Multiple Acros lost PE

sculpin01 · Mar 17, 2021

Ostreopsis dinos. They kill corals. I highly recommend getting a microscope and looking at the brown strings and dead coral tissue. Ostreopsis looks like lentils. Treatment is running copious carbon and a good UV for 2 weeks. I used a cheap Jebao UV ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jebao-55W-...841729?hash=item4601332cc1:g:w7YAAOxyeR9TGMUf ) which worked perfectly. There's a great support group on Facebook, too:

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mikereefing · Mar 28, 2021

Just an update without any real answers. I got my ICP test back that doesn't show anything out of the ordinary except zero manganese and low iodine. Pretty sure this is due to my massive chaeto growth so I made sure to dose chaetogro, seachem iodide, and redsea iron trace element (which contains manganese as well). My affected acros have still lost PE..with one STN'ing almost completely. I checked every frag and the red planet colony I have with zero PE had nothing coming off of it so I don't know if it's actually pests. Same for another frag of mine. I'm still feeding reef roids every other day and no change in lighting (except for 5% decrease in blues..) and flow. The only thing I'm suspecting is this new box of HW reefer salt that I'm using since the alk is inconsistent between my previous box of HW reefer and this one. However, I adjust the Alk/Mg/Ca of newly mixed SW so that it's similar with the tank parameters... so I'm at a loss right now. Any other input or ideas?

ScottB · Mar 28, 2021

I know you said Interceptor is not available where you are. Some folks on this site from Canada got it in from this Singapore based company. I just ordered some. We will see if it makes it through.

minus9 · Mar 28, 2021

I ordered Interceptor from the UK, didn't take that long for it to arrive. Also, Dr. G's seems to work, but I've never tried it. Regardless, I would dose the tank for acro eating bugs. For dips, try Expel and Primer.

trout · Mar 30, 2021

How do you use activated carbon? Do you fluidise it in a reactor or passively? You mentioned "burnt tips" due to low nutrients. I doubt that low nutrients would be the cause for this. Has there been any sudden upward alkalinity swing?

mikereefing · Mar 30, 2021

trout said:
How do you use activated carbon? Do you fluidise it in a reactor or passively? You mentioned "burnt tips" due to low nutrients. I doubt that low nutrients would be the cause for this. Has there been any sudden upward alkalinity swing?

Passive. I put 1/2 cup of seachem carbon in a bag and put it in the baffle that separates my return and refugium chamber. This area has gentle flow going through it at all times without any tumbling.
For months I've noticed a trend in my tank where the burnt tips would appear when my phos drops to 0.03. My acros would then recover once I bring up the phos to the 0.05-0.10 range.

ScottB · Apr 5, 2021

Any improvement?

mikereefing · Apr 11, 2021

ScottB said:
Any improvement?

Nope.. No improvement. I was expecting the ICP results to scream something obvious but nothing came up. Weirdly enough my favorite gold hammer suddenly bailed and I'm not sure if it's related. The affected Acros still have no PE, LPS are fine, my random photosynthetic gargonian suddenly lost PE as well. No other coral deaths besides the previous acros. I'm not able to get interceptor and Dr G dip is sold out. My other acros are doing just fine..

ScottB · Apr 11, 2021

mikereefing said:
Just an update without any real answers. I got my ICP test back that doesn't show anything out of the ordinary except zero manganese and low iodine. Pretty sure this is due to my massive chaeto growth so I made sure to dose chaetogro, seachem iodide, and redsea iron trace element (which contains manganese as well). My affected acros have still lost PE..with one STN'ing almost completely. I checked every frag and the red planet colony I have with zero PE had nothing coming off of it so I don't know if it's actually pests. Same for another frag of mine. I'm still feeding reef roids every other day and no change in lighting (except for 5% decrease in blues..) and flow. The only thing I'm suspecting is this new box of HW reefer salt that I'm using since the alk is inconsistent between my previous box of HW reefer and this one. However, I adjust the Alk/Mg/Ca of newly mixed SW so that it's similar with the tank parameters... so I'm at a loss right now. Any other input or ideas?

Can you not get Interceptor because you are in Canada? What was your dip solution?

I am kinda grasping at straws now; we have been through the obvious stuff. Honestly I am not the king of PE myself. My acros grow quickly, and my params are similar to many aquaculture folks with furry sticks, but not much even at night for me. Some, but not much.

When I started getting some STN from the base up, I was advised to dose Interceptor. It did solve for the the STN, but still limited PE. Left to right, HW, Ding Dang Milli, Walt Disney. All lack PE, but are growing- especially the WD is going bonkers.

homer1475 · Apr 11, 2021

My flame back angel jumped out the other day.... I now have very furry acros. lol

ScottB · Apr 11, 2021

homer1475 said:
My flame back angel jumped out the other day.... I now have very furry acros. lol

I do have a coral beauty... Never seen it nip anything other than the occasional anthia.

TX_Punisher · Apr 11, 2021

At dusk last night I noticed my Poma Labs blueline angel bunting around and picking at bases and branches of several colonies.

maybe take a look at dusk just before lights go out and look for nippers.

mikereefing · Apr 11, 2021

ScottB said:
Can you not get Interceptor because you are in Canada? What was your dip solution?

I am kinda grasping at straws now; we have been through the obvious stuff. Honestly I am not the king of PE myself. My acros grow quickly, and my params are similar to many aquaculture folks with furry sticks, but not much even at night for me. Some, but not much.

When I started getting some STN from the base up, I was advised to dose Interceptor. It did solve for the the STN, but still limited PE. Left to right, HW, Ding Dang Milli, Walt Disney. All lack PE, but are growing- especially the WD is going bonkers.

I'm over in the states and I would need a prescription from the vet to get one (and my phone call with the vet resulted in a "no" because I don't have a dog with an indication that needs the prescription. As someone who works in healthcare, I agreed with the response so I didn't fight it.

My stocking doesn't have any questionable reef-safe fish. Just clowns, tangs, and a wrasse. My acros were doing really well for over a year with the same stocking except for the addition of a midas blenny 4 months ago. However, I would've assumed that if he were to target acros, he would've targetted my "beauty and the beast" and "walt disney" acros that are located right next to his favorite seating area on the live rock. These two acros are still fluffy with PE.

homer1475 · Apr 12, 2021

ScottB said:
I do have a coral beauty... Never seen it nip anything other than the occasional anthia.

Not to hijack this thread, this is why you have no PE. My flame back never nipped that I saw either. But being an angel, even a swim by mouthing from time to time, will cause them to retract polyps, and to teach the coral to stay retracted. It took about a week of no angel for my acros to "display", but I always had good PE at night when the lights were out, and the angel was sleeping.

mikereefing · Apr 21, 2021

An update to those who were interested. I haven't done anything major except switching salts back from HW reefer to my tried and true (and forever out of stock) TMP. I've been doing just small water changes so that I don't cause any swings...about 8% water changes every 2 weeks. Due to my work schedule, that's the best I can do for now. I haven't dipped the affected acros except the one and only colony I mentioned earlier...that did end up STN'ing. I cut the piece off that remained before it completely died and glued it to a frag plug. Surprisingly, it seemed to bounce back and the once smooth acro now has PE! My old red planet colony that lost all PE is still without PE but there's no tissue loss. What's interesting is that it started to encrust more onto the live rock now and the new encrusted area has PE. But the mother colony is still without PE. Other than just changing the salt and feeding more consistently (1/4 tsp every 2 days vs every 3-4 days), there were no other changes and it looks like there's some improvement in some of my corals. I wouldn't say that I'm out of the woods yet but I'll update this thread if I start seeing more successes.