ok then eventually things will settle down.  I wonder if I need to consider removing the cabbage coral though.  

 

[Superdave]

This morning the same coral in question is secreting the same gunk as before.  

 

While its been an awesome coral and really love its growth and balance it creates in my tank, I don't want to keep it to the detriment of my tank.  

 

If someone wants it for free in the Dallas area, shoot me a message and it's yours!  

 

Attached a pick to give people image of what its doing.  

[Superdave]

Just saw one of my small, blue legged hermit crabs is alive and well, for now, so that is good sign.  

[Superdave]

If anyone is interested, I'll be giving the cabbage coral away for free.  I realize most people wouldn't probably want it considering it's on the rampage, but better for someone to get it than for it to end up in the trashcan.  

 

I'm in the 75243 zip code of Dallas, Texas.  Shoot me a text at 214-608-5128.  

[mcarroll]

Leather corals are pretty well known for their chemical warfare capabilities.  It's generally recommended to run carbon 24/7 if you're mixing them with other corals.

 

That said...

 

If you've had this coral for a while and it's never done this up until now, then it seems like it might be the proverbial canary in the coal mine.  

 

I think regardless of whether you give the coral away or not, you have to look at your system and ask why this coral is reacting this way now and not before – what has changed?

 

You mentioned that the tank has been moved/upgraded – how long ago was that?  
 

Any differences in light, nutrient levels, flow or proximity to other corals?

 

Can you list any other major differences from the old system?  

 

Reactions like this make me think of something metal being the tank – check any and all pumps and plumbing fittings.

 

On 2/12/2023 at 6:00 PM, Superdave said:

I did a full five gallon water change and added some poly filter pad. 

Anything besides brown in color?

 

Also check for stray voltage if you have a meter.   (They're cheap.)

 

On 2/12/2023 at 6:00 PM, Superdave said:

I've thought about adding a hang on back filter with some carbon to help clear out the toxin as it looks like the same coral is secreting a bit more.  

 

I've got some phosguard as my only other "chemical" filtration.  There is tons of live rock as some ceramic bio media in the overflow chamber as well. 

No carbon, but multiple extra nutrient control media is a combo that worries me.

 

Like others have said, please post actual water test results if you can.  Would like to know all the basics.....temperature, salinity, ca, alk, mg, no3 and po4.

[GretChaCha]

The secretion and shedding of the outer layer from soft corals, like cabbage, are periodic in nature. You should expect all of your soft coral to do this at an irregular interval. 5 gallons isn’t much water to dilute the toxin in, so running carbon (ROX 0.8 is tops) is necessary, and frequently changing the carbon during shedding events is critical. Carbon adsorbs organic molecules, and once it is full, will leach them back out. Removing the slime is also crucial. 

[Superdave]

Tank upgrade was over a year ago.  Went from a 9.6 gallon with a hang on back filter to this (UNS60A) all in one tank.  Lighting upgrade (kessil a80 up to eco tech rms xr15) but same generally speaking as far as movement and filtration.  Have run phosguard and filter floss for years as my additional filtration.  Tons of live rock of course is the "bulk" of my filtration.  Thinks had been doing great (no issues with coral lashing out) until this recent episode.  

 

Poly pad only has brown on it, which I know means bio-type as opposed to other containment.  

 

I'll get some water testing result posted.  

 

The cloudy water has lessened and nothing more has died (coral wise) so that's good to see but the cabbage is secreting more (but not as much) gunk so I will definitely be getting rid of it.  Haven't just yet as I hate to just toss it in the trash can.