How long after brown jelly to recover

Top189h · Feb 28, 2022

So, I had a crap run of luck lately. I hadn't done any water changes in a while and was out of tropic marin so I broke down and did a 10% change with reef crystals. Within a few hours, a torch frag started receeding. The next day when I came home, all three heads had bailed out and landed on my duncan colony. When I got the duncan cleaned off, I noticed some black spots on some of the polyps (looked like black pepper flakes). It opened back up for two days, then I had one heater break on. I run two small ones and it only jumped 4 degrees for a couple of hours. I guess that was too much for the already damaged duncan to take and brown jelly set in by that night. I did a 2 gallon change and put the duncan in a iodine dip and then used the water I pulled out of the tank in a bucket with an air stone and spare heater from my wife's betta tank to house the duncan as I don't have a qt tank. This was Friday, yesterday, toadstool leather that I've had for at least 5 years started building up a film, has some small spots of its head missing, is drooped completely over and turning pale (it has attatched itself to 2 rocks and i can't remove it if it goes completely south without tearing the tank down). I'm assuming this to be unrelated to the jelly (as research led me to it only affects lps coral) and just some lingering effects of the heater. In reality, how long do I have to worry about anything else getting brown jelly? I have a rose coral(came on the first piece of live rock i ever bought) has been one of my pride and joys corals for more than 10 years and I'm worried. The rock it is on is removable but has a massive sponge build up on it that I don't want to disturb. The rose coral still looks great but is it just a matter of time? To be fair though, this ordeal makes me love my sps as they're still looking great.

blaxsun · Feb 28, 2022

I've only been successful in saving one coral with brown jelly (Reef Primer), but it later succumbed months later. The second unhealthy one I dipped just continued to deteriorate. I ended up yanking both more or less right away before it could really spread. I kept an eye on things for a few days and didn't add anything new for at least a week as a precaution.

As soon as BJD appears that coral is toast and yanked right away. A tip I was given is to use a paper towel to wrap the affected coral when removing it so that as little (preferably none) comes off.

mdb_talon · Feb 28, 2022

I would not feel safe until at least a couple weeks have passed with none popping up. Personally if I was sure I had BJD develop on anything in my tank I would treat the tank immediately. I have managed to save a couple pieces that had BJD, but generally speaking by the time you see it on a coral then it is too late.

Top189h · Feb 28, 2022

What could I treat the tank with? I've seen things for trading individual coral.

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2022

If you suspect brown jelly put a big bag of carbon in sump to start.

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2022

Top189h said:
What could I treat the tank with? I've seen things for trading individual coral.

I successfully stopped a BJD attack in my tank with chemiclean once and another small breakout I used ciprofloaxin.

vetteguy53081 · Feb 28, 2022

BJD contains ciliates and can therefore be contagious to other coral. While iodine may help, it is essential to assure water parameters are restored. Euphyllia is common to falling to BJD. Poor water conditions, overfeeding, and damaged tissue can contribute to brown jelly infections in the reef tank setting. In many cases , you will have to cut or frag a coral to save whats left.
I find siphoning the jelly is the quickest way to prevent it from spreading. Pipettes work excellent for this task. A good antibiotic for this is ciprofloxacin because it is still very effective in low doses, minimizing damage from dipping. It is recommended to use 0.125 mg/L of Ciprofloxacin by dissolving a 500 mg tablet in 50 ml of reverse osmosis deionized (RODI) water.

Top189h · Mar 1, 2022

Thank you for all of the advice. I changed out and added some extra carbon to the tank and have ordered ciprofloxacin and will treat if anything left in the tank shows signs. The toadstool is looking better today, but the duncan is toast.

Mppp · Jun 15, 2022

Top189h said:
Thank you for all of the advice. I changed out and added some extra carbon to the tank and have ordered ciprofloxacin and will treat if anything left in the tank shows signs. The toadstool is looking better today, but the duncan is toast.

I might have had a brown jelly attack and am wondering how long before I can start possibly introducing new corals so am curious how your treatments worked out for you?

Icryhard · Jun 11, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
BJD contains ciliates and can therefore be contagious to other coral. While iodine may help, it is essential to assure water parameters are restored. Euphyllia is common to falling to BJD. Poor water conditions, overfeeding, and damaged tissue can contribute to brown jelly infections in the reef tank setting. In many cases , you will have to cut or frag a coral to save whats left.
I find siphoning the jelly is the quickest way to prevent it from spreading. Pipettes work excellent for this task. A good antibiotic for this is ciprofloxacin because it is still very effective in low doses, minimizing damage from dipping. It is recommended to use 0.125 mg/L of Ciprofloxacin by dissolving a 500 mg tablet in 50 ml of reverse osmosis deionized (RODI) water.

Would this also be enough for a 120 gallon tank with fish and snails etc? or do I need a different dosage by any chance?