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Awesome thanks! I never even new that was a thing... I am not surprised there are a billion creatures in the ocean that have to eat something. Time to dip it I suppose. As of today I have changed probably 50% of the water over a couple day span. Still nothing new is showing any new signs of anything negative. I plan to just do one final 15% today. I have one final what if because I am still skeptical that lighting change of 10% caused tissue necrosis even in some of the lowest of light corals. All of them were on the sandbed. I stayed up late just to see if anything came out weird. Only thing I noticed was the conch crawling all over the skeleton of one. (Dipped and put back in hoping for a miracle). I have never heard of a conch "eating" a coral. Maybe its foot pierced them and some type of infection set in?

This is the best I could get a few days ago. Looks sort of like the acro flatworms. Maybe something else. Knock on wood I havent had many problems until now so I only have google to go off of. They are a little more opaque/white than that picture. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

So I have an update. What I thought was brown jelly doesnt seem to be. It seems my guess as to brown jelly was what occurs when a mushroom melts away. I have never actually lost a coral so I didnt have anything to base on. There also wasnt really any strands or brown jelly coming off of any of the corals. The flesh just sort of melted away in the days after the light change. Nothing else has gotten worse after setting the lights back. I am a little leery to think that a 10% increase would have shocked them. Even though all that have been damaged are "low light". I am in the middle of a series of a couple large water changes of 20% every other day because whatever it is dilution could be a solution. As far ad the acro flatworms thats my best guess. I do have acros but they arent on them. Only on my torch. They arent eating it but theh crawl around and it is mad. I am going to try to get a picture uploaded of the worms.

Sure thing didn't think about it from that angle let me add some more details, RO/DI water. Reef crystals salt. Temp is at 78. I drip some kalk in the top off but i dont have to use alot doesnt drop that fast. My alk never really swings more than like 9.5 to 9.8 over a few day span and that could be testing deviation using the Hanna. I only add things from Wamas members or Divers Den on LA. I dont QT (yet) I know bad bad. But I also only dip if I feel the need to which is rare. So my next question is, is there a way to tell if its brown jelly or if its the corals natural defense both seem similar corals? I cant get any good picture all thats left of the few affected is some coral skeletons and a frag plug :/. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Yes its RO/DI. As of writing this I am 99% sure it is brown jelly as I have watched it basically spread to two other corals before my eyes. Tomorrow I am going to remove all of the affected corals and go from there. Mods if you would like you can close this thread.

Bear with me as I have been at a total loss and am curious if I am missing anything. I am just going to brain dump all my observations. I have a mixed reef. I wouldn't say its stuffed with corals everything has plenty of room to grow out but its diverse. Recently my corals have just started kind of dying... some of them. I have the full list of stuff below. Started with an acan. Got knocked off a rock onto the sand. No big deal lightly blew it off uprighted it and let it stay there. Within a day or two tissue almost entirely gone 10 heads. One of my hollywood stunner chalices started losing tissue from the bottom overnight. So i moved it to a lower light and flow area inside of a little plastic container suspecting something got hungry. Was wrong. Within 2 days its totally RTN it looks like. Rhodactis mushroom. Started looking awful. Real shriveled up. No problem moved it into lower flow (already was in low flow). Now day later its almost melted away. Was about 2 inches diameter. One of blasto frags is almost all skeleton to after being totally great 2 days ago. Everything else is happy as can be. The only change was that I changed my lighting on my LED's from 65% at full peak to 75% blues only for 4 hours though. The only known pest I have is acro eating flatworms(am fairly certain). No idea how they got through but they are only on a torch that is quite isolated and I get them as I can there are only a few and on nothing else. Last guess is brown jelly. I am just now noticing as a write this my rhodactis does appear to be turning into a brown mush as it melts. Havent noticed that anywhere else though on any of the other dead corals cant get a good picture of it though. Params nothing has spiked Nitrates 10ppm (have kept it steady here for a while) Phosphates .05ppm (a little is bound up by GHA guessing its really closer to .10) only slowly been dropping this through more water changes from like .08. Alk 9.5 Doesnt swing more than a tenth of a point or so it seems. Ammonia - 0 Ca 420 Mg (going to be honest been a few weeks but was about 1300 then) Lighting Orion Lt 120 was steady for months at Ramps up over an hour to 10%w 50% blue After 2 hours goes to 15%w 65% blue After 4 to 15% w and 75% blue Stays there for about 3 and a half hours then ramps down to zero in an hour and a half. (Jbj 45) has been up for about 5 months. Most livestock came from previous 29g had been up for a year or so. Not heavily stocked. Feed about 5 or 6 times a week Flame Hawkfish Starry Blenny Clown Pair Ornate Leopard wrasse Few scarlet reef hermits and halloween hermit Strawberry crab Fighting conch Blue tuxedo Urchin Red brittle starfish Corals Couple acros- doing well Couple monti digis - doing well Monti cap - growing like a weed About a dozen zoa frags/colonies all but 1 are fine. That one fell victim to a sea urchin going for the coralline around it still alive but mad Ricordeas lots - thriving Scoly - great Platygyra - great Frogspawn - great Duncans - great Softies(at least i may never lose these) Xenia - xenia things Toadstool - great Kenya tree - trying to make a forest Sure I am missing some. Anyone whose made it this far I greatly appreciate the time. Not sure if anyone has ever experienced anything like this. Am curious on some other thoughts.

