Sps slimy/bubbly growth on tips?

[Beej1254]

A bit of backstory:

My tank (5ft 112gal just turned 2 this month)from 10/15/15 to 11/21/16 ran solely on 10% weekly water changes, my DIY algae Scrubber, and DIY skimmer. I fed either a cube of mysis, or less than 1/4 tsp of 3 types of NLS combined. I've never really had algae problems, or any problems for that matter. I however, didn't dose during this period because money was tight. I lost my job due to injury so my tank was basically in idle mode. I spent basically zero money on it in the whole year period.

Now today:

Things are doing well, but in the last week I've had an issue with my sps. Most of these acro I've had in my tank for either over a year, and some for a couple months. I have changed out some equipment, new scrubber that is a week on the system, chaeto in the sump, and my diy skimmer is gone because of a leaky cup. I still do water changes every Sunday at 10%. I'm slightly more liberal with my feeding, but never more than 1/4 tsp a day. Otherwise no equipment changes. I did start dosing 2 part again and

I keep my calcium at 420-430 testing 1-2 times a week.
My alk I try to keep at 9dkh, testing daily. Mag last tested at 1400.

Before I started dosing my levels were at 380 calcium, 7.8 dkh and I think 1300 mag.

Temperature stays within 76-77 Fahrenheit and PH usually around 8-8.1.

Oddly enough I never really tested for nitrates and phosphates sense cycling the tank. When I noticed the issues with my sps corals, I broke out my old API saltwater master test kit (in date) and tested. Honestly I was surprised when I got a zero reading on both. I run barely any equipment so I expected some kind of reading other than zero. I tested 3 times (3rd time was just before this post, other 2 were a couple days ago) and always the same result. I will be going to my LFS tomorrow and having them test sense they use salifert kits.

So on to my sps.

I don't know what's happening here, I try to keep this goop from getting too bad by blowing it off whenever I see it, but it's getting worse and worse. I have a Jebao rw15 on full blast and the smallest sicce xtreme. Plus I have a Jebao 8000 running at half power. I have tons of flow and am doing everything I can think of to care for these corals.

My lights are SBReef lights about 12 inch from the top of the water. 30% white channel and 70% blues. On for 10 hours a day (always been this way)

Salinity 1.026 but recently I goofed and that got elevated to 1.028

Last night I pulled each coral out that was having this issue and dipped in coralrx for 5 minutes, but today the problem seems slightly worse.

Please see pictures.
What is going on here??
Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Diesel]

Is this so called algae only on your birdnest?

API test kits I don't trust but I must say looking at your birdnest it seams to be starving.
Starving due to no nutrients.
That said your so called algae problem can also be dinoflaggets but I need to see a zoom pic of it to understand the growth and air bubbles at the end.

 

[Beej1254]

It's mainly on my birdsnest and has started to encompass most of the branches. As soon as lights come on tomorrow I'll snap some better pictures. Unfortunately this is going on with a few of my other Acropora of which I have no names for. I agree with you, my birdsnest isn't looking as great as it was weeks ago. It's definitely going downhill fast. My Acropora still have color, but little to no polyp extension now. I want to feed the tank more, but I was going to wait for that water test tomorrow and buy myself a better kit. I will most likely feed reef chili tonight before bed

 

[Diesel]

I think to get a better test kit on No3 and Po4 will help you long term.
If the possibility is there that you can remove the birdnest or any other SPS and dip it in Bayer in order to see if we deal with a pest here.
Still I think that starving here is your problem, a few things that occur with starving is bleaching of the coral, no PE and reduced slime coat with results that algae can have a hang on it.
The thing is the same can happen with a pest like AEFW.
For that I want you to dip to set that out of the way if nothing comes off.

 

[Beej1254]

I think to get a better test kit on No3 and Po4 will help you long term.
If the possibility is there that you can remove the birdnest or any other SPS and dip it in Bayer in order to see if we deal with a pest here.
Still I think that starving here is your problem, a few things that occur with starving is bleaching of the coral, no PE and reduced slime coat with results that algae can have a hang on it.
The thing is the same can happen with a pest like AEFW.
For that I want you to dip to set that out of the way if nothing comes off.

