Dead Favites Brain 8/17/12 <<RMF>>
Dear WWM,
<Bryce>
I recently ordered a new shipment of corals. Acan Lord, Frogspawn, Hammer, Goniopora, and Favites Brain. I acclimated them all to my tank, 55 gallon, lit with 4-10k 65watt power compacts. Water parameters: Ammonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-5ppm, pH-8.3, KH-10, Calcium-420, Magnesium-1250, Temp-79-81 depending on light. I placed the Favites on the substrate in hopes that it wouldn't burn, this was Tuesday.
<Unlikely to burn under PC lighting as Faviids prefer intense light.>
Yesterday, Wednesday, I noticed that my Favites was not looking quite right. The edges of the skeleton were showing through. I assumed that it may just be not used to the lighting, because the lights had only come on about 30 minutes prior to this. Last night, however, the coral still had not changed, and it didn't respond to my evening feeding. This morning the Favites was covered with hermit crabs that were picking loose brown flesh off of the skeleton.
<<Very bad>>
 I have never seen a coral decline like this before. My first thought was possible allelopathy problems,
<<Could well be a contributing cause here>>
however it was more than 12 inches from all the other corals. Toxins crossed my mind, but no other corals were showing signs, including my large red Trachyphyllia. The corals in the tank before the shipment were: Trachyphyllia sp, Caulastrea sp, Tubastrea sp, Galaxea sp,
<<Very strong allelopathogenically>>
and Duncanopsammia axifuga. I have been using carbon, and water changes
to try and minimize the negative reactions. I also had the Galaxea on the other side of the tank, and about seven inches higher than all the others because I knew that they have very long sweeper tentacles. I chose about a year ago not to use a skimmer because I wanted some residual nutrients in the water column. I also read on a few sites that Goniopora tend to do well in non-skimmed systems. No other corals are showing negative behaviors, and I was wondering if this could have just been damaged in shipping?
<<Also likely>>
 Is there something obvious that I overlooked?
<Likely due to stress/handling in shipping.   RTN (Rapid Tissue Necrosis) came to mind but this generally
does not happen with Faviids.  I thought of bleaching, but when this occurs there is no tissue loss as you describe, just an expellation of Zooxanthellae.  I would not discard yet, it's still possible bleaching may have occurred and the coral may reverse the process. I'll ask Bob to chime in if he has an idea.  James (Salty Dog)>
Bryce

Candy Canes, sm. vol., allelopathy likely    12/16/10
Hi Crew,
<Hello Sam>
I have a 24 gallon AquaPod with a glass top and 96w of T5, 2 actinics and 2 daylight. Lights on 8 hours full and 2 hours just actinics. I replace 1 gallon a week and I have a hang-on skimmer. If I see any algae problems I do more changes. Ammonia, nitrates 0, nitrates .2, Calcium is about 500,
<too high>
water 1.025 and temp around 80.
<How about pH? Alkalinity? Mg? PO4?>
Crushed coral bottom, snails, a Spotted cardinal, Blue Chromis
<Singular? These are social animals>
, Red Firefish, Clown goby, Neon goby. Candy cane colonies of 25 heads (brown with blue centers), 12 heads (light blue), 15 heads (light blue), 6 heads (green), 2 heads (green), Hammer with 10 heads, Frogspawn of 2 heads and one very large head, Torch with 4 heads and 8 colonies of Acans with about 10 heads each. And one large and beautiful open brain (Trachyphyllia)about 6 inches across.
<All in a 24g? You have a lot of colonies there>
I feed finely chopped silversides to the corals once a week. I rarely see any tentacles on the Candycanes so I don't think they get anything out of it.
<Mmm>
Most of my corals are less than a year old but 3 of the Candycane colonies are 4 years old if not more. My problem is the green Candycanes. They just don't last.
My new one of 3 weeks had 5 heads and I am now down to 2. My older one of almost a year had 8 heads and 2 died in the last two weeks.
A second green colony that I bought at the same time died within the first couple months. What is different about the green ones that make it harder for me to keep?
<If all others are doing well then this might be competition between animals here, with the greens as the 'losers'. Search on WWM re: allelopathy, you have many corals in a small volume here, a recipe for problems. An alternative theory is that since different animals come from different places/ environment/ conditions, and your tank has a single set of parameters, then these parameters are favourable to some animals and not others. It is impossible to create a system where everything you put in will thrive no-matter-what. You might just have to settle for the fact that you have several animals doing well and be happy with that. A third theory is water chemistry. There are several unstated parameters as alluded to above, so I can't comment on these, but 500 for Ca is too high, I would lower this to about 400ppm.>
Thanks,
<No problem, I hope this has been helpful to you>
Sam
<Simon>

