Corals are shrinking and losing color

Jae Harris · Feb 9, 2018

HELP! My tank is still relatively new. Started it up in November. I had a recent ICH outbreak and started treating the water with Rally and Kick Ich. I have noticed over the past month my hammer coral, frogspawn coral, torch and trumpets have all started to shrink in size. They have started to bleach out a bit as well. Any suggestions? Any coral meds to use?? Water test shows all parameters are within normal limits.

Thanks guys.

Jae
Red Sea Reefer 250.

Crabs McJones · Feb 9, 2018

Jae Harris said:
HELP! My tank is still relatively new. Started it up in November. I had a recent ICH outbreak and started treating the water with Rally and Kick Ich. I have noticed over the past month my hammer coral, frogspawn coral, torch and trumpets have all started to shrink in size. They have started to bleach out a bit as well. Any suggestions? Any coral meds to use?? Water test shows all parameters are within normal limits.

Thanks guys.

Jae
Red Sea Reefer 250.

Wait..you treated for ich in your display tank???
Could you please post your exact parameters?

Porpoise Hork · Feb 9, 2018

What are your water parameters? Has anything changed in the environment? What kind of lighting do you have, T5, LED, MH?

Jae Harris · Feb 9, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
Wait..you treated for ich in your display tank???
Could you please post your exact parameters?

Unfortunately yes, I had to treat it in my display tank. I tried for days to catch my tangs but it was physically impossible..
As for my parameters, I have them all written down at home. I had my water tested at my local fish store.
Found out that my heater was not reaching the set temperature. I had it set at 78 but my digital thermometer read 71. Could it be the temperature?
As for the lighting, I have 2 hydra 26's. No other change in environment.

Thanks everyone.

Crabs McJones · Feb 9, 2018

Jae Harris said:
Unfortunately yes, I had to treat it in my display tank. I tried for days to catch my tangs but it was physically impossible..
As for my parameters, I have them all written down at home. I had my water tested at my local fish store.
Found out that my heater was not reaching the set temperature. I had it set at 78 but my digital thermometer read 71. Could it be the temperature?
As for the lighting, I have 2 hydra 26's. No other change in environment.

Thanks everyone.

Yes, 71 would be to low. Corals tend to be happy around 76 to 80. I would start by warming up your water, and doing a series of water changes to get that medication out of your display tank. For future reference never treat for disease in your display tank. It may be a pain in the butt to catch your fish to move them to quarantine, but the amount of corals you could potentially lose outweights that. If you're having trouble catching fish your best bet is to drain as much water as you can into buckets, limiting the room your fish have to run, and then put the water back in after you've caught them. But definitely raise your temp up, and get us those parameter numbers so we can further help you out

Jae Harris · Feb 9, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
Yes, 71 would be to low. Corals tend to be happy around 76 to 80. I would start by warming up your water, and doing a series of water changes to get that medication out of your display tank. For future reference never treat for disease in your display tank. It may be a pain in the butt to catch your fish to move them to quarantine, but the amount of corals you could potentially lose outweights that. If you're having trouble catching fish your best bet is to drain as much water as you can into buckets, limiting the room your fish have to run, and then put the water back in after you've caught them. But definitely raise your temp up, and get us those parameter numbers so we can further help you out

You are amazing! Thank you for all of your wisdom and help. I am still very new to the reefing world.
I will start with the water changes and also get that information to you.
Thanks again!!

Jae

Crabs McJones · Feb 9, 2018

Jae Harris said:
You are amazing! Thank you for all of your wisdom and help. I am still very new to the reefing world.
I will start with the water changes and also get that information to you.
Thanks again!!

Jae

No problem

i'm going to invite the rest of #reefsquad into the discussion in case anyone else may have any ideas

KMench · Feb 9, 2018

What did you treat your display tank with? When raising the temperature try to do it slowly, not in one fell swoop.

Crabs McJones · Feb 9, 2018

KMench said:
What did you treat your display tank with? When raising the temperature try to do it slowly, not in one fell swoop.

looks to be Rally and Kick Ich. Both are non copper and "coral safe" don't know that I'd trust them

KMench · Feb 9, 2018

Oh I'm sorry, I missed that. Yes then, I've used them and had my corals become less than happy when I was starting out. I would try to do several water changes and run some GAC to remove any residual components of the treatments. If you're currently running fallow with the corals there you might want to feed them occasionally since LPS generally like "dirtier" water.

Porpoise Hork · Feb 9, 2018

I have had better success with the Poly Filter Pads and Purigen for medication removal than GAC. The poly pads will change color letting you know what they have pulled out of the water and new pouches or freshly regenerated pouches of Purigen are amazing for pulling most types of organics out as well.

Jae Harris · Feb 9, 2018

KMench said:
What did you treat your display tank with? When raising the temperature try to do it slowly, not in one fell swoop.

I used Rally and Kick Ich. It was a combo treatment.

Maritimer · Feb 9, 2018

Rally can be effective against things like Brooklynella, and (as a short-term bath) velvet, as it's an antiseptic, but I'm not aware of it being effective against ich. Kick-Ich, which I tried using when I was new at this game, kicked some of my corals, but did little to nothing against ich.

You're really going to want a quarantine tank, and some copper or CP (Chloroquine Phosphate) medication.

~Bruce

laverda · Feb 10, 2018

Your tank being at 71 degrees has a lot to do with your having ICH. If the temp is proper and stable the fish have a much better chance against ICH. You might also try catching you fish at night after the lights go out. I also use clear containers to catch fish in. I can often catch fish that way and they don’t even realize the have been caught. Unlike when the see a net and get all stressed out. If you can’t catch them easily don’t continue as the stress is just going to make their health worse. Stress is a big cause of ICH out breaks, especially temp related stress.
In my opinion kick ICH is all but useless. Another option if you can not catch your fish, would be to move the corals instead then drop the salinity in the tank to 1.019.