Most common cause of this problem?

[epsteino]

Any thoughts or common causes of this sps tissue loss?


SG 1.026
Temp between 77-78 F
pH swings from 8.05 to 8.45 daily

Alk - 8.0
Ca - 420-430
Mg - 1380-1420
PO3 - rises from 0.03 - 0.09 over 3-4 weeks
NO3 - 5-10

Full tank shot also posted.

 

[Euphyllia97]

Parameter swing? Did this happen slowly or quickly?

 

[epsteino]

Parameter swing? Did this happen slowly or quickly?

It’s been happening on and off to various corals. It is over a few days. Sometimes stops and then algae over grows but coral survives. Other times it continues and kills it. Parameters I just edited into post. I have been Battling aefw but this doesn’t look like it.

 

[Euphyllia97]

It’s been happening on and off to various corals. It is over a few days. Sometimes stops and then algae over grows but coral survives. Other times it continues and kills it. Parameters I just edited into post. I have been Battling aefw but this doesn’t look like it.

Everything looks good to me tbh... Did you test your rodi? Maybe some filter is giving up? I don’t think this is the problem, but have you checked for some sps eating nudibranches or flatworms at night?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

You said you were battling AEFW and while those don't look like bite marks you can never be too sure. Just take one out and dip it, that way you know for sure. If worms fall off then most likely that will be the cause.

You say that you are battling? Are you doing in-tank treatments? I also had these and decided to stick with in-tank treatments. Over 6 months I double dosed flatworm stop and double doses on purge every now and then to knock the population back. Towards the end I noticed that I didn't see random bite marks but more of what you have in your photo. It was almost like the flatworms where just eating as much as they could for survival and were not roaming around taking bites out of the acro before they seemed to vanish (fingers crossed).

The only other times I have seen this personally in my tank is when I have po4 issues (too much, too little or jumping around). Recently I had an event where my po4 was depleted and I had to dose; now my stability issues are causing random STN like this. Same symptoms, sometimes it stops but sometimes it keeps going. I make a frag of the tips and then eventually 20% of said frags start STN randomly.

 

[epsteino]

Everything looks good to me tbh... Did you test your rodi? Maybe some filter is giving up? I don’t think this is the problem, but have you checked for some sps eating nudibranches or flatworms at night?

Yes, I have been fighting AEFW for the past 6 months. Really depressing at first but after fragging everything and dipping several times, they seem to be pushed back and I haven't seen the pathognomonic "bite marks" or eggs in a while. But certainly, this could be a cause. It just looks different to me. They usually just go after more tissue above where the recessed white skeletal tissue is and eat the middle of the healthy robust coral where good tissue is. I have unfortunately learned to diagnose this too well. But...maybe they have changed or morphed and are doing this now. who knows. I doubt it too cause it just stops there sometimes without me doing anything to the coral. The tissue then heals up but leaves a scar for algae to just start taking hold. Ugh!!!

 

[epsteino]

You said you were battling AEFW and while those don't look like bite marks you can never be too sure. Just take one out and dip it, that way you know for sure. If worms fall off then most likely that will be the cause.

You say that you are battling? Are you doing in-tank treatments? I also had these and decided to stick with in-tank treatments. Over 6 months I double dosed flatworm stop and double doses on purge every now and then to knock the population back. Towards the end I noticed that I didn't see random bite marks but more of what you have in your photo. It was almost like the flatworms where just eating as much as they could for survival and were not roaming around taking bites out of the acro before they seemed to vanish (fingers crossed).

The only other times I have seen this personally in my tank is when I have po4 issues (too much, too little or jumping around). Recently I had an event where my po4 was depleted and I had to dose; now my stability issues are causing random STN like this. Same symptoms, sometimes it stops but sometimes it keeps going. I make a frag of the tips and then eventually 20% of said frags start STN randomly.

Great suggestion. I can dip them both for treatment and diagnosis potential.

