Brown Spots on Corals

[fishycouple]

Hi all:
I have noticed some small brown spots (like measles) appearing on my corals. All are seemingly happy, just getting covered with the spots.
All water tests are ok..except I can't test for Iodine,or phospates.
My lighting is PC's with an acintic blue light added.
55 gallon with 75 lbs of live rock, and 20 lbs of live sand...filtration is still by a sump with bio-balls, with a CPR skimmer in the sump.
No ammonia, no nitrites or nitrates. Calcium is 350 ppm. water is kept at 76 degrees and is 1.023 I do a 10% water change every 10 days or so.
I feed DT's plankton twice a week.
The spots started on my green mushrooms, then they appeared on my purple mushrooms, then on the stalk of my huge leather coral. Now they are on the Fox Coral....bummer!
If anyone has any ideas, please help. So far this is all of the corals that are affected. I have a huge giant cup coral, in the middle of my tank that so-far, has no spots. The Elegance, the frogspawn, the bubble, all of the polops and the zenia are un-affected.
I only have a flame angel, a yellow tang and a cleaner wrass for fish in the reef, and all of them are beautiful and very healthy!
I do have a prolific population of snails, and crabs (emerald and hermit), along with a coral banded shrimp in the tank.
I'm looking forward to your suggestions.
The adventure continues.
Rick

 

[burnnspy]

Your calcium needs a boost, but that is a seperate issue and will not help your cause.
You have trouble, they sound like flatworms. I recommend the following course of action and it will probablt take a whole day to do.
Make up 50 or so gallons of fresh seawater.
Make 1 gallon of freshwater with ph to match your tank in a bucket.
Drain some tank water into a container big enough to hold all livestock.
Move all livestock into the container.
Add the freshwater into the tank as fast as possible and ensure it is full to the top, you must also be prepared to remove the water very rapidly to prevent destroying the LR and bacteria. Let the freshwater sit for only 30sec., then remove it as fast as possible.
Fill the tank with the new saltwater.
Dip each coral in the freshwater bucket one at a time for 30-60sec to kill the flatworms and return it to the tank.
This is an emergency freshwater dip of the whole tank and should kill every last flatworm, because they can stand freshwater for only a few seconds.
There are probably other ways, but I believe this is the only full proof method. Keep in mind that if done to slow, you may recycle the tank and harm some of your livestock, sorry.
BurnNSpy

 

[rhearrel]

If these brown spots move when bumped by your cleaners, then you have flat worms.
If you want to go the chemical route, I found a product Formalite III by Aquatronics. Ingredients: Malachite Green and Formaldehyde.
This took care of my flat worm problem, but my bittle star lost the tips of his tentacles. After a few weeks though he grew them back.
Fresh water works great...and would be preferred I you have the facilities to make the changes fast.
Good luck

 

[donna2933]

What do flat worms look like on the corals? I don't think I have ever seen any or really don't know what to look for. I had some brown spots on one of my yellow leather umbrella put they didn't move when you hit them. I could lightly scrape it off with my fingers. I hope this was an example of flat worms in my tank.
Thanks

 

[fishycouple]

I have confirmed, these are indeed flatworms!
I appreciate the advice about the fresh water dip..however, I am reluctant to crash (or run the risk of crashing) my entire tank to eradicate these harmless pests!
They are indeed ugly and I want to get rid of them in a more "natural" manner. I have been told both a Target Mandarin (synchiropus picturatus) and the common six line wrasse will eat them off of my glass and corals, with the wrasse being the better housekeeper. What do you think of this solution? and will the six line get along with my cleaner wrasse in the 55 gallon tank?
The adventure continues!
Rick

 

[burnnspy]

You were misinformed. They are harmful to a reef, they will cover all livestock and choke off its ability to use tank lighting.
BurnNSpy