Tank is dying!

[Dennis Cartier]

I agree that a bacterial infection is a plausible explanation. I had a mystery pathogen in the past, that I also suspected was bacterial, that caused coral mortality in both SPS and LPS. I was never able to identify it, and it has resolved on its own, though I lost most colonies. Even easy corals, like cyphastrea were badly affected. The pathogen test was not available locally at the time, so I was not able to test for known pathogens.

What I did do was start on a program of dosing bacterial supplements that claimed to target vibrio bacteria such as Dr. Tim"s Eco-Balance. I also did several rounds of FM Red-X on the premise that it would reduce bacterial activity, and then followed it up with dosing of beneficial bacteria.

The sad truth is that unless you are able to identify the cause, you may never be sure that you have addressed and eliminated the potential for it to come back.

Every time I lose a frag, I always wonder if my issue is back. In my case, the affliction caused a unique pattern, individual polyps would bleach and turn white, and then the tissue around the polyp would die and recede. The pattern would continue until the whole coral was dead. However sometimes, a little island of polyps and tissue would survive, and the coral would grow back.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Oh, 1 other symptom that I noticed, was that (in my case) any amount of nitrate or amino dosing would trigger the pathogen to attack corals. At the time my NO3 was < 1 ppm, usually 0.2 ppm.

Once it resolved, normal ranges of nitrate no longer caused the outbreaks.

 

[MischiefReef]

Thx!
There are no waterproblems in the area.
I do every 4 weeks an icp.
In the beginning there was a little bit copper in the water. Since January it is ok.
In Germany there is no company where you can make a pathogen test.
I checked the whole equipment-everything ok.
No silicon, only reefbond.
Maybe I will change the whole water. But I don‘t know.
I think it s a bacterial infection.
The corals are weak and than black bugs give them the deathblow.
A big green Anacropora died also.
I could not help her. Generelly they are easy to keep.
A big colony of Stylophora is also dying.
This is the easiest coral to keep.
That really sucks.

Are you talking about acropora eating black bugs? Are you sure they are black bugs? I’m not an experts on them as I’ve never encountered, but I’ve heard that is a difficult if not impossible pest to deal with. If that is the case, I have heard of people doing complete tank rebuilds and only transfer tiny fragments of colonies to preserve. I’ve heard they can even survive Bauer insect dip. Some people have apparently had luck using interceptor.

 

[Kerbash]

I had to nuke one of my tank recently with antibiotics treatment after putting in macro algea from Florida. Same symptom as yours coral receding for no reason, especially from the base of the coral. One think that is strange though is that you said fish are effected as well? That does make me think its something else.

I would definitely say though before starting the antibiotics regiment, really do cross everything else from the list, not only can the actual antibiotics kill the livestock, overusing these things when they are not the cause can create resistant bacteria that will be a nightmare to treat when they actually are the cause of the problem.

Anyway this was the treatment regiment/procedure that I did...
1. 7 days of 1mg/L of Cipro, and 1mg/L of amoxicillin
2. Remove skimmer, Ozone, and carbon
3. I add in the medication once the lights are out
4. I also didn't do any water change because it was a very large system, but I think it would have definitely been good.
5. Dose the medication in the sump as well, I burnt one tenuis really bad when I pour the solution on him, he recovered but burn spots everywhere.

Do make sure to keep an eye on your nutrients too, they may spike.

After day 5 the rocks in my tank turned off white white, thats how I knew it worked. Also all STN stopped as well. After day 7 I turned back on the Ozone and skimmer, added a fresh bag of carbon, and I dosed Carbon (to hopefully speed up the growth of any nitrifying bacteria that's left), the skimmer pulled out at least 2 liters of gunk I think over the next few days.

If I had to do this again though, I would either reduce the amoxicillin by 1/3 to .66 mg/L or use something else entirely. The amox burned the tips of some acro and also many of the duncan heads as well, . Cipro is always handy to have and in my experience they dont seem to have much adverse effect at these levels.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello, thx.
Kh: 7,5
Ca: 420
Mg: 1380
Po4: 0.05
No3: 5
Salinity: 34.8ppm
The ATI ICP was at 99%.

Br

KH slightly low- you want 8-11
Carbon should last a couple of months
Are you using RODI water or Tap water from the faucet?
What lights and wattage are you using ?
Any change in light or flow the last 30 days ?

 

[andreas k.]

Hi,
I use rodi water.
The fish were new.
Vibrios are able to kill corals and fish.
Only the new ones died.
Today I did a 50%waterchange.
Tomorrow I will also change 50%.
4 weeks ago a added 2 or3 daylight bars-only 5hrs/day. Now I turned them off.
Yes, definitive black bugs.
Today I dipped the last survivers of the acropora-only a few black bugs.
Thx

 

[SeeFu]

I had the exact same issue you had a yr ago. I increased lighting power from 45% to 70% and that solved my problem. however in the last few months i've noticed the problem return again. things die from the base up. It just turns to algae really slow.