Cipro and STN treatment

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Dissolved 1 250 mg tablet of cipro in a gallon hospital tank. Just going to run it and see what happens... nothing to lose on small frag.

 

[P-Dub]

Certainly worth a shot. Be absolutely certain to follow up on this for us! Thanks!

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Added two other antibiotics i had laying around too. I checked and they all play nice with each other. Corals look fine after a few hours. Also added a hammer that still showed shipping stress in qt after a couple days. The hammer perked up really well after an hour or so. Will send photos later tonight.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Sps looks about same or a little worse, hard to tell. I changed the water and added new antibiotics. The water had a purple/pint color. But not of the antibiotcs are that color. Doesn't seem good but i'll give them another 24 hours and then reevaluate maybe just give the hospital tank wate4 from the tank and see if recover occuurs. Any ideas?

Hammer and other lps i just put back in Qt. See how they do there.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Added chemiclean too. Nothing to loose here, so might as well. Cipro literature says stops reproduction of bacteria, so hoping these other things in the soup (melafix, furan 2, doxycycline, maracyn) will attack the living infection.

Figure a 100% water change each day and redose. If things look better or STN slows I'll go five day treatment maybe.

Hard to determine dosages and time of contact. Wish i had a few of these gallon tanks with heaters and pumps, would be more scientific about this trying one thing at a time..

Also: both LPS in qt look good, no futher showing of skeleton.

Another two sps frags has stn (out dozens) so pulled them and put in hospital tank.

Dosed chemiclean to qt system. Never had chemiclean hurt anything and it may help according to a few coral farmers i was reading/listening to on youtube.

Will follow up daily, good or bad results. I enjoy playing coral doctor/nurse. And there just frags, so hopefully a positive result.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

I did an iodine dip for the hospital tank frags for 15 minutes. Then 100% water change. Redosed antibiotic soup.

Several hours later:

Smooth skinned acro still has recession progressing. The smaller frag less so.

But recession on the two other acros has not worsened.

QT tank got a dose of chemiclean, cipro, and one other antibiotic. I basted the coral frags well.

Two hours later some LPS showed stress, so 100% water change, added water from display. Added carbon, added UV. Skimmer on.

Now corals in QT are opening nicely. No signs of STN anywhere. Fingers crossed. Any offending frag (three or four) were previously removed in hospital tank.

Hospital tank now:

Qt tank now:

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Also been adding small amounts of kalk to boost PH to higher end, about 8.4. Problematic bacteria from what i read somewhere tend to lower PH, so trying give them an inhospitable environment.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

So some good results and bad results, overall no new corals frags are showing STN/RTN.

Hospital tank:
Teal thin skinned birds nest i removed as it was shedding (diseased tissue). But other two acros have no new STN/RTN and when basted, no coral recedes.

QT Tank:
Looks good! No new victims. Fingers crossed. Certainly plenty of thin skinned acros that could be susceptible.



Any who care, summary:

QT tank with 60 or so frags showed one frag with STN, RTN. I removed, dipped in iodine, to put in hosptial tank.

In hospital tank, i treated with cipro, chemiclean, melifix, and two other antibiotics. Same level dose as they recommended for fish. Added small dose of kalk to raise PH. Lots of aeration. Basting and 100% water changes, with renewed dose, at least once a day. Water changes from clean display tank.

When another two frags in QT showed signs, i removed them and added to hospital. Treated entire QT with melifix, Cipro and chemiclean for about two or so hours, until a couple LPS of all things showed stress (acro polyps never closed?...). Added kalk too.

Then basting and 100% water changed with clean display water. Added UV and carbon, skimmer on full.

My thoughts are that:

1. This Coral and disease progression specific. The stag and highlighter acro are bearing it out. Other teal smooth skin and strawberry shortcake succomb.

2. That said, i think treatment helps. My past experience is praying has worse result then this aggressive, but careful i hope, approach.


3. Kalk and melifix help make the environment unsuitable? Bad bacteria by definition like lower PH? Reproduction ability to attach to corals lessened with melafix? Melafix attacks small parasites, if issue?

