SPS Bacterial Infections

[Josh]

I had heard a bunch of stories about unexplained SPS crashes and deaths recently with no known causes. I'd like to find out who has been experiencing this problem in our area.

I started noticing this issue after the swap, I guess I may have picked it up at that point. I dip everything in Coral Pro Cure but apparently it does not do anything to prevent this.

I have been noticing patches of SPS rapidly dieing off and even a few colonies RTNing in just a day. It seems to have affected acros, milles, seriatoporas, and pocilloporas. It has not affected any monti caps, lps, or softies. I have checked many times for red bugs and it is definitely not related to that.

My levels are all normal. My PH is a bit low but it has been that way for a while (7.9-8.1).

If you have any information on this pest please post here.

Thanks.

 

[Dace]

josh, can you take a macro pic of the corals that have the issue's

 

[House of Laughter]

Josh,

Flow has alot to do with tissue necrosis and nutrients getting to the corals that don't get enough flow. has your tank grown in to a point where flow is restricted to certain corals? This is something tristan and I were discussing this weekend with my SPS losses. Something to think about.

House

 

[prattreef]

I suggested the same Jim and I do think it is a contributing factor if not the outright culprit in Josh's case. We turned up the Vortech a week ago, I guess it hasn't had much effect to date. Might be time for a $$$econd one.

 

[aaron23]

new pieces I receive always go on my frag rack where there is minimal flow.

On the other hand, too much flow along with the after swap stress of being in the bag all day and being placed into a new environment could lead to rtn as well

 

[mikey3165]

i am having the same issues i lost a mini colony i got from the swap in a matter of two days out of no where and my millie has a mini white patch and an other random acro is losing tissue all bought at the swap but my montis are doing fine and all of my other sps are doing fine same with the lps and zoas

 

[jhale]

Josh sorry to hear that. Are the effected corals in the same area or spread through out the tank? Like Jim alluded to, I experienced my worst coral loss when my colonies grew very close together, when there was a problem with one colony all the coral in one area was wiped out.

 

[aaron23]

thats really weird... i guess they're all right if corals get too big and there isnt enough flow, exchange of water through the acros that could be a problem

 

[NYreefNoob]

i doubt it is with flow, i have alot less flow then you have in the frag system jim, or your main system. i know you had checked for everything under the sun to figure it out, but also if you guys really think about it, it seams almost like a cycle yearly, if you look it seems around the same time alot of people go through the same thing, i always have my zoa melt off once a yr and it is usually around spring, knock on wood i havent had the sps problem. as for it possibly being from closeness of corals i kinda would count that out also as i have 40 sps packed into my system all within a inch to 3 from each other, and a wide varity of them, what brand of salt are all of you using that have had this problem ? also josh it seems more type of corals are being effected then another persons was

 

[House of Laughter]

Rick, been awhile since I saw your tank, but we are referring to colonies that are baseball sized and larger, in close proximity - very different than corals perhaps lesser in size - the toxicity levels are exponentially different with colonies - my case, they were larger than softballs and may have been a contributing factor - seems the most logical sicne everything else didn't seem to work. Same goes for the trough - high density, low space.

House

 

[NYreefNoob]

jim you still use IO ? josh what salt and mikey what salt. jim i know you had tested for everything under the sun, but i really find it hard to go on flow as the problem, your running what around 3500 gph in frag system and 4000gph + in main system ? josh how much flow ? same for mikey, and would say out of the 3 of you mikey has the least flow. id say i have around 2500 gph in my 60g cube, which i know is alot for it's size. ive got sps grwing over each other, on each other. other then the little battle going on with themselves none of the corals are effected around them, ive had a little growth since 5 months ago :bigeyes:

 

[Josh]

I'm going to add another vortech.

Randy, I can't run it on pulse mode the way you set it, it is so loud and annoying. I want to have two of them running at lower speeds than just the one cranking every few seconds.

 

[jejton]

Sorry to hear about this. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often as so few people quarantine corals. I guess this is one more reason to do so. I know there are studies that look at diseases in wild corals so perhaps that would be worth a search.

 

[jejton]

Jim - Your post brings up a point I wanted to ask in another thread. Is it perhaps worthwhile to run polyfilter on a continual basis to prevent coral death by toxin?

 

[prattreef]

I think Carbon takes care of the toxins just fine. I think the issue in Josh's case anyway is more related to lack of flow i.e. coral growth blocking what was once adequate flow to certain areas of the tank and coral growth blocking flow to the inner recesses of the colony. Neither QT nor dipping is going to address these issues, nor is it going to address bacterial or viral infections that develop for any host of known or unknown reasons as the bacteria and perhaps the virus strains ( RTN at least in the classic--wipe your whole tank out in a day or two--definition is a Vibrio bacterial strain) that cause problems may always be present awaiting favorable conditions to strike--- i.e. stressors that weaken the corals like low flow, temp and other H2O parameter issues, and yes chemical and physical warfare to name a few possibilities.

 

[jejton]

So there is no advantage ( even for other reasons ) of running polyfilter if one is already running carbon ?

If quarantine can work with fish, why not corals? I imagine the precipitating stress often is change of system, so it'd be better that this happen in a quarantine rather than in a DT where it can then spread to other corals. Unless you're saying that these pathogens are present in/on all corals regardless.

 

[NYreefNoob]

poly filter will remove more of the stuff you want then not want
still back to my question what salts are you guys using

 

[KathyC]

So there is no advantage ( even for other reasons ) of running polyfilter if one is already running carbon ?

If quarantine can work with fish, why not corals? I imagine the precipitating stress often is change of system, so it'd be better that this happen in a quarantine rather than in a DT where it can then spread to other corals. Unless you're saying that these pathogens are present in/on all corals regardless.

I have to agree with you Eric..I think corals should be QT'd (not that I practice it but..) slightly off topic here but when people scratch their heads and say I haven't added any new fish to my tank in ages and then they come down with something like ich..they really do need to take a look at corals that have been added as ich (and heaven knows what else) CAN be transfered from tank to tank within a coral... Unfortunately, it is not a question we tend to ask when purchasing corals, and doubtless that some folks with ich have sold corals without giving it a thought.

I'd like to know about the salt they are using as well. I finally moved away from the Coralife salt and my tank (corals) looks dramatically better.

 

[jejton]

So what exactly does Poly remove ?

 

[NYreefNoob]

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/productreviews/gr/prpolyfilter.htm