Coral problems

[wkopplin]

I am still having trouble with some of my coral. All of my Digitada colonies seem to be withering away. They start to die off at the tips and then progressively work their way down. My Acro's are all doing just fine and show no signs of strees. My two rock and RBTA are all doing well as are the two colonies of zoos and the one colony of shrooms.

I have tested my water parameters several times and cannot find a problem there. At first my salinity was low and I thought that was the culprit, but I gradually fixed that and now it is at 1.025. Calcium is at 450, dkh and alk are both inline. Nitrates and ammonia are zero. I am not missing any fish.

I have two possible problems / culprits:

1.) My Emperor Angel is picking at them when I am not watching. I highly doubt this is the case as I have a coral in my holding tank that is suffering from the same problem and the Angel cannot get to it.

2.) I still have not been able to solve the microbubble problem in my setup.

I was hoping I could get someone (s) on Sunday to help me track down the source of the bubbles. It is not coming from the skimmer. I ruled that one out.

Any other help or if anyone has ever had this problem, please let me know.

[Yano]

Well according to this http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.htm 'microbubbles' are of no harm, I would vote for the angel, I know I would not trust one.

[RobertG]

Blake in regards to the micro bubbles, I have the same problem. I have checked everything. I dont know if they are microbubbles or micromatter. I hate it & dont really know how to take care of it. Slowing the direct flow of water to the inputs has made it better, but still there. I am not wanting to use any filter floss or sponges. When you fix it let me know, I need the help too.

Good Luck

[RobertG]

Well according to this http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.htm 'microbubbles' are of no harm, I would vote for the angel, I know I would not trust one.

They might not harm most things, but some diffenitly. I dont like them because they take away from the crystal clear water I want. I have no idea about the angel. The corals I will wait to see.

[kaiser]

I don't know how You got Your plumbing run, but a small leak at the pump input would be capable of microbubbles. It won't even leak, but it will suck in air into the system. Check all the fittings on the closed loop for it.

[matt]

Blake;

You might have some warfare going on; montipora is one of the least aggressive corals and might be getting attacked chemically by some leathers if you have them. It's certainly possible there's some disease spreading too. Can you post some photos? You might also try a post on either Shimek's or Borneman's forum; Eric Borneman in particular is reputed to be very good at diagnosing coral problems.

I won't be at the meeting, I'm sorry to say. I'll be going a little nuts getting packed up in hopes of leaving on tuesday or wednesday. Have fun!

[NaCl_H2O]

Well Blake, with the number of folks attending, you won't have any lack of opinions! Hope one of us can stumble onto your solution?

[JeffCo]

Have you checked the tempature? Or maybe one of your lights coming on in the middle of the night? What salt are you using? The warfare thing that matt suggested could also happen. I would do a few water changes to try and help it. Are the polyps out at night?

[GaryP]

My purple Montipora digitata is doing the same thing. This is really weird because I usually can't kill the stuff. I used to have it all over my tank. If you figure something out, let me know. I only have one small leather in the tank with it so I'm going to discount that theory.

Gary

[Instar]

I had corals dying at the tips too. I sold a fairly large finger leather. changed some water and ran some carbon. There was some temporary relief. Then I changed my lights. As it turned out, the lights deteriorate faster than people say. With the new lights, things are growing again. I ended up loosing some corals from this so I plan to replace all bulbs every 4 months from now on. Since I didn't do the lights concurrently with the other stuff, I can definitely say it was the lights. The bases of my digitata are still alive and really are looking like they may regenerate now. When I put the new bulbs up beside the older ones, the older ones look like they have shifted spectrum and are very dull. My reef is an entirely different "color" now and much nicer. If you run actinic VHO's, then URI recommends replacement at 4 months from what I read in a spec about them. Now I agree with that if you have any sps. Same for all lights, esp in the true 03 actinic. My reef is very stabile, so loosing corals didn't make sense. With the new lights they are making a come back. (My pc's were only about 1 year old. Growth tapered off about 6 months ago and I thought it was just due to something I did or something seasonal.) I hope your situation is as easy to fix as mine turned out to be after all this struggle.

[Instar]

I might add one more thing here about dying at the tips. In all the large tanks I've seen recently there was direct current from a power head or tunze blasting across the tips and/or into cups of some sps. They will die off if blasted directly or with a continuous hard current. Redirect the pumps, use timers and wave makers to solve this. I've seen this pump blast at everyone's place I've been in the past couple months. It most definitely will kill the corals from the tips or edges. Imagine the cutting power of some micro bubbles and tiny amount of plankton and so on in that fast moving current on the delicate tissue of an sps. The polyps will also not come out to feed under strong continuous currents. Thats why the RedSea wave makers all have a softer night mode.

[Instar]

If you have a carnation coral, sell it. Montipora is allergic to carnation toxin.

[wkopplin]

what is a carnation coral? Is it like a candy cane coral? I do have one of those in there.

[BA]

no carnations aren't like the candycanes..they sometimes have them at texas and aquatic, they are colt lether like, and are mostly pink and have big extensions...but they are hard to keep i've heard...

[Instar]

I have this image in my head of a triple orange-pink like thing (carnation aka various names such as nepthia, schleronephthia, etc.) in the middle bottom of your tank. They actually look a lot like cauliflower with polyps to me. Not the candy cane and actually not at all like any of the lps corals. I don't recall if it was yours or not now. That could have been someone else's tank. If the carnation is adapted and growing, then its not much of an issue, but, if its not happy or a new arrival, it is an issue. Lots of good carbon and water changes might handle it. You may not have one and if not, then this is just an FYI for someone who might need some insight into it.

[wkopplin]

I have that bright green coral over on the left side of my tank. Forgot what it was called.

[GaryP]

Blake,

Maybe a Kenya Treee Coral? I'm trying to remember your tank. I'll let you know tomorow.

Gary

[wkopplin]

I do have a Kenya in there