Worried about my duncan

Opalmoon · May 17, 2020

I did a water change recently and it seems my duncan didn't like it. I came home from work today and found it covered in brown slime. I suctioned it off with a turkey baster and saw that it was retracted pretty deeply in its skeleton and has lost a lot of color.

Is it salvageable or did my baby duncan die?

My zoa frag is fine and looking good

Water parameters are
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Phos .09
Alk 9.9
Temp 79

mich2599 · May 17, 2020

Sorry to say, but that duncan looks dead to me.

SMSREEF · May 17, 2020

It doesn’t look good, but they can be temperamental.

How long ago was the water change?
Did you use chlorine remover?

That was the one time I really pis.ed mine off is when I forgot to use chlorine remover.

Mine is still alive so I’m sure there is hope for your guy

Opalmoon · May 17, 2020

I used ro/di water and the water change was 2 days ago. I might have bumped my salinity up from 1.025 to 1.026 in doing so but I didn't think it was that drastic of a change

Marten · May 17, 2020

It looks really ticked off. I think it can still come back so never give up, I still see some tentacles. Make sure it get a little more flow so if any brown slime develops it can get blown off. I have seen them come back from far worse.

Opalmoon · May 17, 2020

Ill keep an eye on it and see about feeding it some nutrients/trace elements and move it to a higher flow area. I also forgot to mention there was a blue leg hermit crab hanging out at its base the other day too. I thought it was eating algae as it wasn't big enough to go for the tendrils

Copingwithpods · May 17, 2020

It does look extremely far gone but they are pretty hardy and I've seen them bounce back.

Quick question was is your usual Salinity in the display and what does your salt mix up to, what salt are you using. Im suspecting a spike specifically Alkalinity.

Opalmoon · May 18, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
It does look extremely far gone but they are pretty hardy and I've seen them bounce back.

Quick question was is your usual Salinity in the display and what does your salt mix up to, what salt are you using. Im suspecting a spike specifically Alkalinity.

Its usually 1.025 in the dt and I'm using instant ocean sea salt. The water in the bucket is currently at 1.029 but that will be diluted when i add the ro water when I make more, have about a gallon in a 5 gallon bucket. There may have been a spike in my alk tho nothing else seems affected.

Copingwithpods · May 18, 2020

Opalmoon said:
Its usually 1.025 in the dt and I'm using instant ocean sea salt. The water in the bucket is currently at 1.029 but that will be diluted when i add the ro water when I make more, have about a gallon in a 5 gallon bucket. There may have been a spike in my alk tho nothing else seems affected.

It could have been an alk spike, that salt mixes up to 11-12 dkh and seeing as your current dkh is 9 its fair to assume the alk was lower than that prior to water change. The Duncan may have been stressed already or just got blasted with 12 dkh incoming water burning it. Try to match incoming water with the display best you can to avoid future swings, focus mainly on temperature, alkalinity and Salinity.

Opalmoon · May 18, 2020

I'd have thought the zoa would be showing signs of distress too if that was the case, but the zoa is fine and looking healthy. But I'll keep that in mind. Usually my water changes have been pretty balanced. This time might have been the exception. The alk wasn't too low before the last change. It wasn't a huge water change either, but since I am running a nano tank even small changes can have drastic effects.

Copingwithpods · May 18, 2020

Opalmoon said:
I'd have thought the zoa would be showing signs of distress too if that was the case, but the zoa is fine and looking healthy. But I'll keep that in mind. Usually my water changes have been pretty balanced. This time might have been the exception. The alk wasn't too low before the last change. It wasn't a huge water change either, but since I am running a nano tank even small changes can have drastic effects.

Yup in a nano stability is key, when I do water changes I make absolutely sure my temp and Salinity are spot on and alk no more that 0.5dkh away from my display. Usually I try to get it spot on exact. I've gone through a few alk spikes in the past and some corals didn't seam to care and others stressed instantly. My last spike killed all my coraline algae but my sps were OK.

Opalmoon · May 18, 2020

Woke up this morning and the duncan had died. I'm sad since it was my fav of the two. Might try to get down to my lfs sat and see if they have any in stock. Just a huge pain to try to get to the store since thy have reduced hours and I'm working as well

SMSREEF · May 18, 2020

I’m sorry, that’s a bummer.

I would bring in some of your water for them to double check all the parameters before you get another one.

sometimes a test kit or refractometer is off...