I knew I forgot to mention something. I took the entire birdsnest colony and the acro frags which had the same issues out last night and dipped in a brand new bottle of coralrx. I wasn't necessarily looking for pests, but just hoping it would help with this issue. I didn't notice anything to be alarmed about in my dip bucket. The total dip lasted about 5-6 minutes

 

[Beej1254]

Also earlier today I trimmed up the birdsnest colony wherever I could see this gunk holding on. And obviously from the pictures, that didn't work at all

 

[Diesel]

I knew I forgot to mention something. I took the entire birdsnest colony and the acro frags which had the same issues out last night and dipped in a brand new bottle of coralrx. I wasn't necessarily looking for pests, but just hoping it would help with this issue. I didn't notice anything to be alarmed about in my dip bucket. The total dip lasted about 5-6 minutes

This info helps a lot, thank you.
Now all is left to do a test on your water.
If you have access to a LFS in your area then its time to bring them a visit with a sample of your tank water to be tested on nutrients.
No matter the out come buy your self a No3 and Po4 test kit either salifert of Redsea are both very good kits to rely on.
The out come of the test will tell us how low you are on nutrients and what we need to target.
If Po4 is undetectable we feed more to the fish and leave some dry food in the filter sock that will give you a Po4 reading in a few days.
No if No3 is undetectable we have to dose a No3 and I'm using a iodine nitrate solution.

Put 2 tablespoons in a 16 0z clear plastic cup.
Now fill the cup to the first line with RODI water, stir well.
It will come out clear and doesn't take long to mix.
Poor it into a empty 20 0z water bottle to store it.
Now lets get to dosing this stuff
You will want to have plenty of no3 tests on hand to start out.
Your no3 will decrease substantially over night so you have to keep an eye on it. I was testing every day till I figured my daily consumption rate (which changes slightly day to day)
Now in my 200 gallons of volume 25ML of this will raise my no3 by 1.5 ppm.
Raise it gradually, dose mornings and evenings, you'll see the color and PE coming back.

Some ppl say "hey wait a sec........... you have algae and you dose nutrients............ true but we target with the No3 dosing's as well the bacteria population if we do it slow.
Bacteria need nutrients too and as you been lacking this over a long period maybe the population might be low too as results you see algae that grows only on target places where they find some sort of nutrients in your case your dying SPS.
Remember to test everyday you dose as YOU want to know what and where your tank will be in this process.
Also keep a close eye on your ALK as dosing No3 will trigger consumption in ALK by your corals and a slow drop can happen.

 

[Tahoe61]

Looks like Dino to me unfortunately.

 

[Beej1254]

This info helps a lot, thank you.
Now all is left to do a test on your water.
If you have access to a LFS in your area then its time to bring them a visit with a sample of your tank water to be tested on nutrients.
No matter the out come buy your self a No3 and Po4 test kit either salifert of Redsea are both very good kits to rely on.
The out come of the test will tell us how low you are on nutrients and what we need to target.
If Po4 is undetectable we feed more to the fish and leave some dry food in the filter sock that will give you a Po4 reading in a few days.
No if No3 is undetectable we have to dose a No3 and I'm using a iodine nitrate solution.

Put 2 tablespoons in a 16 0z clear plastic cup.
Now fill the cup to the first line with RODI water, stir well.
It will come out clear and doesn't take long to mix.
Poor it into a empty 20 0z water bottle to store it.
Now lets get to dosing this stuff
You will want to have plenty of no3 tests on hand to start out.
Your no3 will decrease substantially over night so you have to keep an eye on it. I was testing every day till I figured my daily consumption rate (which changes slightly day to day)
Now in my 200 gallons of volume 25ML of this will raise my no3 by 1.5 ppm.
Raise it gradually, dose mornings and evenings, you'll see the color and PE coming back.

Some ppl say "hey wait a sec........... you have algae and you dose nutrients............ true but we target with the No3 dosing's as well the bacteria population if we do it slow.
Bacteria need nutrients too and as you been lacking this over a long period maybe the population might be low too as results you see algae that grows only on target places where they find some sort of nutrients in your case your dying SPS.
Remember to test everyday you dose as YOU want to know what and where your tank will be in this process.
Also keep a close eye on your ALK as dosing No3 will trigger consumption in ALK by your corals and a slow drop can happen.

I greatly appreciate your insight and willingness to help in this situation. My LFS opens in one hour so I am getting ready to head out there. I've always heard good things about the salifert kits so I think I'll try to get those. The reason why I'm heading to this LFS is because they test with salifert and also sell them.

I'm very interested to know what iodine nitrate solution you're using is, could you give me more detail? Is it a pre-made product? If no nutrients prove to be my issue then it seems adding a nitrate dosing system into my routine won't be any big deal. Especially if it saves my sps.

