SPS Anthrax

[allan]

Ok, I can't seem to pull any threads on this.

This morning when I got up one of my sps corals had a dusting of white powder in the basin of the coral. Last night there were white flag like things swinging in the current. When I saw the dusting this morning I turkey basted it.... then thought that may not have been a smart move. None of the other corals seem to have this, here is a picture I took this morning but it's not very clear.

[Squiers007]

Its hard to tell from the picture, but it may have just been a built up layer of mucus or something like that. I wouldnt worry too much unless it is losing color or has reduced polyp extension.

[allan]

Okay, will continue to monitor. It sits in direct k4 flow. But polyp ext looks goood

[Squiers007]

Hows it lookin Allan?

[allan]

Still had evidence of the dusty stuff in the basin and a few white tendrils swinging from the polyp holes. I gingerly picked at one and it turns out that it has substance that I was able to pull out. Tastes awful.

This colony is position as seen in the picture, thus the lights are striking it broadside. The back is not bleaching, but it seems as if the greeny part has pulled back a bit, or maybe the greeny part is moving forward to compensate for the added light where none was previously.

I also shifted the direction of the return nozzel that was blasting it from behind. My hairy musrhooms always excude a white tendril like material when I lift them out of the water or overly molest them. I'm wondering if perhaps the added water jet was stressing the coral out. I'll learn more tonight when I get home. This morning there wasn't much of a change positive or negative.

May be that I have to realign the entire colony to receive a more direct path of light.

[allan]

Ok, think I've figured it out. I had one of my returns a few inches away from the back side of this coral and it was blasting away the thin green layer over the coral. The white stuff was the green stuff bunching up and flaking away. I've fixed the direction of the return and it kind of looks like algae is starting to grow on the now white sections.

What I'm doing, waiting to see if the white creeps forward and a small amount of praying that it doesn't.

Question is will it continue? Will the green stuff grow back? The polyps are still coming out and the rest of the coral appears to be fine. I'm standing by with glue and live rock rubble in the event I have to frag out the colony to save it.

I have two rocks with a frag mounted, encrusting, and growing on my rack. One belongs to ScuboSteveo. This tells me that at least in the case of this particular area my fragging skills are up to par in case I have to cut out the dead area of the coral.

Gonna get Milly to snap a few pics.

Advice?

[BIGBIRD123]

It sounds like you blasted the tissue off, especially if algae is growing on the white part, that is why the only flow device in my 58g is my wavebox. I did the same thing before with Koralias. I came home to a nice crisp, white acro.