ReefdUp

As someone who had no losses during a 9-day power outage with nothing but some air pumps and a cordless drill... Keep the tank oxygenated (where there are fish, at least) - a simple battery-powered air pump will suffice. It's best to oxygenate the sump too, but it's not critical (assuming there are no fish there.) During our power outage, we eventually ran out of batteries for air pumps. We took a cordless drill and put a utility hook on the end (a whisk or other beater would work, too), and we stirred the tank every hour with it for a few minutes. The temp decrease is less critical. If the temp decreases slowly, the critters can handle it well. Just make sure there are no rapid fluctuations. Bring the heat back up as slowly as it went down. (Assuming your tank is in a well-sealed house.) And, the best part is... low temps have been anecdoteally associated with killing off red bugs and related pests (just in case those are a problem - not saying they are for you.) Don't feed during the outage or right before; it'll create waste that may not be properly processed if oxygen starts to be an issue. Don't stress and don't make any drastic changes - and your tank will respond in-kind. Of course, it's best to be overprepared, but that can get expensive. We have a battery system now that recently replaced our generator.

They're an Amphiscolops sp., a harmless acoel flatworm. They do grow in crazy numbers sometimes, and Flatworm Exit doesn't work on them. They seem to eat algae (and maybe even have some photosynthesis capability based on behavior). Wrasses, mandarins, pipefish, etc. may help control the populations, but there are no guarantees. Recommendation: tolerate as part of a healthy ecosystem

Welcome! Sounds like you're off to a great start! This group is great, with lots of knowledgeable and friendly folks. We have a meeting coming up very soon as well. Hope to see you there!

The cyano presence indicates there's something else going on. If it were my situation, I'd...(in order) 1. Test nitrate and get it balancing phosphate 2. Dose bacteria 3. Monitor phosphate/ nitrate and add bacteria food if the balancing act is struggling 4. Feed more, to include keeping a clip of algae readily available. This may help any normally-safe cleanup crews from going opportunistic and corallivorous 5. Dip affected corals in hydrogen peroxide mixed with tank water, as this could buy the affected corals time for the tank to restabilize 6. Run the affected corals in an antibiotic bath, if the hydrogen peroxide mix dips aren't working. 7. Last ditch after everything else hasn't worked for about a month or there is mass die-off (nearing all corals going, making baths infesible): in-tank Cipro The likely bacteria behind BJS is probably a resident in nearly every tank. Trying to kill it off with Cipro is typically a short-term fix.

The path of issues also does not appear consistent with BJS (or a single predator). Infections are multifactoral. It takes the combination of a compromised host, agent, and/or degraded environment for the issue to occur. If it is BJS, then you likely have an underlying causal factor that is stressing your corals. Some corals may be more tolerant than others (less-compromised), which may lead to the non-linear infection across the tank. Treating the infection (if it exists) is only one part of the problem; the infection may return if the root cause is not addressed.

I urge great caution to anyone considering cipro. It is one of the most broad antibiotics available to hobbyists, but it is easy for bacteria to develop a resistance to it. IMO, it should be a last-ditch effort. Otherwise, we could be creating a superbug. Our hobby has enough challenges, to include political, that we need great caution to prevent what could end our hobby (or livelihood) and further threaten our reefs.

Do you have a full tank shot? Better yet, can you number the locations on the image, in the chronological order in which the corals started dying?

Predatory starfish are difficult to catch in the act. I've had them devour large corals over night. Same with polyclads, and they often leave eggs in caves - depends on the species though. Just a single one can really cause some damage. The difficulty with this situation is that dips often don't carch the culprit easily. If you really think it's BJS, I'd start dosing bacteria. If that helps, you may need to consider treatment with Cipro, but I don't recommend that lightly. It's serious stuff that I believe is overused.

I've dealt with "BJS" and similar issues countless times (seriously...). IME, it occurs with higher phosphate, nitrate, poor bacterial diversity, and higher temps. Assuming your test kits are accurate (and nitrate is within range), then bacterial diversity may be of concern, if it is BJS. Have you tried dosing Microbacter or a similar product? The damage does not look consistent with BJS. Reminds me of a polyclad flatworm or predatory starfish. I'll write more when I have more time.