I received a meteor shower frag on the underside of a tonga branch with a bunch of ricordea.The cyphastrea I thought was totally past the point of no return. But I just moved the frag plug to a light facing side with some on it. Didnt do anything for about 2 months. After about 2 months it started to color up again. Now its growing fairly quickly. Mine is in moderate light and flow. Seems happy so I am leaving it. Probably taken 4 months or so from being pretty dead to come back(like 10 polyps back or so).

So I am in a similar boat. I upgraded tanks and my rocks are definitely leaching phosphate. Like yours it isnt awful but it just pops up randomly. I have been afraid to do anything drastic because everything is alive and seemingly growing well. Maybe a little hindered by the high phos. For me reef flux will cut it back. But itll return. I wouldnt buy any livestock for it. There is no guarantee theyll touch it and theyll just add more nutrients. Over the past few months Ive upped the water changes and pull out what I see and the amount of GHA is going down. I imagine in the next month or two itll be largely gone at this rate. If you arent seeing any death or real issues I would just add some fluconazole and up the water changes.

I was wondering the same thing... all the hermits I have gotten have lasted quite a long time.

Try reef flux/fluconazole. Works wonders.

Flame hawkfish. Shouldnt bother your gobys. Mine sits on top of my starry blenny and doesnt even know the green clown goby exists... never had mine bother any inverts. Sits on top of them to. He has carpet surfed once and explored the overflow twice.... so there is a screen lid now. My favorite fish. Tons of personality, hardy eats anything and doesnt bother anything in my tank but may be suicidal.

I can only speak for my zoas. I have like 20 kinds and all of them except for 2 act this way. If I move them or something changes they are grumpy and weird. Closed, raised etc. If I just let them be usually after a few weeks they are fine and return to normal. It seems as though mine are no where near death they just take a while to acclimate to slight changes. Zoas are a mystery to most. Also as far as opening and colors mine prefer a dirtier tank. Nitrates around 10ppm to 12 ppm ish. And phos at like .05-.08. My guess is yours are just adjusting and if their anything like mine that can take a while...

The more I look at it the more I think its just a mechanical fin issue and a scab or however fish heal that. Seems way to sudden and weird that it doesnt even use the fin for it to be a disease.

Yeah I was figuring thats my best bet for now. Im just curious as to what it is so I know if I have to go fishing to get him out so it doesnt spreas. But its probably to late now.

**Its swimming fine without using the fin with the growth. No scratching or anything else weird either

Sorry for the epic I am trying to give as much relevant info as possible. I have a 45 gallon reef. Ive had a pair of clowns for years now and a black axil chromis. I got a hawkfish from a reefer over a month ago. All of those fish are doing great corals etc just a small gha problem but nothing going on in there bad. About 10 days ago I got a yellow wrasse from LA. I dont quarantine(I know I get what I deserve). Anyways the fish on arrival was in super rough shape ammonia was sky high and there was no way I was going to let it sit in the bag for increased stress. I looked it over quickly for anything bad and dropped it in for the best chance IMO Ive done this before and havent killed anything yet. Hid in sand like they do. And next day came out and ate that night. Until today it has been doing great I hadnt noticed anything. There is this white growth on its left fin. I am fairly fairly certain it isnt ich. Its to large. Its right about where the fin and body meet. It ate fine swims fine and searches the rocks for food without using the fin at all. Maybe related Im not sure. About a month ago I used Reef Flux to beat back the GHA. Id be surprised if this is a fungal infection as I believe that "shouldve" prevented it. I have no experience with any fish disease besides ich many years ago and what Google tells me. I couldnt take a picture that comes out clear so I put a one minute video on YouTube on my channel heres the link it is still hard to tell if I get a better pic Ill upload it. Any guesses would be appreciated! (Ignore the algae in the video its get removed this afternoon).

