SPS problems HELP!

[murph145]

hey everyone ...
heres my delimma..... i got into sps corals about 3 months ago.... started with a blue stag frag and a red millipora colony..... they were doing great and growing..... next i added some other acros and then a big green stag.... i noticed the big green stag receding from the tips and a filmy kinda brown algae covering the tips where it was dying....
the green stag has RTN and i noticed a whole branch die within an hour so i started to frag it up in hopes to save some of it....
now i noticed a small patch of brown algae on the tip of my blue stag that had been doing great and has growen alot.... my red millipora also has some algae growing on the new tips only where it had been growing.....
my other pink and green acro frag is doing well my encrusting porites is good my purple acro colony is good and my blue tipped is doing well too.... i have lots of other softies and LPS in the tank and they are all doing fine.....
can anyone tell me whats going on here and what the problem may be??
all was doing great until recently the blue stag and red milli are receding very slowly the patch of algae is small but i dont want it to spread and kill more....
water is good only thing i see is a very very trace amount of phosphates.... everything else is zero and in the right zone....
PLEASE HELP!
Thanks
Murph145

 

[bang guy]

I'm bumping this up to get the attention of the Wizard.
Meanwhile, might as well list your water parameters, lighting & waterflow.

 

[fishieness]

hmmmm.... im def no SPS expert.... in fact, i got my first a few weeks ago. But i do know that some fish such as damsels and esspecialy clown gobies will munch at some SPS to kill it so algae will grow in the dead area that the fish will then for food..... do you have any of these fish? I just ask because you said there is algae on them.....

 

[golfish]

I'm not the Wizard but here's what I'd do.
First off I'd start cutting off all the dyingdead parts, go down the branch at least 1/4" of live coral and cut. Where are these corals coming from? aqua cultured, wild, or tank raised?
Check the corals very close for red bugs and or acro eating flat worms (doesn't sound like this problem but you never know)
RTN can be catchy so I'd try and nip in the bud (no pun intended) asap.
FWIW, I've used Salifert and La Motte phospahte test kits, both were worthless for me. They both showed zero tank, zero off the DI and zero off the tap. I've checked these results using a Colorimeter and things are a lot diff...I doubt your problem is high PO4's

 

[dburr]

List the ALK, calcium and anything else you have.
I see you have softies also, you are running carbon, right?

Dan

 

[murph145]

fishieness
hmmmm.... im def no SPS expert.... in fact, i got my first a few weeks ago. But i do know that some fish such as damsels and esspecialy clown gobies will munch at some SPS to kill it so algae will grow in the dead area that the fish will then for food..... do you have any of these fish? I just ask because you said there is algae on them.....
u know i do have one yellow tail damsil that i have noticed picking at the algae where the tips have died but i never seen him picking on the tips when they were healthy i only noticed him trying to eat the algae after it was dead and growing it....
hmmmm that would really suck if that lil bugger is doing that to my corals
Bang Guy I'm bumping this up to get the attention of the Wizard.
Meanwhile, might as well list your water parameters, lighting & waterflow.
ish
water is as follows....
temp 82-83
Am 0
Na 0
Ni 0
Ph 8.3
Ca 450
Alk 9dkh
PO4 trace barely changes from the light yellow
salinity 1.025
flow about 20X turnover
run high grade activated carbon 24/7
lighting is 2-250W 20K HQI DE bulbs along with 180W of 10K PC
any other paramters that are needed??
thanks golfish i dont see any bugs on the corals and i broke off about 1/2 of the total green stag colony to save it from the RTN last nite and i just got home tonight and it hasnt progressed any further but the frag looks like crap now lol..... im confused to whats goin on
please help any other info

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by golfish
I'm not the Wizard but here's what I'd do.
Wizard, Golfish, Thomas, etc. it's all good

 

[murph145]

well heres a before and after pic of the green stag.... the first pic is how it used to be a few days ago then when i noticed it getting RTN last night i watched a whole branch die within an hour thats when i decided to frag away removing all dead parts and now this is what im left with

one sad looking piece of coral.... the only good thing is that i havent seen any progression since last night and tonight so im hoping i will be able to save some of it no matter how bad it looks....
the only thing i noticed now is my purple acro colony has some tips that are dissolving and sloughing off now too.... im going crazy trying to figure out what to do.... i dont want to lose all my sps's to some damn bacterial disease how can i stop it from spreading?!?!?