Bubble algae is notorious for living in low nutrient conditions. I've gone the chemical removal route for it (but can't recommend it for most people.) The cyano is likely only fluorishing due to the higher phosphate. You'll have to get the nitrate up and keep it up for the phosphate to disappear (and cyano). If you go too fast, you'll fuel GHA. Just keep going slow. Different tanks require different levels based on what's in there.

Just go slow until you're comfortable with it. A bit of cyano isn't going to hurt things. I think you're on the right track.

What is your phosphate, and how are you testing both? Are you dosing any bacteria or vodka/ sugar/ vinegar-type products (bacteria food)? In my 120g, I'm dosing about 40ml per day (but I can't remember the concentrate off-hand). I try to keep my nitrate around 4ppm. If you're seeing cyano, then it's likely the phosphate is high (and that the nitrate isn't keeping up - which makes sense given the 0 reading). Dosing bacteria may help out-compete the cyano, but it'll need more nitrate.

Thanks... let's see if we can help another way. - If you put food on it, does it open up and eat it or react at all within 30 minutes? - Do you have clowns, shrimp, or anything that could possibly host in it, even if you haven't see them do it? - Is there a powerhead, return line, or any sort of direct flow on it? - Have you see it covered with a lot of mesenterial filaments (white stringy guts)? To be honest, it looks a lot like Elegance Coral Syndrome. I had a case a couple years back, and I tried *everything* hoping I could crack the code with no luck. I hope that's not what you have, but I recommend you read up on it just in case.

Please don't. The food will simply rot in the coral and speed the decay. We'd be happy to help on other strategies if you can post tank parameters and photos.

Agree with all of this.

https://wamas.org/forums/topic/64599-vacuum-suction-cup-rental-for-large-tank-moves/page/2/

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Fight with fire but not a flame thrower. No need to burn the house down, but they aren't good. Given the presence of the mid-tail, they look like Convolutriloba sp. (red planaria). Definitely quarantine and treat. Flatworm Exit has always been my go-to, but there are lots of very good treatments out there. You can also use what you have on hand to break the lifecycle. Hopefully others will chime in woth more... I'm exhausted. Zzz

Sent you a PM and you should have a new invoice in your email.

Fluconazole might work on it?

I forget the name of it (I have it written down in my records, but I'm not near those right now), but get it out. I found it very invasive and not easily treatable (and most red alga are not eaten by what we have in our tanks.) I'll try to get the name for you.

It's the clown gobies - 99% sure. As soon as I saw the title, I was already guessing that you had clown gobies (without seeing the post). It's a common occurrence, unfortunately. Over a decade ago, there were a lot of threads and posts about this. I'm not sure why this info isn't as readily available anymore. When we first got into the hobby, we had a similar situation. The sexy shrimp were disappearing in a 3g aquarium, and there was only a clown goby. One day my husband caught the goby in the act.

Congrats! That's so awesome! Thank you for the feedback too - we love hearing from you all!

I was a loyal customer of reefcleaners for years. I haven't bought any clean-up crew since I dealt with snails shedding flukes. Thankfully I didn't have any fish at the time. Now I just hate the idea of having to quarantine snails, in addition to everything else. 😒 Moral of the story - snails can shed flukes for months (without a fish host) - and I don't know of any place that quarantines their clean-up crew for months. Pick a place that treats you well and just understand that you've accepted risk.

Ohhh nooo. It's awful, I know. I hope the tank is ok. Unfortunately I've been through this, and you won't like what I have to say. This is assuming it wasn't bad enough for insurance... but bad enough that it's not a little clean-up job either.... Pull up the carpet and throw out the pad (to at least where it was water-logged). Use carpet cleaners to remove as much of the water as you can, then clean the carpets. Prop the carpet up on buckets and get the industrial "hamster wheel" fans to dry it out. You'll likely also need to get a dehumidifier to draw moisture out of the air. If it got to the walls, you'll need to remove the baseboards and probably cut ventilation holes in the drywall to let it dry out. There are drywall mousture meters that I highly recommend using to know when you can put it all back together again. There are a lot of great water remdiation places that will rent you the equipment or just put the carpet and pad down for you. I've never seen any attempt to salvage a pad turn out well (unless it was a waterproof pad). This is from experience with a legitimate house flood, where we had to actually call in experts. I watched everything, knowing that I would need to know what to do for an aquarium flood. Sure enough, it happened with my tank, and we knew what to do. If we had cut corners, we'd be facing moldy carpet and mold in the drywall. Not worth it. Good luck.