Please help, something isn’t right with SPS

[MikeD88]

If anyone could please help me out here and try to ID what is going on with these two corals? I feel like I may have a pest of some sort...


Water Parameters:
Specific Gravity -- 1.025 - 1.026
Temperature -- 78-79
Alkalinity -- 8-10
Ammonia -- 0
Nitrite -- 0
Nitrate -- 5-10
Calcium -- 400-420
Magnesium -- 1350-1500
pH -- 8.1
Phosphate -- 0.05 or lower

 

[Flippers4pups]

The Acro and Digitata looks okay to me.

Do you dip your corals before placing them in your tank?

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

What are your symptoms?

 

[Coronus]

What are you seeing? They don’t look incredibly happy but their is polyp extension.
You listed alk as 8-10 which is really broad. By that I take it that it fluctuates between 8-10 DKH? This is not good......the tank needs more stability in that it should never fluctuate that much. Around a .3 dkh or less fluctuation is stable.

 

[MikeD88]

The Acro and Digitata looks okay to me.

Do you dip your corals before placing them in your tank?

The base of the two mili seem to be receding, and the solar flare is turning white at the base. The digitata looks like the branch on the right is splitting and doesn’t look happy. Yes I do dip them, but also only buy from high end coral vendors.

 

[MikeD88]

What are you seeing? They don’t look incredibly happy but their is polyp extension.
You listed alk as 8-10 which is really broad. By that I take it that it fluctuates between 8-10 DKH? This is not good......the tank needs more stability in that it should never fluctuate that much. Around a .3 dkh or less fluctuation is stable.

The base of the two mili seem to be receding, and the solar flare is turning white at the base. The digitata looks like the branch on the right is splitting and doesn’t look happy. I’ll do my best to get it more stable, I do regular bi weekly water changes. Might need to start dosing

 

[MikeD88]

What are your symptoms?

The base of the two mili seem to be receding, and the solar flare is turning white at the base. The digitata looks like the branch on the right is splitting and doesn’t look happy.

 

[C. Eymann]

These are new additions I take it? It does not appear to be pest activity, more so stress related.
Could be stress from shipping, acclimation to your system if your parameters are very different.
If these came from a place that keeps alk 8.0-8.3, then you put it in a tank with an alk of 9.5-10, that compounded by stress of going through transport, dipping all added up can sometimes cause some stress related STN (slow base up tissue recession) which is what you are seeing here.

Keep everything as stable as possible. 8-10 is an acceptable range but it nedds to be stable, for instance a stable 8 or a stable 9 or even a stable 10, not swinging around that 8-10 range

example - a tank that is 10dkh on monday then 8 dkh on friday then back up to 10 on Monday after hand dosing or WC over the weekend is not acceptable for acropora.
Hope this helps

 

[MikeD88]

These are new additions I take it? It does not appear to be pest activity, more so stress related.
Could be stress from shipping, acclimation to your system if your parameters are very different.
If these came from a place that keeps alk 8.0-8.3, then you put it in a tank with an alk of 9.5-10, that compounded by stress of going through transport, dipping all added up can sometimes cause some stress related STN (slow base up tissue recession) which is what you are seeing here.

Keep everything as stable as possible. 8-10 is an acceptable range but it nedds to be stable, for instance a stable 8 or a stable 9 or even a stable 10, not swinging around that 8-10 range

example - a tank that is 10dkh on monday then 8 dkh on friday then back up to 10 on Monday after hand dosing or WC over the weekend is not acceptable for acropora.
Hope this helps

Thank you, I appreciate it very much! I will absolutely do my best to try to get things stabilized. It’s just very weird that some sort irritation while others are doing amazing. The solar flare (one with recession) has been in my tank probably too long. It made it through a phase where I allowed the nutrients to hit complete 0 (overdid microbacter 7) and now things are happier than ever while that one in particular seems to be going to crap. Just a week ago it looked better than ever... this hobby can be so frustrating lol. This image was 5 days ago... I did also notice a cerith snaps constantly cleaning the plug base, is it possible the shell constantly rubbing the base just really irritated it? If that is the case will it ever grow back? Thank you again!

 

[Hydrahawk]

What test kits are you using? Having better test kits will let you see if there are fluctuations with your parameters.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Thank you, I appreciate it very much! I will absolutely do my best to try to get things stabilized. It’s just very weird that some sort irritation while others are doing amazing. The solar flare (one with recession) has been in my tank probably too long. It made it through a phase where I allowed the nutrients to hit complete 0 (overdid microbacter 7) and now things are happier than ever while that one in particular seems to be going to crap. Just a week ago it looked better than ever... this hobby can be so frustrating lol. This image was 5 days ago... I did also notice a cerith snaps constantly cleaning the plug base, is it possible the shell constantly rubbing the base just really irritated it? If that is the case will it ever grow back? Thank you again!

Sudden drops in nutrients have always hit me way harder than sudden changes in Alk/Temp/Calc...

The first to show drastic signs of change are my hardy green acros; I would assume that's the case with you based on these pics. The tough part is they can change for the worse overnight but take months to recover. Just stabilize and don't make any major changes. Maybe after two weeks, turn off your pumps and blast them with a turkey baster and look for worms or nudibranchs flying off. For what it's worth, just based on those pics I wouldn't think you have a pest issue.