Trouble with LPS

[lowsingle]

I am having trouble with some of my LPS and was wondering if anyone had a similar experience.....all of my acans and chalices are showing skeletons and one of my hammers literally released its skin from its skeleton. Parameters, alk, ph, mg and ca are all super stable for over 6 months now. I reduced both flow and light and neither helped, so I am beginning to think it may be a parasite that I introduced. Funny thing is, some other LPS are doing fine. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Darren

[Joshifer]

I sont know much about the acans and chalices But hammers and torches sometimes jump out of their skeletons when they hate the spot theyre in.

 

I could be wrong that might only apply to torches. But try moving them.

[smallreef]

Is the water a little dirty for them? They don't like super clean water..

Are you spot feeding? And if so how is their reaction? Are they trying to catch the food?

[lowsingle]

I do spot feed but they are becoming less responsive. I feed 3 times a day with frozen food, but I do run bio pellets and I have almost no algae in the tank. I clean the glass walls only once a week. My softies seem fine.

[dpassar12]

 Have you changed anything prior to you noticing the die off What is temp of tank, does it vary a lot over a day? What size tank? Type of lights and setting? Salinity? Fish # and type? What are you adding to tank Vodka, Kalk 2-part etc etc.. 

[AlanM]

The only die off I have had with lps is when my lights were malfunctioning and not running for a few days, but I had continued dosing the same amount of alk solution. I ended up at 12dkh and started losing lps. Other than that I have found them to be pretty tolerant. Any possibility of contamination from metals? Maybe check magnet mounts of things to see if they are corroding? I know that the veggie mag from TLF has a bad reputation as do others.

[sen5241b]

I've seem LPS including Acans start showing skeleton when hey got too much light. Did you move them? Change the bulbs? Change intensity of light? Increase photo-period? Do anything that could have increased light?

 

I know you said you reduced light but perhaps you should reduce it more or move the sick LPS do lower light areas

Edited September 16, 2016 by sen5241b

[davelin315]

Sounds like you have two opposite effects - one is the coral receding and showing the flesh and the other is polyp bailout (or sounds like it) where the coral literally leaves its skeleton behind.  Any number of factors can cause this but in my experience it's usually because something is bothering it at that spot - could be light, flow, warfare, etc.

 

Sometimes this happens because of water quality as well but again, could be just about anything in my limited experience.

[lowsingle]

Thanks for the insights all, lights are turned way down as so has flow. Lighting is two ai 26s and flow is two gyres. That was my first guess, but that hasn't helped. I will check out my magnets, I hadn't thought of that. Water parameters are very stable and tightly controlled with 1ml per min dosing of alk, cal, and mag. Temp varies between 78 and 79 degrees, so it is quite stable. Some LPS, like my elegance and one of my hammers seem unaffected, yet all my acans are showing skeleton. All of my softies look good so I am not too concerned about my water being "too clean". I have tried to move the unhappy LPS around the tank and it hasn't seemed to help,so I feel like it is a pest, but I don't know where to start and I don't want to nuke the rest of my tank trying a bunch of remedies. I haven't seen any of my fish or inverts bothering my corals and all are "reef safe", so this is a mystery to me.

 

Thanks,

Darren

[Dany3350]

What type of filtration are you running beside the bio balls?

 

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

[lowsingle]

I have an avast skimmer (cs1), and I use bio pellets, not bio balls. I also use carbon and gfo which I change out weekly and a filter sock that gets changed ~ weekly when it clogs. I also have a 10 gallon refugium that has live rock but receives no light. Overall, I the tank has filtering capacity for twice the bio load it currently has.

 

Darren

[AlanM]

You have a tremendous amount of nutrient removal going on.   I'd consider removing the carbon, then the GFO, then the biopellets and see if the LPS responds well.

[zygote2k]

sounds like nutrient starvation

[sen5241b]

Thanks for the insights all, lights are turned way down as so has flow. Lighting is two ai 26s and flow is two gyres. That was my first guess, but that hasn't helped. I will check out my magnets, I hadn't thought of that. Water parameters are very stable and tightly controlled with 1ml per min dosing of alk, cal, and mag. Temp varies between 78 and 79 degrees, so it is quite stable. Some LPS, like my elegance and one of my hammers seem unaffected, yet all my acans are showing skeleton. All of my softies look good so I am not too concerned about my water being "too clean". I have tried to move the unhappy LPS around the tank and it hasn't seemed to help,so I feel like it is a pest, but I don't know where to start and I don't want to nuke the rest of my tank trying a bunch of remedies. I haven't seen any of my fish or inverts bothering my corals and all are "reef safe", so this is a mystery to me.

 

Thanks,

Darren

 

How big is your tank? I have an AI Prime over a 29G tall and it is overkill. I have it throttled at 62% of its capacity and it's too much for some LPS. BTW, different LPS can have dramatically different light requirements. My Trumpets love high light but my acans need far less.

[lowsingle]

I have a 120 DD tank (3 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet high) and my lights are ~ 15% capacity, so I don't think it is too much light. I feed 3 times a day and have ~1-3 ppm nitrate levels, so I have some nutrients in the tank. I will drag my feet on carbon changing and see if that helps......

 

Darren

[AlanM]

ok, hmm.  1-3ppm nitrate doesn't sound too bad, actually.  Sounds like you have great conditions in your tank, but you're doing all that and losing lps...

 

I'm kind of at a loss to suggest anything unless something is irritating it at night or unless you have some kind of metal contamination, but I'd think that would take out other corals as well. 

[sen5241b]

Tough case. Take a magnifying glass and very, very carefully examine those corals for critters that my be harming your LPS.

[lowsingle]

So today I came home and found a small torch frag completely gone, just yesterday it was fine. I looked and found three flatworms on the plug......could they be the culprit? I have had flatworms before, but they never seemed to bother anything, just more of a nuisance. Anyone aware of flatworms that have a taste for LPS?

 

Thanks,

Darren

[AlanM]

So today I came home and found a small torch frag completely gone, just yesterday it was fine. I looked and found three flatworms on the plug......could they be the culprit? I have had flatworms before, but they never seemed to bother anything, just more of a nuisance. Anyone aware of flatworms that have a taste for LPS?

 

Thanks,

Darren

 

Definitely!  menglish was having trouble recently with his torches.  Look up Euphyllia Eating Flatworms.  

 

Here was my post to him.  I thought i'd already suggested it to you, but must have been to him... http://wamas.org/forums/topic/79406-dying-hammers/?p=699056 

[lowsingle]

The flatworms I saw were the common looking small red/brown ones, not the euphyllia eating flatworms I saw online. I took out my receding LPS and didn't see them, so I am still unsure. I feel like it is some form of pest, but Who knows. I have another hammer that is fine and other LPS and softies that are growing. Some of the acans are literally dropping off of their skeleton. All of the acans that are receding have their stinging tentacles out....even the chalice. None are in stinging distance of each other or another coral.

 

Darren

[AlanM]

Ah, if they were really little, like a few mm long, they might be acoel flatworms which are not a big deal.  I think the EEFW and AEFW are much bigger.