Corals shrunk and slime coat??

[Mr. D]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday I notice a few corals looking odd. One of my micromusa had shrunk considerably and had what looks like a slime coat on it. Even today I cannot find any damage to it; it has actually expanded a tiny amount.

However, today I have noticed that two other a can have shrunk considerably, but with no slime coat.

Another coral I have noticed is my frogs pawn, all 4 heads have shrunk considerably for some reason.

So far I have completed an 18 percent water change, added fresh carbon and gave the poly filter a good rinse.

Within the last 3-4 days I have switched up the rock structure, and in so doing moved corals around. The corals mentioned above as well as quite a few more were moved. I seem to think it could be change in par values shocking the corals, however I actually turned down the percentages on my leds yesterday just to be sure.

Anyone have ideas? Here are several pictures. Please forgive the blue saturation, the whites aren't set to come on yet.

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[Tahoe61]

You've done a number of things: Move rock, added carbon and did a water change and cleaned filtration. You could have disturbed enough of the sand bed by moving the rocks to cause a nitrate spike. Sometimes the addition of new carbon can stip the water so quickly it leads to an intensity in lighting by quickly removing dissolved organic componds. How did you clean the poly filter?
Water chemistry is always the first place I look, in this case I would test for ammonia and nitrates as well as Ca/mg/alk.

 

[Mr. D]

I rinsed the poly filter in water that I had taken out for a water change. I was very methodical in moving rock, but as you said, some could have still be stirred up. I haven't checked Nitrates or ammonia yet, however the poly filter should be taking care of that front. As for ca/mg/alk they all look to be normal for my ranges. Could have been an alk alike, but I haven't been testing every day to see.

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[Mr. D]

I'll be doing another water change tonight and also changing the poly filter since that helps remove ammonia and such.

Any other recommendations?

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[Zero Nitrates]

Sometimes when I move stuff around I notice the same thing in my tank. I believe it is the coral getting used to their new neighbors. Might have something to do with the toxins they release. I bet they will get settled in soon. Just keep an eye on them. I have had to relocate coral because they were not getting along.

 

[Mr. D]

I'll keep that in mind. However, I make a point to keep the coral separated so there is not warfare, but I'll definitely keep an eye.

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[Mr. D]

Here's a pic of the coral that seems most affected. This is a few hours after rights went out and another water change as well as poly filter replacement.

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[Mr. D]

Anyone have suggestions? There's nothing testing to indicate a cycle either. No ammonia, Nitrates... Nothing. I'm stumped.

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[NanaReefer]

Looks like a fungus to me. Have you tried dipping them? CoralRX?


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[Mr. D]

No I haven't. The coral now (next day) looks normal but still deflated.

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[Mr. D]

I am still having problems throughout the system though as other corals are so stressed they're shrinking until flesh falls off.

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[Mr. D]

Here's a pic of some other corals having trouble and I may lose.

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[NanaReefer]

Could you please post all water parameters & lighting schedule + temp?


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[Tahoe61]

What salt mix did you use? Was it a new bag?

 

[Mr. D]

Nitrates, ammonia and Nitrates as posted earlier were zero. Calcium is at 380, magnesium at 1360 and alk at 7.3. These parameters are all normal for my reef as I keep my alk on the lower end, it fluctuates on a normal basis between water changes and has so for as long as I have kept it. Temp is 78 and stays constant there.

Lighting schedule is 12 hours blue leds and 6-7 hours white leds. Still acclimating some corals to the lighting. Blue at 50 percent and white at about 15-20 percent.

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[mcarroll]

"Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank."

Massive changes to flow and light are never welcome to anything but frags and can absolutely be lethal.

What's worse is that it can be almost impossible to know IF you changed a coral's flow let alone knowing by how much it was changed.

Likewise, unless you used a lux meter (or something) to gauge how much light was being received by each coral you moved before and after, it's almost impossible for you to guess if you've done good or bad here too.

Unless you can figure out how to restore things back to the way they were, I think the best thing you can do now is to stabilize everything to the extent possible - including no less than a few weeks' time to bring the lights up to full power so they don't stress any further from the new lights - so the corals that make it can get happy again.

Hope this helps!

-Matt

P.S. Lux meters are cheap on ebAmazon and free on your smartphone, btw.

 

[Mr. D]

Appreciate the help everyone. It seems that once I did another water change, put fresh carbon after 24 hours and put a hob skimmer for added oxygenation things are turning around. I may come out of this with zero losses, but too early to tell just yet.

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