 

[Beej1254]

This info helps a lot, thank you.
Now all is left to do a test on your water.
If you have access to a LFS in your area then its time to bring them a visit with a sample of your tank water to be tested on nutrients.
No matter the out come buy your self a No3 and Po4 test kit either salifert of Redsea are both very good kits to rely on.
The out come of the test will tell us how low you are on nutrients and what we need to target.
If Po4 is undetectable we feed more to the fish and leave some dry food in the filter sock that will give you a Po4 reading in a few days.
No if No3 is undetectable we have to dose a No3 and I'm using a iodine nitrate solution.

Put 2 tablespoons in a 16 0z clear plastic cup.
Now fill the cup to the first line with RODI water, stir well.
It will come out clear and doesn't take long to mix.
Poor it into a empty 20 0z water bottle to store it.
Now lets get to dosing this stuff
You will want to have plenty of no3 tests on hand to start out.
Your no3 will decrease substantially over night so you have to keep an eye on it. I was testing every day till I figured my daily consumption rate (which changes slightly day to day)
Now in my 200 gallons of volume 25ML of this will raise my no3 by 1.5 ppm.
Raise it gradually, dose mornings and evenings, you'll see the color and PE coming back.

Some ppl say "hey wait a sec........... you have algae and you dose nutrients............ true but we target with the No3 dosing's as well the bacteria population if we do it slow.
Bacteria need nutrients too and as you been lacking this over a long period maybe the population might be low too as results you see algae that grows only on target places where they find some sort of nutrients in your case your dying SPS.
Remember to test everyday you dose as YOU want to know what and where your tank will be in this process.
Also keep a close eye on your ALK as dosing No3 will trigger consumption in ALK by your corals and a slow drop can happen.

And also, about the algae growing on corals, I wondered why it seemed as though the only place I had algae in my DT was on my sps corals. It makes sense when you think about it in the way you explained it. The corals are starving, and therefore dying, which is feeding algae at the source. Here I am thinking for a long time that I'm doing great with my maintenance, and I guess in reality I passed a point of doing good to doing bad.

 

[Beej1254]

Looks like Dino to me unfortunately.

I'm hoping not, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. First step is getting a second opinion on nitrate and phosphate levels.

 

[Beej1254]

Well, results are in and salifert shows zero readings for both Nitrate and Phosphate

 

[Diesel]

Well, results are in and salifert shows zero readings for both Nitrate and Phosphate

Awesome now you can make a game plan.

I use in the past the spectrcide stump remover which is a potassium nitrate and you can get it at your local Home Depot or Lowes.

I posted the mix schedule a few post back but/and its the same for this.

It's cheap and the best part is you can start making your SPS feeling better today.
Of course keep a close eye on the algae as I pointed out in my first post and as @Tahoe61 pointed out to that we can't rule out the dino's yet.

 

[Beej1254]

Awesome now you can make a game plan.

I use in the past the spectrcide stump remover which is a potassium nitrate and you can get it at your local Home Depot or Lowes.

I posted the mix schedule a few post back but/and its the same for this.

It's cheap and the best part is you can start making your SPS feeling better today.
Of course keep a close eye on the algae as I pointed out in my first post and as @Tahoe61 pointed out to that we can't rule out the dino's yet.

It's crazy because I just watched a 5 minute video on this stump remover this morning on YouTube. I'm so glad to have some results here and can't wait to get my corals feeling better. Thanks for your help! Would you happen to have a link to your write up on the stump remover? I'll search for it, but figured I'd ask in case you had a link handy.

 

[Diesel]

Originally it came from my good friend and #reefsquad member here @twilliard.
He has a whole thread about this very interesting subject.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

 

[Beej1254]

Ok, got everything mixed up and 5 ml of solution drawn up for a dose. Anything else I need to know? I'll be testing nitrates a few times tonight

 

[Diesel]

Just one test is enough and test in the morning.
Document the tank as well as in what's happening.
And nutrients results.

 

[mtraylor]

I think that you just have dirty water and the algae is building up on the skeleton's of the sps. I have had that problem before when my skimmer went out.

 

[reefwiser]

Adding nitrate is good if you want to keep your dkh at 9. The issue your are seeing is the coral not liking the higher dkh. Slimy and bubbly at the tips of SPS is their reaction to high dkh without higher nitrates. I always watch for this indicator to tell me how I should set the dkh in my tank. My current tanks SPS like a 7 to 8 dkh level any higher and they will start to slime at the tips . If you let this go you will start getting burnt tips and this will lead to a decline in the coral with stn and algae growing on the area of the tip where there is no tissue .

 

[Beej1254]

I think that you just have dirty water and the algae is building up on the skeleton's of the sps. I have had that problem before when my skimmer went out.

Care to expand in your belief? None of the signs are pointing to that.