 

[golfish]

I think Dan and Bang both asked for some more details on your water quality...are you just missing those questions are avoiding them?
Are you running Carbon? If not I think Dan brings up a very good point about the softies...could be a little war going on there.
Did you forget to add the pictures?

 

[murph145]

hey golfish im sorry re look at the thread i accidentally put the pics in the first part of the thread instead of the last reply i did....
i also listed these earlier in the thread also i dont think there is anything else i can tell yah is there other things i need to list that i dont have down??
i run high grade carbon chemi-pure enough for a 200 gallon tank 24/7 and i change it out every month
i do have softies in my tank thats for sure but i moved the sps corals to one side away from the softies and like i said i have 20X's turnover so the water is moving good
water is as follows....
temp 82-83
Am 0
Na 0
Ni 0
Ph 8.3
Ca 450
Alk 9dkh
PO4 trace barely changes from the light yellow
salinity 1.025
flow about 20X turnover
run high grade activated carbon 24/7
lighting is 2-250W 20K HQI DE bulbs along with 180W of 10K PC
any other paramters that are needed??

 

[golfish]

Its a bummer to chop a coral up like that but it happens...You wont even be able to tell in a week.
So, we both live in So Cal, I'll ask again, where are these corals coming from? aqua cultured, wild, or tank raised?
What LFS?
do you have a chiller?

 

[murph145]

oh im sorry i missed that one golfish....
um i got these corals from my LFS out in thousand oaks....
i dont think they were aqua cultured.... i know i have a few frags that were but the green stag im not too sure.... how would i know that?? it was a very large piece when i bought it i thought aqua cultured pieces were usually small frags ??
do u think that it can survive and regrow?? i havent seen any further die off today and the polyps are all extended.... i also have a small blue stag that was doing great and now all of the sudden has 2 small brown patches at the tips..... can this disease spread from one acro to the other?? if so what do i do??
and yes i run a chiller i have a 1/3 hp aqua-via heres a pic of the set up
i run the temp warmer because my elec bill would be way too high if i ran the tank at 80 the DE's get hot and they are close to the water my canopy isnt that tall and i already have 4 3" cpu fans trying to help out.... do u think the temp could be a prob?? all myother corals are doing just fine though

 

[golfish]

Originally Posted by murph145
i dont think they were aqua cultured.... i know i have a few frags that were but the green stag im not too sure.... how would i know that?? it was a very large piece when i bought it i thought aqua cultured pieces were usually small frags ??

Ask your LFS... Aqua cultured corals are pretty much smallmediumlarge colonies raise in the ocean.
Originally Posted by murph145
do u think that it can survive and regrow??
Yup, it looks fine to me, if you see any die off then chop it down further.
Originally Posted by murph145
do u think the temp could be a prob?? all myother corals are doing just fine though

It could be to newly added corals but I kind of doubt its your problem. IMO, 83 is pushing towards the top. I've been there and done that but I think going a little lower could make things a little better. I know some wont agree with me and I've ran my tanks that high but I feel lower temps are better.
There's lots of reefers in the valley and lots of good stores. You have to be carefull when buying colonies. Things are not like they used to be. There are TONS OF PEOPLE trying to keep sps now, it drives up the price and to make matters worse we're seeing lots of bad things coming in on wild and aqua cultured corals. Try to stick with tank raised frags, if you can get in with the right crowd then you'll get frags for free or next to nothing.

 

[murph145]

thanks Golfish
everything looks good on it so far no more tissue loss!!!
can u recomend any good stores or places where i can get frags??
i havent ventured out too far to find lots of new places so if u can give me some info that would be greatly appreciated!!!
imguna turn down the temp to 81 see how that works too
please let me know of good places to get frags

 

[golfish]

Murph,
Shoot me an e-mail sf49er1959@aol.com