Signs of Pest?

[mattshell81]

So for a quick rundown of my tank. I upgraded from a 65 to a 140 at the start of July. Tank is 140g with a 50 gallon fuge and 100 gallon sump that’s only filled up partially. The existing rock of my old tank was used and sps were added and growing withing 2 weeks of this new tank being setup. For starting with new sand things stayed very stable and I have gotten good growth on everything new(encrusting onto rock or plug and even beaches growing already) but many have lost a lot of color and pe. Initially it was just a few corals losing the neon bits but keeping their main color and now it has turned into a few losing pe with one being so drastic that it still has flesh but polyps are entirely retracted for going on 2 weeks. I originally thought it was just lacking nutrients since I was testing at 1.9 nitrates and .01 phosphates but i feed very heavily twice a day. Just this past weekend I noticed what look like small dark colored bugs on a few of the affected sps. Not in huge number but maybe 1 to 3 visible on a coral at a time. This combined with the fact I have an unknown acro, a shaggy stag, and 2 millepora, and a Kermit the frog acro that all seem completely unaffected leads me to believe I have some sort of pest that is affecting only some of my frags as their numbers grow. As for other parameters I keep my alk at a constant 8.5 to 8.7, calcium 420 to 440, and mag around 1400 with trident controlled dosing that I double check regularly and calibrate as needed. I’ll show a die by side to show you exactly how one coral is being affected but it may take some effort to get a pic where you can see one of the bugs. As you can see in the photo it’s grown from the pic when I first got it July 21st but lost color and then just this past week was the second to lose pe. It’s not as drastic as the other with no pe but still a huge difference from a week ago.

 

[blaxsun]

Have you measured your PAR levels?

 

[mattshell81]

Have you measured your PAR levels?

Yes, I got a par meter last year and everything on the top most rock with affected acros is getting about 320 par, the left section with unaffected acros is getting around 250(these corals seem to be most affected and lack color and range from little to no pe at all even though they have all grown in the month and a half since added), and then the right section with affected acros is in the 180 to 220 range(these corals still have good color but lack the pe they once had).

 

[vetteguy53081]

Signs are visible, tissue loss, look for eggs if present and assure your alk and CA are in balance as well as temp and salinity

 

[mattshell81]

Signs are visible, tissue loss, look for eggs if present and assure your alk and CA are in balance as well as temp and salinity

I’m so indecisive on pests still because I’m just not sure these small dark bugs look the way black bugs do in photos I’ve seen and don’t seem to be red with bright heads like red bugs. The lack of pe in a condensed area with only acropora in that area and small bugs just make me think pest irritation. The only anomaly I had recently was for the first time my alk went from dosing 20ml a day to only about 12 for a few days and went from 8.5 avg to 8.7 avg for a few days without any big swings. I’m not sure what caused this reduction in consumption since there was no major changes on the but after a few days and double checking to insure these results were accurate consumption went back to normal. My game plan now is to dip with something like Bayer advanced and put all frags doing bad on a rack to see if the pe and color come back in a few weeks and keep inspecting for bugs. I’m assuming since things are growing well in the tank that if it’s pests these frags will show improvement in pe fairly fast after treatment if the dip kills whatever it is. I did go to Pittsburgh reef expo in April and something may have gotten through whatever dip I used at the time.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I’m so indecisive on pests still because I’m just not sure these small dark bugs look the way black bugs do in photos I’ve seen and don’t seem to be red with bright heads like red bugs. The lack of pe in a condensed area with only acropora in that area and small bugs just make me think pest irritation. The only anomaly I had recently was for the first time my alk went from dosing 20ml a day to only about 12 for a few days and went from 8.5 avg to 8.7 avg for a few days without any big swings. I’m not sure what caused this reduction in consumption since there was no major changes on the but after a few days and double checking to insure these results were accurate consumption went back to normal. My game plan now is to dip with something like Bayer advanced and put all frags doing bad on a rack to see if the pe and color come back in a few weeks and keep inspecting for bugs. I’m assuming since things are growing well in the tank that if it’s pests these frags will show improvement in pe fairly fast after treatment if the dip kills whatever it is. I did go to Pittsburgh reef expo in April and something may have gotten through whatever dip I used at the time.