Maze Coral Question 8/14/10 <Hello Scott> First off, I love your site, I have had so many of my common questions answered by reading everyone else's experience. <It's working then!> Sadly I have a new problem that I am not sure I have been able to find the answer to. I recently bought this coral from my LFS, the attached picture is straight from the LFS with my camera. <Ok> I have a 120 gallon tank that has been set up for a while now, I recently placed this coral on a low lying rock at the bottom of my tank. This morning when I woke up and was going to do a small feeding to the various fish in my tank (maroon clown, Royal Gramma, blue damsel, yellow watchman / diamond watchman gobies) <Please capitalize these names in future Scott> I noticed that this coral kind of had a small layer of white stringy substance all over it. <Mesenterial filaments. If you look half way down this article you can see a photo of a Hydnophora attacking a Montipora with them. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-07/gh/index.php . I also seem to remember a great video of this with a similar coral to yours on a David Attenborough programme, perhaps it was 'Blue Planet Coral Seas' http://www.cosmolearning.com/documentaries/the-blue-planet-seas-of-life-405/19/ > Some of my other corals, which were wide open when I went to bed (Dendrophyllia, large very healthy hammer, frog spawn, torch coral, Zoanthids) <Again.. capitalize these next time please http://www.wetwebmedia.com/wwmadminsubwebindex/question_page.htm> were almost fully retracted when I woke up as well. <Search re: Allelopathy, chemical/ physical interactions of animals> I did hours of research to try to find out about this white stringy substance. It did not look like most of the feeding filaments that I have read about, instead of being individual 1 inch strings projecting from the coral it seemed like a small almost mesh-like layer of thing white strings over the coral. <Could have been produced as an attack or defence mechanism, or as a stress reaction to something. Either way, it has produced a cascade of problems that need to be dealt with. First by water changes, protein skimming & carbon use (perhaps ozone), second by permanently separating some of the animals to different systems> I used a turkey baster and gently blasted most of the strings away, and some of the larger pieces floated away which I guided to my overflow filter. <I would have netted these out> Do you have any idea if these are problems or if I should do anything about it? <Posted. Immediate action required> When I get home tonight I will inspect them again and try to take some pictures. <Yes! These would be appreciated!> Thanks for your help <No worries, Simon> Re: Maze Coral Question 8/14/10 <Hi Scott> Sorry for the poor grammar last email, I was in a rush and slightly in a panic about my tank. <No worries> I did have a chance to talk to a LFS about my tank yesterday. First some background info about my tank. about 2 weeks ago when I was ready to start adding fish to my tank I was browsing the LFS and saw a beautiful Blue Mandarin Dragonet. I asked the owner if he could feed it so that I could tell if he would do well in my tank. He dropped a small amount of Mysis Shrimp into the tank and the Mandarin went crazy. I bought this Mandarin and he has been doing great in my tank. <What size is your tank? I would not place one of these in anything less than a 90, with plenty of sand> After about a week of him doing fine eating the Mysis Shrimp I was feeding him, he started to eat less and less. He began doing much more picking at the live rock for Copepods. I don't have a separate refugium to breed a Copepod colony so I did some research online. <I would definitely look into setting a refugium up. Many benefits to be had, especially if you have a Mandarin> I found one aquarist who made a Copepod Condo out of some mesh, zip-ties, and live rock rubble. He placed this directly into his tank, the mesh was wide enough for the Copepods to go in and out but too small for his Mandarin to have a buffet on the whole colony. <This sounds like a great idea!> I decided to make one of my own. Long story short, I made the Copepod Cage out of some steel mesh. Not thinking at all I placed it in the main tank at about 10 pm on Wednesday night. When I woke up in the morning I realized that metal should probably never be in a fish tank. I removed it and then did a 40 gallon water change that evening. I also added some Prime heavy-metal remover into the tank. <Mmm, did this co-incide with the event? If so, then it might be the cause, but steel is actually Iron, Fe (with impurities burned out and carbon added). It's not harmful in small amounts and I seriously doubt that in one night this could have contaminated your system. Some aquarists actually dose Iron. I would not discount allelopathy here as the prime cause, perhaps triggered by something else>. This morning some of the corals are looking much better, the Trachyphyllia is looking better, the Maze Coral has a significantly less amount of the white stuff on it, but the Dendrophyllia have not opened all the way, it is a 4 head colony and since I did the water change the Dendro has had between 1-2 of the heads open, but never all of them open. I am hoping that I caught it in time and that it will eventually get back to normal now that the cage has been removed and that I did a 1/3 water change. Do you have any advice as to what I can do to get my tank back to normal? <I posted this on my last message, and my advice remains the same. Water changes, carbon, skimming and separation of incompatible animals> I know this is one of those "oh my god, what did this idiot do to his tank" situations, but I would love some help if you know anything that I can do. <Read here re: Iron & reef tanks: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/chem.htm> Thanks again <No problem, Simon>

