Please help LPS loosing tissue

[aristocrat]

Hello there

Could somebody please tell me whats going on with my tank?

Recently all my torches and hammers have lost the tissue. All of a sudden the tissue sheds off.

Recently I had a juvenile purple tang that died all of a sudden with no signs of disease and today I saw my rend star fish lost an arm and its tissue looks like is degenerating.

I change 10-20% water with aquaforest reef salt and used to dose pro bios s and np pro now moved back to NOPOX (used nopox before and nitrates was always at 1ppm - long story short) the whole tank had a bit of brown algae which is now coming into control with NOPOX.

Only nitrates are high at 25ppm and rest is all in control.

I have a massive skimmer (nyos 220) tank volume is 200liters including sump. Have siporax and marine pure in the sump. Totally not able to know what I'm doing wrong.

My sps too always had STNs so never had a chance to grow any. Tank is 1 year old. Gonis are doing really well. My nem too doesn't look good, shrinks and does not totally inflate up, ever since I purchased.

I also run aquaforest zeo mix and carbon in a reactor and change filter socks every 2-3 days.

I have sand substrate, unfortunately I cannot siphon due to tank being very narrow. Also advise if I can remove the top center brace so I can have more working space.


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Current pic taken as of now,

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[aristocrat]

Sorry forgot to add the star fish pic

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[CrayolaViolence]

If I had to guess I'd say you have a bacterial infection in the coral, due to water quality. Not sure how often you change out water, but if it were me I'd be doing 6 -10 gallons a day until I had the nitrates down at or below 1ppm.

[Scott07]

The way you're describing so many different things being affected, at least to me, says possible water contamination issue. That said... it could be so many different things. Im sure you just didn't mention it in your initial post, but you're using RODI or at least RO water correct? Additionally could be something on your hands when you're working in the tank. I know once or twice ive had residue from hand lotion still on my hands, and seen my corals not happy at all about that. Could also be so many other things.

Regarding the center brace... no... i absolutely would not remove it.

Regarding the sea star... looks like a red fromia to me. Ive tried these as well, and learned they're largely hit or miss. They are VERY sensitive to salinity and other changes in water parameters. My understanding is a lot of deaths can be attributed to acclamation procedure somewhere along the line. Talking to a couple of my LFS, they tell me they loose about 50% of the red fromias they get in. That was enough to get me to stop trying them. I just cant support my LFS stocking something they're having that much trouble with.

[aristocrat]

The way you're describing so many different things being affected, at least to me, says possible water contamination issue. That said... it could be so many different things. Im sure you just didn't mention it in your initial post, but you're using RODI or at least RO water correct? Additionally could be something on your hands when you're working in the tank. I know once or twice ive had residue from hand lotion still on my hands, and seen my corals not happy at all about that. Could also be so many other things.



Regarding the center brace... no... i absolutely would not remove it.



Regarding the sea star... looks like a red fromia to me. Ive tried these as well, and learned they're largely hit or miss. They are VERY sensitive to salinity and other changes in water parameters. My understanding is a lot of deaths can be attributed to acclamation procedure somewhere along the line. Talking to a couple of my LFS, they tell me they loose about 50% of the red fromias they get in. That was enough to get me to stop trying them. I just cant support my LFS stocking something they're having that much trouble with.



Thanks for your response Scott.

I'm using RODI 5 stage unit that produces 0 TDS water.

The residue and lotion could be one reason but I however wash my hands thoroughly (no soap but) before I stick my hands in the tank, having said that, the skimmer will immediately stop foaming, so very likely a reason.

Sad that red formia (I couldn't recollect the name when I posted, bad with names mate) decided to die after 6 months. I was concerned because he looks like he is disintegrating, when I touch him he becomes stiff though. Having lost a purple tang and a fire fish and now the formia I thought I would get some advise on if there is any sort of infection. Not sure why only the torch loosing tissue. I have tried some sps, they live for a month or so and then boom...stn!

I shall not remove the centre brace then.


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[Scott07]

Ah... well it sounds like at least you did a good job introducing the star then. And I figured with all the higher end equipment you're using that you had to be using RODI, but thought id ask. Good luck as you continue to diagnose what's going on... I know how frustrating it can be.

[aristocrat]

Ah... well it sounds like at least you did a good job introducing the star then. And I figured with all the higher end equipment you're using that you had to be using RODI, but thought id ask. Good luck as you continue to diagnose what's going on... I know how frustrating it can be.



Thanks mate. Lost a fair bit of corals when I changed from NOPOX to NP PRO due to brown algae outbreak. Hair algae and bubble algae too started to appear but last week I started to dose nopox again and things gettingback in control real real quick, hair bubble and brown all algae is disappearing rapidly, to be safe I'm very very under dosing.

Would you know if those holes in the gold torch's skeleton are normal? I hope there is not parasitic infestation. I do dip using coral RX though.

Cheers.


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[Scott07]

Would you know if those holes in the gold torch's skeleton are normal? I hope there is not parasitic infestation. I do dip using coral RX though.
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Unfortunately I couldn't tell you. I have had torches and candy canes before and seen similar... but no, im not sure if its just normal, or a sign of some infection as you mentioned.

[aristocrat]

Anyone??


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[homer1475]

ALK, CAL, and MAG readings?

The torch looks fine other then it's shrunk up, and not happy at all. I don't see any tissue missing though.

FWIW, All that ceramic media in your sump, unless you remove it all and clean it out once in a while(read like once a month), it will become a detritus trap creating a nitrate factory. While they do work great for housing bacteria, you need to clean the junk out of them once in a while.

[homer1475]

Also star's are one of those things that are better left in the ocean. Not to many people have success at keeping them.

[aristocrat]

Also star's are one of those things that are better left in the ocean. Not to many people have success at keeping them.



Thanks for your reply.

Last weekend the Ca was at 420
Alk at 7-7.5
Mg 1350

It has a bit of tissue peeling off slowly, at this stage the bio media is all clean and I religiously change out filter socks every two days, however I do disturb it occasionally and by look for it I dont see any mulm on it. However I'm not able to relate my fish and coral deaths to your response, Nitrates problem is a very easy fix for me with the NOPOX, its just the NP PRO that is not efficient enough to pin them down. I tried using NP PRO for about 4 months now and have seen nitrates only go up at the start of the switch. They have however been steady at 12-25ppm (nyos test) for the last 3-4 months which where always at 1ppm when I dosed nopox before the 4 months period. Now As I'm seeing bubble algae and hair algae sprout I have decided to move back to NOPOX (since last week). I'm very very under dosing nopox and could already see bubble and hair algae retreat. I did not wanted nitrates to drop down all of a sudden so I will be dosing only 1-2ml nopox and get nutrients in control.

I can only think there could be too much of some element like iron or selenium or silicon or I donno what others are in complex chemistry of reefing that could be out of balance and be poisoning. I have just been discussing with another aquaforest user having similar issues.

Cheers.


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