Help with dying frags

[BurtMacklin]

Yes - I know, I've read the studies. I don't remember the exact percentage involved, but my recollection was it was an extremely small number of living CI at 76 days. Thus people have started raising the temperature (to 80 or so) - and then shortening the time. But like I said - im not recommending that you do that - keep your QT consistent.

Is there any resource to read on decreasing the quarantine time with increased temp? I'm already running the frag tank at 80°F.

 

[MnFish1]

Is there any resource to read on decreasing the quarantine time with increased temp? I'm already running the frag tank at 80°F.

@Jay Hemdal

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Are they likely to hurt the other corals even if not sick? What about in my 65 gallon DT? If the 10 gallon is too small for these guys to make it another 50 days in quarantine together, then I only have four options; move the paly to the DT and risk quarantine issues, leave it and hope they dint kill each other, throw it out, or set up another QT (not ideal).

When corals get competitive or defensive, for whatever reason, it doesn't matter if the other corals are sick or not. They will go into chemical warfare and in the case of the Euphylliidae family of corals they send out sweeper tentacles to sting and burn other corals within reach. Personally I have decided that having either a couple of different species of corals that are in the same family or several types of subspecies of one species, makes life much easier because they are far less likely to fight.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Is there any resource to read on decreasing the quarantine time with increased temp? I'm already running the frag tank at 80°F.

Over 80 does reduce the fallow time, but by how much? IMO, 45 days is fine at 81 degrees F. However, people have seen relapses doing that. The question is was it a true relapse or was their biosecurity flawed (allowing contaminated hand/tank tools etc. to go from one tank to another, even aerosol droplets can be a source of transmission.
The 76 day value came from one poorly reviewed study, at low temperatures, in what is called a xeric culture (no bacteria). The sweet spot is probably in between these two extremes.

Jay

 

[BurtMacklin]

@MnFish1

The zoas and palythoa are still closed and the others are doing worse now. The water became cloudy 2 days ago and everything is closed. I think there's an algae bloom and no CUC. I had some algae on the corals so I dipped everything in a 3% hydrogen peroxide:tank water 1:1 mix. Some algae came off all of them but now my blasto skeleton is falling apart a day later (pic below). I know tank stability would be best for them, but should I just do a large water change and change the filters out again?

Temp: 80
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0
pH: 8.15

Just did a 20% water change on Monday.

They have 13 days left in QT and I'm considering moving them to the DT early to try to save them. The pulsing xenia died and I don't want to lose the blasto if it isn't already too far gone.

I changed out the carbon and put in a new filter 2 days ago and they're both already pretty brown. Thoughts?

 

[BurtMacklin]

Also
nitrate: 5
Alk: 9.3

 

[MnFish1]

I would 'guess' that the cloudy water is not an algae bloom - but a bacteria bloom. I would agree the best choice would be to get them out of the small tank - into a bigger one, since the QT period is almost done. My guess the source is the dying coral (of the bacteria). Its always hard to say - but to me I would toss the coral you pictured (the small frag). I think I said before, I'm not a big fan of 'dipping', and I am not aware that using a 1.5 percent H2O2 treatment was a good idea - but its done. In my experience, if algae is growing on a coral skeleton, that part is 'dead'. Sorry this has been such a mess for you.

 

[Jekyl]

What % are you running the black box light? At 50% that could be 300+ par. I used to use them and they put out some serious light.

 

[BurtMacklin]

I would 'guess' that the cloudy water is not an algae bloom - but a bacteria bloom. I would agree the best choice would be to get them out of the small tank - into a bigger one, since the QT period is almost done. My guess the source is the dying coral (of the bacteria). Its always hard to say - but to me I would toss the coral you pictured (the small frag). I think I said before, I'm not a big fan of 'dipping', and I am not aware that using a 1.5 percent H2O2 treatment was a good idea - but its done. In my experience, if algae is growing on a coral skeleton, that part is 'dead'. Sorry this has been such a mess for you.

Yeha it didn't seam to love the hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately there are tons of threads on using it, so I figured it was safe. I moved the small blasto into the big tank already (it isn't quite dead yet, so we'll see if it can recover). I'll move the others this weekend. Why do you think bacteria and not algae? The tank was newly set up for these frags with a piece of live rock from the DT. There's some algae growing on the glass, so I figured algae bloom.

 

[MnFish1]

Yeha it didn't seam to love the hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately there are tons of threads on using it, so I figured it was safe. I moved the small blasto into the big tank already (it isn't quite dead yet, so we'll see if it can recover). I'll move the others this weekend. Why do you think bacteria and not algae? The tank was newly set up for these frags with a piece of live rock from the DT. There's some algae growing on the glass, so I figured algae bloom.

Mainly because your nutrients are on the low end - though that doesn't rule it out. Bacterial blooms tend to come on more 'suddenly'.

 

[GeoSquid]

I have two of the black box leds and I've fried a couple corals not realizing how powerful they are. older corals were acclimated slowly but a couple new ones I moved up too quickly and fried them.

 

[BurtMacklin]

What % are you running the black box light? At 50% that could be 300+ par. I used to use them and they put out some serious light.

I've been running it on the lowest or 2nd to lowest setting. Not sure what the % is but probably around 20-25%. I'll move them all over and do an acclimatization 14 day period with my Kessil Ap9x.