Dying moon ? 8/2/10
Hey fellas, just hoping to get some advice on my moon coral. I have had it for over a year and have had very good luck keeping it nice and healthy.
Just recently I have noticed the tissue has started receding and the skeleton is pink where the coral has been degrading. My water perimeters are monitored are just as they should be,
<Need actual values>
I run a calcium reactor, carbon, Purigen, and a high end skimmer so I am positive water quality is not a factor.
<An essential material or two... could be missing. What do you feed this colony? Supplement practice...>
I've just noticed there are a couple baby Aiptasia anemones on the skeleton where death has occurred and am wondering if this could be the cause.
<More an after-effect, though allelopathy may well be involved here>
I also notice that I rarely see sweeper tentacles out at night like I should. Could this be a problem with positioning, the coral is in medium flow and in medium light (metal halide of course). My tank is dominantly LPS and this is probably the easiest coral to keep. Is there any quick remedy meds I can use,
<No... moving it elsewhere is recommended if you have another established system>
I've read about Melafix for bacterial infections.
<No...>
How can I determine if it is a bacterial issue, I thought the pick on the skeleton was a little fishy. Any advice would be great, this is one of my favourite corals.
Thank you in advance
Jason K
Ontario, Canada
<Read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/cnidcompppt.htm
and the linked files in the series... Bob Fenner>
Re: Dying moon ? 8/2/10
Thanks for the advice and yea now that I think about it I bet you I do have some chemical warfare going on. I have a few pretty large leather corals, all sorts of mushrooms, pulsing xenia, 2 clams, and the rest different types of LPS, I don't think anything is touching
<Mmm, doesn't have to touch>
as far as that goes but that's why I've just recently started running carbon and that Purigen stuff. I figured
if anything is going on this might help and maybe it has. I think the degradation of this coral has stopped. And also I have recently added a lawnmower blenny and it seems to love chomping on my one leather, maybe it has been stressing it out enough to make it release some sort of toxin.
<Possibly>
Another quick question. I know there is supposedly no such "reef safe" Ich treatment. But I have found this stuff Ich-x saltwater
<Have read re this Hikari "cure all"... am dubious>
and it claims to be totally reef safe. It says any stress induced will recover. What do you think about all of this. I bought it a few months ago because I have bought another hippo tang and just like every other time I make this mistake, it ends up with Ich. It wont effect any other fish in my tank but every hippo tang gets it in my tank lol. I'm just a kid, I love my tank but I make some dumb mistakes. I seem to think that if my tank seems to be free of it for like 6 months I can just buy another blue hippo and it will be fine. But every time one goes in this happens. I'm a sucker for this fish for some reason. LOL. But back to the ICH-x, I probably wont try it because its obviously ridiculous (unless you tell me different :) ). It says it contains a proprietary formula of water and formaldehyde (<3%).
<?>
What do you think?
<Very toxic... and the chance for side reactions, disaster way too great>
Chances are ill use my trusty blue hippo trap and get him into a hospital.
BTW I have a 120 with only 2 clowns, the blenny, a marine Betta and this tang. So I wouldn't consider it crowded.
Thanks again
YOU ROCK!!!
Jason K
Ontario, Canada
<And roll... I would read re Paracanthurus, Tang treatment/s for Protozoans on WWM. B>