I have been dealing with this for the past 6 months or so and probably longer because before that, there were a couple of colonies that sort of withered away and finally rtn'd. I at first took all my rocks with the colonies still attached and did a bayer dip. 15 minutes, then washed in successive baths. killed some shrimp for sure but overall, tolerated OK. did OK with basting every few days until I started seeing more. I decided to frag all my colonies and put them on frag racks. this was 2 months ago. I have dipped those racks 3 more times, once every 2-3 weeks. left the rocks and "puddles" of the frags in th tank. I did also chisel the puddles off of the rocks for some of my nicer SPS. anyway, I have been dipping and basting as my treatment. I have 5 wrasses in here. they love the flatworms as noted when I baste, the worms that fly off are devoured. Really depressing at first but after fragging everything and dipping several times, they seem to be pushed back and I haven't seen the pathognomonic "bite marks" or eggs in a while. But certainly, this could be a cause. It just looks different to me. They usually just go after more tissue above where the recessed white skeletal tissue is and eat the middle of the healthy robust coral where good tissue is. I have unfortunately learned to diagnose this too well. But...maybe they have changed or morphed and are doing this now. who knows. I doubt it too cause it just stops there sometimes without me doing anything to the coral. The tissue then heals up but leaves a scar for algae to just start taking hold. Ugh!!! I would expect AEFW to keep on chomping until the coral is dead. Maybe Im wrong?

And I really think you and I are dealing with the same problem with some nutrient fluctuation. My phosphate does change during the month. it goes from 0.00 on hanna checker (not true 0 because I don't run any gfo or have a refugium) at times to 0.15 at the most. usually runs between 0.03-0.09. Since I have fragged many colonies, I have several of each on racks in different parts of tank. It is interesting that not every frag of the same coral has this recession. for example, I only see it on one piece and the other 3 frags are encrusting nicely. What are you doing to stop this?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Great suggestion. I can dip them both for treatment and diagnosis potential.

I have been dealing with this for the past 6 months or so and probably longer because before that, there were a couple of colonies that sort of withered away and finally rtn'd. I at first took all my rocks with the colonies still attached and did a bayer dip. 15 minutes, then washed in successive baths. killed some shrimp for sure but overall, tolerated OK. did OK with basting every few days until I started seeing more. I decided to frag all my colonies and put them on frag racks. this was 2 months ago. I have dipped those racks 3 more times, once every 2-3 weeks. left the rocks and "puddles" of the frags in th tank. I did also chisel the puddles off of the rocks for some of my nicer SPS. anyway, I have been dipping and basting as my treatment. I have 5 wrasses in here. they love the flatworms as noted when I baste, the worms that fly off are devoured. Really depressing at first but after fragging everything and dipping several times, they seem to be pushed back and I haven't seen the pathognomonic "bite marks" or eggs in a while. But certainly, this could be a cause. It just looks different to me. They usually just go after more tissue above where the recessed white skeletal tissue is and eat the middle of the healthy robust coral where good tissue is. I have unfortunately learned to diagnose this too well. But...maybe they have changed or morphed and are doing this now. who knows. I doubt it too cause it just stops there sometimes without me doing anything to the coral. The tissue then heals up but leaves a scar for algae to just start taking hold. Ugh!!! I would expect AEFW to keep on chomping until the coral is dead. Maybe Im wrong?

And I really think you and I are dealing with the same problem with some nutrient fluctuation. My phosphate does change during the month. it goes from 0.00 on hanna checker (not true 0 because I don't run any gfo or have a refugium) at times to 0.15 at the most. usually runs between 0.03-0.09. Since I have fragged many colonies, I have several of each on racks in different parts of tank. It is interesting that not every frag of the same coral has this recession. for example, I only see it on one piece and the other 3 frags are encrusting nicely. What are you doing to stop this?

I have exactly the same problem but it's really only effecting two colonies as a whole, they just happen to be my most hardy "unkillable" ones. I have my more sensitive corals like orange passion growing better than it's ever grown but my green slimer colony is taking a dive. I can't tell if it's starving or angry at too many nutrients. I cut it up and some frags doing fine but others STN at the base; no matter how much I re-frag them they end up with STN. I feel like my nutrients are stable now but I can't tell. I can get two readings on my hanna ULR checker that are far apart within 2 hours of each other. I learned through this whole process that unless you can do 100% water changes then it's not as simple as it sounds to reduce nutrients via water changes. I changed over 1000G of water in 1 week before we diagnosed my issues and saw almost no change in test kits on my 300G system.

I tend to think hobby grade test kits for nitrate and phosphate are useless. If one more person tells me po4 tests are not valid because it "only shows, what's in the water" then why are they anywhere in this hobby other than in the garbage? If there is a certain result with po4 that can be rendered invalid because of a condition but we have no way to test said condition then these aren't even slightly useful, they are 100% worthless.

If nutrient testing isn't cut and dry as in do you have nutrients, YES or NO. then people are being robbed of their money because there is no way we should be testing for this stuff to begin with.