SPS Attack

[kingfisherfleshy]

Two weeks ago my green slimer acro and my millipora sp were growing fast, extending their polyps, and had good growth. Now about a week ago, I noticed a small white spot on a branch of the acro. Nothing else is wrong, the rest of the coral looks great, but just completely bleached in this one, pea sized spot. Now Ive noticed a similar, although slightly larger spot like this on my millipora! The same deal on the milli except for the fact that there are still some polyps butting out on the white part of the milli. Neither appears to be growing at this point. My water quality is awesome Ammonia nitrates and nitrites are all 0. Nothing has changed in my set up. No other corals are distressed, and even these corals still have awesome growth tips and have full polyp extension. (The milli is looking better than it ever has this week)

If anyone has words of advice...It would be highly appreciated.

 

[Troylee]

Could be 'stn , red bugs, nudis etc... What are your water params??? I'm taking it your new to sps??? Post your cal. Alk and mag, ph etc... And what test kits are you using none really work for po4 besides a Hana...

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Not really new to SPS...have had this tank up and running for 6 years with various stuff, but bc of how many softies I had never really got into the "harder" SPS corals.

Like I said my parameters are good:
Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrites: 0
Phosphates: - forgot to test before yesterdays water change
Ph 8.0
Alk: 2.0 MEQ/L (I know that this is low, but Im working on slowly bringing it up vs shocking the system because like I mentioned coral growth has been awesome)
Calcium: 400ppm

My test kits are all either API or in the case of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are "instant ocean"

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

...anyone?

 

[Jeremy R.]

White spots on acros and millis can be AEFW (acro eating flat worms). It also can be salt creep that fell and burned the acros.

 

[stunreefer Verified Sponsor]

Phosphates could be an issue or of course your Alk is low and that could have caused these initial spots. Since they've been growing they've been using more Alk and Ca to build their skeletons. Also due to the growth they could be getting less flow where the spots have shown up, allowing detrius to settle causing tissue die off. If these "spots" are in shaded areas or on the underside of branches check for AEFWs. How are the colors? Are they pale? You don't necessarily want 0 nitrates in the water as the corals utilize them to grow, and helps them color up. If colors are pale feed more - most bright colored SPS tanks you see have NO3 between 5-15 ppm.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Okay, thanks for the advice! The corals are being fed once a week, and the milli never really seems to take any but the green slimer loves it.

No very little creep, the milli branch is somewhat on the underside, so I dont think that would be the cause there. The acro one is on the top though, and that would be feasible there.

There is very little to no detritus in my tank - very few fish/animals.
Color on the corals are good, like I said they are growing faster than the tanks that they were in (developed the growth points really soon after I put them in) and they had just reached "full" coloration in my mind.

Are there any fish that would eat the AEFW's? A wrasse or a dragonette possibly?

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Troylee]

aefw suck man... it will consist of getting another tank and numerous dips and searching for egg sacs....post somne pics of the damage it might help....

 

[inactive]

AEFW are the devil and I don't think anything eats enough to them to treat them.

I had a scare in my tank and I freaked out and removed the tri color acro and 12lb of rock.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Wow. Well lets really hope its not that I guess. I will try and get some pictures up soon. There is no way for me to get another tank...im a 19 year old college student. So this might be the end...

Says that you can use camel shrimp...but they arent reef safe so its more of a quarantine thing I guess.

 

[w0r1d5m1n3]

if you want to see if it's AEFW, you can squirt your acros with a baster or powerhead. Or remove the infected coral and dip in some revive. They just look like greyish flat worms. Don't get totally discouraged if you have them. There are ways of dealing with them, and some people have learned to live with them.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

The spot on the green slimer is starting to get smaller with some polyp extension. Cant really decide what the one on the milli is doing though. The milli has crazy multi directional flow on it though...what should I be looking for with the powerhead on it? (It already is...about 6 inches from a koralia 4)