Corals dying

[manuel josephh]

Hey guys, so recently 2 of my corals that died for some unknown reason. I noticed they had some brown jelly on them. So after doing some research and finding out that it may spread, I quickly took them out and threw them away. Now another few corals are not opening up. so I’m confuse as to what is happening to my tank. Parameters are fine and I do weekly 20-30% water change. Can any of you help me?

 

[blaxsun]

I would probably help to try to get your nitrates down a little bit (5-10ppm). It would also be helpful if you posted some images of the affected corals.

 

[Charlie brown]

If you can dip them in iodine and do a water change at least 50% and run some fresh carbon if you haven't already! GOOD LUCK! Hope your corals make it

 

[manuel josephh]

I would probably help to try to get your nitrates down a little bit (5-10ppm). It would also be helpful if you posted some images of the affected corals.

 

[blaxsun]

They're not totally unhappy, but I see where your concern is. I've had euphyllia that started to recess like that. Sometimes a dip helped - sometimes not. I've also had some recover on their own while others didn't.

Example: I had a hammer like yours that just continued to recess (not BJD) until it was essentially gone. I have another branching hammer that receded in one head because the fish kept knocking it upside down. And I have another hammer that completely recessed but I moved it and it seems to have nearly recovered on it's own.

So dipping, repositioning, lighting and flow are all things you can review to see if there may be any benefit.

 

[Reefahholic]

PO4 plz?

 

[CoralB]

How long has your tank been up ? Your rock looks really new . Your nitrates could be a little high I would bring them down to between 5-15 ppm . Could you also tell us what your phosphates and salinity is ???

 

[Dburr1014]

Hey guys, so recently 2 of my corals that died for some unknown reason. I noticed they had some brown jelly on them. So after doing some research and finding out that it may spread, I quickly took them out and threw them away. Now another few corals are not opening up. so I’m confuse as to what is happening to my tank. Parameters are fine and I do weekly 20-30% water change. Can any of you help me?

Lights, flow? How old is tank?
The pictures show no flesh on the skeleton. This makes me believe they have been receding for a while. How long have you owned the corals?

 

[manuel josephh]

How long has your tank been up ? Your rock looks really new . Your nitrates could be a little high I would bring them down to between 5-15 ppm . Could you also tell us what your phosphates and salinity is ???

PO4 is at 0.00ppm(salifert) salinity is 1.024SG(Hanna)

 

[Dburr1014]

Your are definatly unbalanced.
High alk and no po4. Corals trying to grow with high alk but they can't feed with no po4. Then there's high no3.
Do you have a refuge?
Need to get the no3 down, po4 up. I would Also suggest alk down to the 8's but that is up to you. Feed pellets or flake to get the po4 up, refuge to get the no3 down or water changes.
Also lights and flow you didn't give us.

 

[manuel josephh]

Your are definatly unbalanced.
High alk and no po4. Corals trying to grow with high alk but they can't feed with no po4. Then there's high no3.
Do you have a refuge?
Need to get the no3 down, po4 up. I would Also suggest alk down to the 8's but that is up to you. Feed pellets or flake to get the po4 up, refuge to get the no3 down or water changes.
Also lights and flow you didn't give us.

I see, then again I’m using a titration test kit, so I’m not sure if it’s really accurate. Because I’ve done some heavy feeding, I would think the PO4 should have risen because of my high nitrates. And also It’s really hard to determine what level the PO4 is at because the colours in the Low range are pretty similar. I’m getting a Hanna phosphate checker ULR to get a more accurate reading. Thanks for the advice mate.

 

[mdb_talon]

If you had some corals die with "brown jelly" then it is likely you have some bacterial infection in the water. I know everyone asks for parameters and i dont disagree it wont hurt to drop nitrates a bit and get phosphate up a bit, but personally think that as a hobby we focus way too much on the numbers because that is what we can test for.

If you have a bacterial disease that caused the bjd in other corals it is much more likely in my opinion that is what is causing the health decline of the other corals. In my experience(and others i have read) dipping with traditional dips or iodine has almost no chance of helping if it is a bjd type scenario. Personally i would treat the tank with cipro.

When i recently battled bjd i dosed cipro to tank for 5 days. I also did long 12 hours dip/bath of unhealthy looking corals in an amoxycillin dip before putting back in tank. Those baths stopped any recession immediately on all but one of my pieces that i caught before it was a complete goner.

 

[manuel josephh]

If you had some corals die with "brown jelly" then it is likely you have some bacterial infection in the water. I know everyone asks for parameters and i dont disagree it wont hurt to drop nitrates a bit and get phosphate up a bit, but personally think that as a hobby we focus way too much on the numbers because that is what we can test for.

If you have a bacterial disease that caused the bjd in other corals it is much more likely in my opinion that is what is causing the health decline of the other corals. In my experience(and others i have read) dipping with traditional dips or iodine has almost no chance of helping if it is a bjd type scenario. Personally i would treat the tank with cipro.

When i recently battled bjd i dosed cipro to tank for 5 days. I also did long 12 hours dip/bath of unhealthy looking corals in an amoxycillin dip before putting back in tank. Those baths stopped any recession immediately on all but one of my pieces that i caught before it was a complete goner.

Yea I agree with you in this one. Sometimes the killer isn’t about the numbers but it’s the something that we can’t see with our eyes. Do you have any brand recommendations for cipro? This is the first time I’m hearing about it. Thanks for the advice btw!!

 

[mdb_talon]

Yea I agree with you in this one. Sometimes the killer isn’t about the numbers but it’s the something that we can’t see with our eyes. Do you have any brand recommendations for cipro? This is the first time I’m hearing about it. Thanks for the advice btw!!

I usually just buy the 500mg fish version from allivet. I think they all should be the same other than dosage maybe. I think key is buying ones marketed for fish. Otherwise most places require a prescription if it marketed for dogs or other animals.

I cant find it real quick but there is a very good thread on here where someone did some actual testing using cipro for bjd and also tested the impact to the "good" bacteria in tanks and at least in his test it was minimal.

 

[mcgullen]

Hi. In case you are suspecting BJD, consider dosing Ciprofloxacin at 0.1 mg / L once a day for a total of 7 days. Do not turn on UV or ozone during treatment. Do not use activated carbon.

If you are not seeing improvement within the first 2 days, it's probably not BJD.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

They're not totally unhappy, but I see where your concern is. I've had euphyllia that started to recess like that. Sometimes a dip helped - sometimes not. I've also had some recover on their own while others didn't.

Example: I had a hammer like yours that just continued to recess (not BJD) until it was essentially gone. I have another branching hammer that receded in one head because the fish kept knocking it upside down. And I have another hammer that completely recessed but I moved it and it seems to have nearly recovered on it's own.

So dipping, repositioning, lighting and flow are all things you can review to see if there may be any benefit.

Any pictures of that to compare...fts?

 

[manuel josephh]

Any pictures of that to compare...fts?

Second picture is one of the first 2 corals that died of bjd. It got worse and started taking the photo

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Second picture is one of the first 2 corals that died of bjd. It got worse and started taking the photo

I've never had long term success with euphyllia, I stay away from them. Sorry that happened is it coming back, did you use any antibiotics or pro biotics ?

 

[manuel josephh]

I've never had long term success with euphyllia, I stay away from them. Sorry that happened is it coming back, did you use any antibiotics or pro biotics ?

I haven’t started using any antibiotics or pro biotics. Mainly because I live in Singapore and I’m not too sure whether they have those catered for fishes.

 

[Lavey29]

BJD kills coral heads fast 24 to 48 hours gone. If your decline is slower over a week or so then probably not BJD.

How old is your tank?