Yeah I was basically down to three options so Im glad that it seems like all 3 local reefers have tried to. I was either going to up water changes and wait and see. Get a ATS theres a few that could go behind the false wall in the tank. Or just go like 1/4 strength on the phosguard in the reactor. For now I'm just gona do about a 10% water change every 5 days or so. So far the phosphates are down after 2 and the GHA isnt growing near as fast. I have a feeling something just kicked up alot of junk in the tank or I did on accident and it spiked phosphates. Hopefully I can keep the phosphates pretty stable there and see what happens before I try anything else. Thanks everyone for the sanity check!

Yeah I have tried to avoid dosing hence why I am trying to keep an amount of stony corals where I can keep my trace elements in a good place with just water changes. I will probably just up the water changes until I get the phosphates down. It seems like an area where people approach it from totally different ends if the spectrum with success which is interesting.

Thanks! Thats sort of where Ive been at for years I never really chase numbers everythings been doing well enough but could be a little better but Ive just let it be. How long would you say of just good husbandry until your GHA went away over time? I understand it wont go away completely but at least to where it doesnt look bad.

As the title states I am trying to decide whether to start lowering my phosphates. Sorry for the novel. I had a 29g tank for years no problems super low bioload just a few fish and some softies. I moved to NoVa and transferred everything from that to a jbj 45. I made sure to keep all the rock wet and I just got new dry sand. I got a few new pieces of live rock from established tanks. My phosphates have been "high" living around .10 on a few test kits. And thats what the GHA hasnt bound so I know its higher. I dosed fluconazole because it got a little bit crazy but now I need to decide whether to treat the problem or not. My coral list will be below. Everything looks pretty healthy. LPS are growing and look happy. Zoas extend mushrooms extend. Softies are unkillable. Acro has some color loss but montipora is fine. Growth for all of them is slower than I would expect after reading online and GHA lingers but no where near as bad. So I have a couple ways Phosguard or GFO in a reactor I can start is it going to shock a relatively stable system and is it worth it given my tank isnt really jacked up? Maybe toadstool toxins slowing growth other things who knows. Params (I dont really check this stuff that often since its been stable for so long so I forget the measurements number) Nitrate 10ppm Phosphate .10 Alk 10 Ca 410 Mg 1250? Was over a month ago I last checked Ph 8 - 8.1 (over a month ago) Temp 78 Ammonia and nitrite is zero. I used only rodi water and weekly 10% water change I dont dose. Tank Jbj 45 Some Jbj sk 45 skimmer works alright to be honest will get a new one eventually. Heater Stock media basket with seachem pond matrix. Orion lt 120 light (I think) Livestock (never enough) Egg laying evil clown pair 1 chromis Hawkfish Coral- like a dozen ricordea Few rhodactis Platygyra Acans Blastos 1 chalice Zoas in a bunch of places Xenia Kenya tree Toadstool Purple monti 1 acropora Thanks if anyone has any input on starting to lower phosphates on an established system (or not) Id love to hear. Thabks!

That would be correct sort of. However, think of it as if the tank cycled to the load you placed on it. As you add fish, corals inverts anything that load will go up. Your tank has bacteria in it but if one goes to quick it may not catch up causing spikes. Im not sure how quickly you added fish but its possible if your tank just got done and you added a decent bioload its going through a mini cycle.

I agree with the above. Dont chase the ph. As long as your arent having crazy swings your fine. My ph has always been "low". Staying between 7.9 and 8.0 no problems. I would also add if you do anything in this hobby first tell yourself youll go slow. Then go even slower than that. Most marine life is hardier than people think. Its the instant drastic reaction to a "problem" that kills most things. If you go to SPS stability is key. It certainly can be done as I dont think SPS with a little research and the right setup is impossible for first corals but personally I would encourage some soft corals or LPS. In a newish tank you will have more instability that may not kill your SPS but wont make it happy. LPS and softies at least mine love high nutrients and will be tolerant of swings a little more and are pretty easy to tell if their happy.