LPS questions, Faviid hlth. f' 5/23/10
Hello again, I recently bought a candy coral about three weeks ago along with some mushrooms and a polyp I cannot identify. My mushrooms and polyps are doing fine and starting to open up but my candy coral has yet to
extend it's feeders.
<Likely mal-affected by the Corallimorphs>
My tank is a 29 gallon with 96w of t5 12k and 28w of actinics for the lighting I run the actinics for 10 hours and the 12k for 8 hours the actinics coming on an hour early and going off an hour later. I have a Coralife super skimmer the 65 gallon model, I know you prefer a remora so would I if I wasn't a college student and father of six. My water
conditions are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, ph 8.3, sg 1.025, calcium 420, dKH 12, temp 79, and flow rate is around 550 gph the majority of which is pointed away from the mushrooms and candy coral. I do 5 gallon water changes every week and I also dose with iodide and magnesium. The candy coral in question is about 14 inches from the light maybe a little more. Am I giving him to little or too much light is he still adjusting, I know many only come out at night but I have come out with a flashlight at all hours and never seen even one polyp open.
<Good observation>
I have however seen him secret the brown stringy mucus from his polyps that is used algae correct?
<Possibly>
I do run carbon only through my canister filter and clean it every time I do a water change.
<Good>
I also only use RO/DI water I have a four inch sand bed. I know these animals are not completely photosynthetic and I worry that I have not been able to feed him.
I have tried coaxing him out with a turkey baster with Mysis and with brine shrimp. He seems healthy from what I can tell other than he does not open he has 14 good sized polyps and it seems strange that not one has opened. I
have however seen him swell up at night but no feeders any input would be greatly appreciated. Sorry about all of the info on my tank but I didn't know how much you need. Thank you
<Mmm, well... IF you had another established system, or a friend who did, I'd move the Faviid... Do read here:
http://wetwebmedia.com/cnidcompppt.htm
and the linked "Compatibility" FAQs files re 'Shrooms above. There are some other aspects of care that may be employed to reduce probable allelopathy here. Bob Fenner>
Re: lps questions... Faviids, allelopathy f's 5/24/10
OK, thank you for the linked pages I think I may have messed up. I used to have a bubble tip anemone but found a new home for it after learning that it needs a larger system than the one I own. This anemone has been gone for
about a month but the rock that was his home is the same rock that I attached my candy coral frags to. I noticed before that all of the algae on this rock had died and is slowly returning. After reading about the toxins these animals produce in the linked pages I cant help but wonder if there are still traces of these chemicals on and in this piece of rock.
<Mmm, possibly>
As I said my mushrooms and polyps are doing very well and I got them at the same time I got my candy coral.
<They "win" over Faviids chemically>
If my suspicions are correct other than using ozone is there any other way I might be able to detoxify my system from this anemone.
<Carbon, water changes, time going by>
I don't want to do anything I am unsure of and any input would be much appreciated. Thank you again for all of your assistance.
<Welcome. BobF>

Sick Caulastrea 02/15/09 Hi All: Two months ago, all of the corallites on this Caulastrea had polyps, which expanded. Over past two months, most of them have died and the few that are left are shriveled. During that same time the tentacles which can be seen in the photo have been growing. The tips are the same mint green as the polyps and they all emanate from the same place on one of the stalks. They expand during the day and contract at night. They are not feeding tentacles since the feeding tentacles have white tips and emanate from the mouths of the polyps. Do you have an idea what these tentacles are and why this colony is dying? <Hmm... I do think this is an anemone of some sort. But I can't ID it much further than that from this pic. If it is an anemone, that could easily explain why the trumpet coral is dying.> Thanks, RB <Cheers, Sara M.>

Mmm, a Fungiid or Euphyllia is my guess. RMF

Re: Sick Caulastrea 2/16/08 Hi Sara: Thanks for your reply. A couple of the readers of a thread on Reef Central think it is a torch coral. Looks like one but I haven't had a torch or anemone in my tank. Since the Caulastrea was in the tank for 9 months before the "tentacles" showed up I doubt that it was a hitchhiker. What do you think? - RB <I had this thought as well (that it looked like a Torch coral). But if it were a Torch coral (a Euphylliid), you should be able to find its skeleton. -Sara M.> Re: Sick Caulastrea 02/16/09 Hi Sara: Will you please have a look at the attached photo. The critter in question is attached to the Caulastrea skeleton by the light colored foot which is visible under the two corallites in the center. I can't detect a skeleton, but could that be because it is immature? Thanks - RB <Hmm... it still looks like an Anemone to me, but Bob noted on your last email that he thinks it's a Euphylliid... so... hmm... I suppose time will tell. Cheers, Sara M.>