Is my PC Rainbow dying or recovering?

[Rakie]

@Rakie lol sorry just saw this thread. Would you recommend melafix for all corals, or just to remove AEFW off acros? I've been using CoralRx but I am yet to have any pest issues.

I use it on everything, and for everything.

I've seen it kill the unkillable marine spiders. I've used it for softies, LPS, and SPS.

Mushrooms will get annoyed and throw their guts up a bit.. But they're mushrooms, they recover just fine and can probably live in a toilet with some table salt and candle light. So don't worry about them.

but MIND THE TIMER. Melafix is both remarkably safe, and dangerous, depending on what side of the timer you're on. 5-6 minutes, full stop. Everything will be fine in 5-6 minutes. Everything will be dead in 10-20 minutes. Set an alarm, pull them all out at once so you don't spend 2 minutes pulling them one by one.

 

[eamike261]

Got the purge and added the first dose... kind of unsettling to be honest... nothing in the tank seems super happy about it

 

[DMG Reef]

Yeah, the cloudiness just feels wrong. But Purge didn't hurt anything in my reef except the AEFW. I have 5 anemones that didn't even care. All of my snails and crabs were fine also. Good luck!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Safely removed aefw from sps corals? Does it remove them from the tank in the end? What's the general consensus on it right now? I haven't been keeping up with any threads or seen any on here about it.

 

[eamike261]

Safely removed aefw from sps corals? Does it remove them from the tank in the end? What's the general consensus on it right now? I haven't been keeping up with any threads or seen any on here about it.

From what I understand it does not kill eggs but it's supposed to kill baby and adult AEFW. So the treatments process is about 4-5 weeks of repeated doses. It doesn't necessarily kill every single one immediately but it's also supposed to impair reproductive capabilities. We'll see how it goes... I'll report back. It's certainly not cheap... costs $38 to treat up to 50 gallons per bottle.

 

[eamike261]

5 days since dipping the coral and 4 days since adding Purge... he's looking significantly better already! Still quite a ways to go though.

 

[Velcro]

I’m not convinced that you even have aefw. My PC rainbow actually developed strange spots like that right before a growth explosion. I too tried to dip it but had no increase in spots or any flatworms in the dip after blasting.

 

[DMG Reef]

I’m not convinced that you even have aefw. My PC rainbow actually developed strange spots like that right before a growth explosion. I too tried to dip it but had no increase in spots or any flatworms in the dip after blasting.

Flatworms came off the acro when he dipped in Coralrx. Just one or two, but definitely has AEFW unfortunately.

 

[adtravels]

I have used this to great effect for the last 2 years not a flatworm, Nudi or redbug has made it into my tank. Even with one dip on a heavily infected piece of sps. FYI, I always cut the bottom 1cm or plugs off frags or any bare skeleton as this where the eggs always are.

 

[Velcro]

Flatworms came off the acro when he dipped in Coralrx. Just one or two, but definitely has AEFW unfortunately.

Are you referring to the pic in post 35? Doesn’t look like flatworms to me...

 

[DMG Reef]

Are you referring to the pic in post 35? Doesn’t look like flatworms to me...

Yep, lower right-hand side of pic. Definitely a dying/dead flatworm. I fought these guys for 9 months before using Purge. I've seen more than my fair share of them. It's a flatworm.

 

[wangspeed]

Definitely AEFW on the PC Rainbow. Sorry, they suck to deal with. I switched to Melafix pond a few months ago. With 5ml in 1 gallon, AEFW dies in 30 seconds. It’s unbelievable how well it works, and it’s nontoxic!

 

[eamike261]

Sooooo bad news... now my PC rainbow is for sure suffering from STN or RTN, and I'm not sure what I should do. Today is the first day I noticed so I'm not sure how quickly it's progressing. I'm about 10 days into my Purge treatments and haven't seen any signs of AEFW (which is good).

Should I cut the acro where I can still see flesh? Oddly enough, overall it's been doing better and better. A lot of green has returned all over it which I understand is the first stage of a recovering acro... (the pics are taken with flash so you don't see the color)

 

[eamike261]

Here are couple pics from the side and rear. Sorry they're blurry because the angle is bad. Not sure if it well help

 

[DMG Reef]

Rather than traumatize a coral further by cutting it, I've had very good luck putting super glue gel over the STN area and even covering just a little of the healthy tissue. In most cases, the acro regrows over the glue. Of course all parameters have to be in line as well.

I've saved at least 5 acros with this method.

 

[eamike261]

Rather than traumatize a coral further by cutting it, I've had very good luck putting super glue gel over the STN area and even covering just a little of the healthy tissue. In most cases, the acro regrows over the glue. Of course all parameters have to be in line as well.

I've saved at least 5 acros with this method.

Interesting so I assume the glue just stops the spreading? I felt like it was doing so well :/

 

[DMG Reef]

Interesting so I assume the glue just stops the spreading? I felt like it was doing so well :/

The FW sucks the life out of them. Sometimes they die with or without intervention unfortunately. The glue can stop the progression for sure.

Here's my poor PC Rainbow while I was fighting AEFW.

This is after the Purge treatment.

They are pretty hardy acros, so yours can definitely pull through with proper care. Give it lots of flow and watch your alkalinity during treatment.

 

[eamike261]

I ended up chopping the PC Rainbow frag at the base because the STN continued. That went very well, the frag has gained a lot more bright green flesh since then with no sign of STN.

The purge treatment is done with no new signs of bite marks until today... but I don't think it's AEFW, I think it's SPIDERS FROM HELL

While re-gluing some other acros a couple days (that had faded in color very rapidly) I noticed what appeared to be a couple spiders fall into the water column. I've been checking every night/morning for spiders on the acros and didn't see until.... today I found this while the lights were off....

They make fast work because just a couple days here is a before and after close up of a branch they must have munched on...

I pulled the PC rainbow out and shook him around in a bowl of regular tank saltwater (no time to do a real dip). One jumped off into the water column, one hung on during the whole process, and one came out in my cup of saltwater. They're sensitive little f***ers but they hold on tight when they want to. They won't be sucked off by a turkey baster either. Here it is for size reference next to a pair of tweezers, moving around like the demon that it is.


I also spotted one on my red planet today. I'm afraid dipping won't cut it to eliminate them because they so frequently hop off into the water column as soon as the frag/rock is picked up... feeling very discouraged about everything right now but I'm going to hopefully bait them and dip all the acros at once during the morning when they're hopefully too distracted by my precious corals to jump off. Of course, this assumes they are strictly "acro eating" because for all I know they will happily munch on zoas, LPS, and birdsnest.

 

[TMB]

WOW, this is the kind of critter SPS nightmares are made of! Thanks for posting this .

I wish you all the luck in beating these things. Keep us posted on your progress and findings.
Hopefully someone else can chime in with experience that will help you kill these things.