Bacterial growth on montipora

mikellini · Mar 9, 2015

Not sure exactly what is going on, but I'm noticing some white growth on some of my monti's. My sunset frag is completely covered, and there are a few 'nodules' on some of the others. Not bleaching, but I'm not sure what else it could be aside from bacteria. I'm dosing kalk-saturated vinegar, now up to 45ml/day on 100 gallons, nitrates are steady between 4-8ppm. Could this be feeding bacteria growing on the coral? Should I stop dosing for a while to see? How would I go about reducing and eliminating the dose?

spspirate · Mar 9, 2015

Do you have any clear pics?

mikellini · Mar 9, 2015

I'll try to take some tomorrow

mikellini · Mar 10, 2015

Triggreef · Mar 10, 2015

sponge

or just death. Hard to see much

mikellini · Mar 10, 2015

Not a sponge. And not dead, there are polyps under there and one corner is still a bit orange that isn't covered

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 10, 2015

I've not heard anyone report visible bacteria actually on corals from organic carbon dosing. I can't tell anything from the pic on my phone, but stopping the organic carbon may be prudent.

mikellini · Mar 10, 2015

How should I stop? Cut in half every day, or two days? Or something else?

kacrocorals581 · Mar 10, 2015

I know you say its not bleaching but that's what it looks like

Triggreef · Mar 10, 2015

It doesn't even look like the same coral, since the one in the first pic is bigger than the plug? was it recently fragged?

mikellini · Mar 10, 2015

No these are two different corals. The first is a palawanensis that just recently started to show these growths, in person you can clearly see they are on top of the coral tissue. The second is a Sunset frag, it was bright orange with green polyps about a month ago, slowly was overtaken by a white growth. One corner still shows orange, and the polyps seem to stick through it a bit and are still green. I suppose it could be bleaching? But both of these corals are near the bottom of the tank, so not likely related to light

mikellini · Mar 10, 2015

I also have a setosa that is starting to have some white growth, and it's in an area of high flow so the growth seems to be stringing off it a bit

Electrobes · Mar 10, 2015

I honestly don't believe it's a bacterial type slime, only because when it does show up, it usually covers a lot of other things, rocks especially. Looking at your first pic, your rock looks pretty darn clean.. and the area immediately around the coral looks just as clean.

Are you doubly sure it's just something on the coral? I am worried it's the coral itself sloughing off... if you take a turkey baster and blow at the coral.. does it come off? What remains after blowing it off the coral?

mikellini · Mar 10, 2015

I thought about doing that, but was afraid to try. Can't hurt I guess. I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

Any advice about how to eliminate the carbon dose? One less variable

Squid · Mar 10, 2015

mikellini said:
No these are two different corals. The first is a palawanensis that just recently started to show these growths, in person you can clearly see they are on top of the coral tissue. The second is a Sunset frag, it was bright orange with green polyps about a month ago, slowly was overtaken by a white growth. One corner still shows orange, and the polyps seem to stick through it a bit and are still green. I suppose it could be bleaching? But both of these corals are near the bottom of the tank, so not likely related to light

They can bleach in any light, they just have to be stressed enough and will start bleaching. Look closely for nudis they are possibly the culprit.

Squid · Mar 10, 2015

Double post

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 11, 2015

If it is a pathogenic bacteria growing on the corals, I'd just stop dosing any organic carbon all at once. But i can't be sure it is that from the pics.

mikellini · Mar 28, 2015

Pretty sure it was caused by too much light, in that light stress made the corals susceptible. Reduced light and corals are starting to recover. But the growth I think was bacterial, it receded when I stopped carbon dosing. I think if I do it again, I'll go with NoPoX and dose calcium and alkalinity separately.