4. Antibiotics treat bacterial infection. Just a guess on what is effective and if caught in time. When my dad was almost killed by sepsis -- they toss A LOT -- of different antibiotics at him. It saved his life. I took the same approach. But i did check to see the antibiotics could play nice together.

5. Basting and water changes and big ones. Just makes sense to me. Keep infections clean. Get those nasties out! Display water with correct bacterial load helps?

6. UV helps? Don't know, but assume so (after antibiotic treatment).

7. One gallon hospital tank with small heater, light, and pump is well worth having laying around. Ideally, numerous would be best.


Anyway, its just been 48 hours, but seeing corals open in QT, 50% of treated hospital corals stop tissue recession (other two/half died) and no new cases in QT, makes me much less anxious...

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Hospital tank frags with polyps out and no new recession. Both these frags had tissue coming off when basted just a day or so ago.

QT looking good, no new STN/RTN:

 

[Smite]

Interesting. glad to see they are looking alright. Have you looked into witchhazel for TN issues? I've heard of people using it with success, some even in displays.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Interesting. glad to see they are looking alright. Have you looked into witchhazel for TN issues? I've heard of people using it with success, some even in displays.

Thanks! Yes, i saw that on a youtube. I didn't have any on hand or may have tried. The person advocating witch hazel also used melafix, and i had that on hand and have dosed it to the display with no issues so, i was comfortable using it.

Crossing fingers here, but i think quick action is key (just like any infection on any human/animal). Removing infected corals, cleaning the infection, and changing as much water as possible i think is probably something i would do first again. Put infected corals in the hospital tank and treat. If infection continues in the larger tank, e.g., QT, display, medicate as you're comfortable. I am pretty comfortable with at least short (say a couple hours to a day or so--if corals are not stressing) with medicating the tank with chemiclean, antibiotics, and melafix.

I may try witchhazel in hospital tank and may try in a display if this continues or happens again!

 

[dadnjesse]

I have had STN on my SPS 200 gallon system for about 6 months now. I have tried everything. I treated with interceptor, I treated for flat worms with Purge. I tried dipping but my corals are colony's so I was only able to do a couple. I have lost around 6 colony's. The whole time I have yet to find any bugs. If I use a Microscope I can see tiny Microscopic cells moving around. I just started treating the whole tank with 500 MG Cipro tablets every other day for 3 treatment. So far everything looks good.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

No change, corals seem to be the same or better in hospital tank. No new outbreak in qt.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

 

[missourimud]

I appreciate this kind of information, thank you for the details

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Added some corals to the hospital tank with the antibiotic soup. They were from a late shipment that i normally would have thrown away they were looking so bad.

Looks like these corals might recover... gave them an iodine dip too.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Quick update. The frags held on for a few days week and deterioration slowed. However, they succomb in the end. I dis get busy and stopped doing daily water changes with new meds. That could have led to water quailty issues and that could have played a part as well.

Overall, i think there is something to antibiotics and the like helping. Seem to slow a drastic decline in some SPS.

However, acropora are senstive and ever more so when STN or RTN kicks in. Small frags i think a hard to save. If we could isolate exactly what antibiotic helps and the proper dosage and procedure, maybe frags/corals savable.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Note that none of LPS died that were showing issues with tissue decline from shipping stress... one hammer is half the size.... but appears out of the woods now.

 

[Cu8ano]

I have had STN on my SPS 200 gallon system for about 6 months now. I have tried everything. I treated with interceptor, I treated for flat worms with Purge. I tried dipping but my corals are colony's so I was only able to do a couple. I have lost around 6 colony's. The whole time I have yet to find any bugs. If I use a Microscope I can see tiny Microscopic cells moving around. I just started treating the whole tank with 500 MG Cipro tablets every other day for 3 treatment. So far everything looks good.

Any update on this? Dealing with something similar and been hesitant to cipro the whole tank as mine are sps dominant also