Any bug on acro flesh is a bad bug. No exceptions.

 

[mattshell81]

Any bug on acro flesh is a bad bug. No exceptions.

Definitely something going on then. I’ve only seen a max of maybe 3 on a drag at once but then again they are really small. Just did my first round of dip with bayer and I’ll continue to inspect until I get everything. Just can’t see myself treating the whole tank when I just got a pair of orange pistol shrimp have settled in with my pink bar goby well. No name acropora on the left of my tank and the millepora seem completely unaffected and bug free thankfully. I have had some mysterious issues with some acropora fading and dying very very slowly over months while others thrive so maybe this finally a solved that mystery.

 

[LOVEROCK]

I’m so indecisive on pests still because I’m just not sure these small dark bugs look the way black bugs do in photos I’ve seen and don’t seem to be red with bright heads like red bugs. The lack of pe in a condensed area with only acropora in that area and small bugs just make me think pest irritation. The only anomaly I had recently was for the first time my alk went from dosing 20ml a day to only about 12 for a few days and went from 8.5 avg to 8.7 avg for a few days without any big swings. I’m not sure what caused this reduction in consumption since there was no major changes on the but after a few days and double checking to insure these results were accurate consumption went back to normal. My game plan now is to dip with something like Bayer advanced and put all frags doing bad on a rack to see if the pe and color come back in a few weeks and keep inspecting for bugs. I’m assuming since things are growing well in the tank that if it’s pests these frags will show improvement in pe fairly fast after treatment if the dip kills whatever it is. I did go to Pittsburgh reef expo in April and something may have gotten through whatever dip I used at the time.

which photo? can we see

 

[mattshell81]

Just to update everyone I did dip everything with bayer and observe on a drag rack. Nothing noticeable came off in the dip and corals were upset for a few days but didn’t see any bugs on anything. Still having issues with color and pe on some pieces but not the majority so I’m starting to dose nitrate and phosphate to get those numbers up. I had started using coral food and feeding more each day to boost nutrients but I was only able to get po4 to .05 and no3 stayed from 0 to 1. Through dosing I have managed to at least keep nitrates at 1 to 2 so I’ve slowly been increasing the dose as it seems my tank is consuming them quickly when added.

 

[homer1475]

Just be careful dosing NO3, and PO4. While your system is depleted right now, as things "fill up" you'll notice you can ween down the dosing. You can easily raise your nutrients very high when not paying attention, and dosing.

 

[mattshell81]

Just be careful dosing NO3, and PO4. While your system is depleted right now, as things "fill up" you'll notice you can ween down the dosing. You can easily raise your nutrients very high when not paying attention, and dosing.

I get that as I think the whole thing was caused by all the dry rock added in the upgrade. I kept my old rock mostly in the sump but added a new dry rock structure I made to the display. I’m sure all the dry rock is still soaking stuff up because I am feeding more than ever and was just bottomed out. The only food that moved things a bit was lots of reef roof. For now I have been testing everyday until I hit my goal numbers and have a bit of a buffer then I will start doing every few days. I’m hoping once the tank matures I can cut the dosing.

 

[homer1475]

Biomass has a lot to do with how nutrients are used in the system. As your tank matures, and corals grow you may find you won't have to dose nutrients at all.

Ad yes reef roids is known to be full of phosphates.

 

[mattshell81]

just for an example of what’s goin on you can see most corals seem to be fine but then the last two have zero pe out of no where and some of the others have good pe but are not multicolor like the were when I got them. I know some of acros change color in lower par and higher par wil make them one solid color but I know all of the affected ones came from battle corals and Adam runs the same photon light as me but at 100 percent in all channels and absolutely blasts his coral im only running blue and uv channels at 90 and the rest at 50 or below and I’m still getting a range of 200 to 400 par where all these corals are.

 

[Max93]

Interesting, I’ve had the same happen before and couldn’t figure it out. These days I’ve been approaching things with: if 90% are doing good and only one is ticked and also more new, it probably doesn’t like the spot it is in/my tank.
If your parameters are stable, I’d move it to the another spot to see how it does - just one, to see what happens.