dsinsocal
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2017
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- What state or country do you live in
- Virginia
I don't know exactly where to post this because it effects so many things in so many different ways.
I have a 75 gallon that has been up for about a year and a half. Most of the pieces in there came from the previous 29 gallon that was up for about 2 years before that, so I've had many of these pieces for nearly 4 years now. A few months ago I noticed some strange behavior from some of my corals. Some LPS (a big Acan colony and some of my Euphyllia colonies) started to show signs of distress.... like one head on the edge wouldn't open more than about 50% of normal. Also, a full colony of red mushrooms started jumping off their rock and floating around the tank. My green star polyps stopped opening fully and they are visibly receding on their rock.
I have two Lobos, one of which is receding on one end, but the other one looks totally unbothered.
On the flipside, A giant Duncan colony as well as my yellow-tipped Elegance seem to be doing just fine. All of my Zoas and every piece of SPS (Monti, birds nests, Stylo, Hollywood Stunner, Acros, Lepto, Pavona) seem to be doing great as well.
I've done standard testing for temp, salinity, Alk, Calc, Mag, PH, Nitrite and Nitrate but nothing seems to be out of normal params. I did several 25 gallon water changes back to back, but that didn't seem to perk anything up. I tested for voltage in the tank. There was a very, very small amount, so I put my ground probe in (I'm not even sure if that's a good idea -- some people tell me to do it, some people tell me it's a bad idea).
I even sprang for ICP testing (attached) and the only thing out of whack according to them was my Mag being a little low. And "Br" being off, but there appears to be an error with the baseline comparison from Fiji for that element. I don't know what "Br" is, what it does, or whether the reading is high/low/or even accurate.
Here's the really strange part...
Back when I had everything in my 29 gallon I had a brief outbreak of both aiptasia and bubble algae (the product of some dirty frags I bought. I combated this naturally with a couple of Emerald Crabs and a couple of Peppermint Shrimp. Within a few weeks every sign of aiptasia and bubble algae was gone. Both the crabs and shrimp have long since passed, but I've NEVER seen a single sign of either pest since... until after this problem started. Now I have bubble algae AND aiptasia exploding in the tank again. I haven't added *anything* to the tank since last year's RAP, in June of last year.
Is it possible for bubble algae and aiptasia to go dormant (or be suppressed by something in the tank chemistry) for 6+ months, only to be triggered later by something and then explode?
I can't help thinking that whatever is going on in my tank is causing both problems -- the coral stress and the pest explosion.
The ICP test was about a month ago and nothing has changed. I've completely lost a prized orange frogspawn and a generic green torch. I've lost 2 or 3 heads from one of my hammer colonies, and a very expensive gold torch is shrunken down to about 10% of it's normal size. I fear it may be a lost cause too.
Any ideas would would be causing this kind of thing? The only idea I have is, perhaps... I have a pretty large neon green Australian leather coral, and my saddleback clown will occasionally treat it like an anemone and tick it off. Is it possible that this leather is releasing toxins and killing the LPS as well as some of the softies? I always run a bag of carbon, and people have told me not to worry about the leather, especially if you have some carbon in there, but it's the only thing I can think of at this point.
I have a 75 gallon that has been up for about a year and a half. Most of the pieces in there came from the previous 29 gallon that was up for about 2 years before that, so I've had many of these pieces for nearly 4 years now. A few months ago I noticed some strange behavior from some of my corals. Some LPS (a big Acan colony and some of my Euphyllia colonies) started to show signs of distress.... like one head on the edge wouldn't open more than about 50% of normal. Also, a full colony of red mushrooms started jumping off their rock and floating around the tank. My green star polyps stopped opening fully and they are visibly receding on their rock.
I have two Lobos, one of which is receding on one end, but the other one looks totally unbothered.
On the flipside, A giant Duncan colony as well as my yellow-tipped Elegance seem to be doing just fine. All of my Zoas and every piece of SPS (Monti, birds nests, Stylo, Hollywood Stunner, Acros, Lepto, Pavona) seem to be doing great as well.
I've done standard testing for temp, salinity, Alk, Calc, Mag, PH, Nitrite and Nitrate but nothing seems to be out of normal params. I did several 25 gallon water changes back to back, but that didn't seem to perk anything up. I tested for voltage in the tank. There was a very, very small amount, so I put my ground probe in (I'm not even sure if that's a good idea -- some people tell me to do it, some people tell me it's a bad idea).
I even sprang for ICP testing (attached) and the only thing out of whack according to them was my Mag being a little low. And "Br" being off, but there appears to be an error with the baseline comparison from Fiji for that element. I don't know what "Br" is, what it does, or whether the reading is high/low/or even accurate.
Here's the really strange part...
Back when I had everything in my 29 gallon I had a brief outbreak of both aiptasia and bubble algae (the product of some dirty frags I bought. I combated this naturally with a couple of Emerald Crabs and a couple of Peppermint Shrimp. Within a few weeks every sign of aiptasia and bubble algae was gone. Both the crabs and shrimp have long since passed, but I've NEVER seen a single sign of either pest since... until after this problem started. Now I have bubble algae AND aiptasia exploding in the tank again. I haven't added *anything* to the tank since last year's RAP, in June of last year.
Is it possible for bubble algae and aiptasia to go dormant (or be suppressed by something in the tank chemistry) for 6+ months, only to be triggered later by something and then explode?
I can't help thinking that whatever is going on in my tank is causing both problems -- the coral stress and the pest explosion.
The ICP test was about a month ago and nothing has changed. I've completely lost a prized orange frogspawn and a generic green torch. I've lost 2 or 3 heads from one of my hammer colonies, and a very expensive gold torch is shrunken down to about 10% of it's normal size. I fear it may be a lost cause too.
Any ideas would would be causing this kind of thing? The only idea I have is, perhaps... I have a pretty large neon green Australian leather coral, and my saddleback clown will occasionally treat it like an anemone and tick it off. Is it possible that this leather is releasing toxins and killing the LPS as well as some of the softies? I always run a bag of carbon, and people have told me not to worry about the leather, especially if you have some carbon in there, but it's the only thing I can think of at this point.
