SuncrestReef Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 About a month ago I noticed a small patch of algae starting to grow from a fork in my WWC Yellow Tips colony. Over the past several weeks, that patch started growing wider and I realized it was losing tissue which gave the algae a foothold. Today I decided I needed to take some action because the colony was losing tissue faster each day. I managed to salvage about 10 frags ranging from 1" to over 3" and placed them on a frag rack right next to the original colony so the lighting will be similar. I'll keep an eye on these frags and the rest of the colony to see if the damage continues to spread. If they remain healthy for the next couple weeks, I'll post a frag sale thread. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Dang that sucks! Hope the frags salvage ok. wasn’t there some new additive to stop STN/RTN that was being worked on? I swear I saw it in R2R... Any guess on why it happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Did you have continuous water flow from one of your pumps blowing on it? I know you answered this but wanted clarify my question. I have had problems sometimes with free floating algae with continuous flow eventually getting hung up on the corals and not noticing then causes a dead spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 27 minutes ago, Gumby said: Did you have continuous water flow from one of your pumps blowing on it? No, it's several inches to the side from the flow of a powerhead, and I had grown it out from a 1" frag back in November 2018 into a nice sized colony in this exact same position. It definitely experiences random flow. I'm planning to send in a water sample for ICP analysis tomorrow since there's no obvious explanation for why it suddenly went downhill. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenbasketreef Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 The algae growth that killing it slowly. Taking over the spot and spreading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 5 minutes ago, goldenbasketreef said: The algae growth that killing it slowly. Taking over the spot and spreading. What approach would you use in this situation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenbasketreef Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 14 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said: What approach would you use in this situation? Need to scrap good the area soonest you see algae growing because it will not stop. If the area keep clean and flow is good the coral tissue will healed and continue to grow to cover the bare spot Unfortunately it is natural occurrence for big colony to get detritus settle down and algae start growing Seems you have enough big frags to start growing again, glue a few within 1" and the base will fuse together 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bighoho Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 I will fully admit that I only know a little about SPS outside of wanting good flow and stable parameters, but I am familiar with algae and treatment I'm wondering if that's GHA (which it looks like) would fluconazole work to get rid of it? I know its primarily made for bryopsis but I've seen some posts on R2R about folks treating GHA with it in mixed tanks. Just wondering if you'd looked at that option. I'm currently treating my QT tank for GHA. We've tried everything to remove it from the gsp and clove rocks. scrubbing, picking, lawnmower blenny, snails, emerald crabs, and hydrogen peroxide cleanings literally dipping and scrubbing... It still comes back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bicyclebill Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Sorry to see, but put me in the list to buy a frag when ready. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, Bicyclebill said: Sorry to see, but put me in the list to buy a frag when ready. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Glad I’m not the only one who primarily got out of this post WWC yellow tip frags for sale. #silverlining #addiction Great information too Rudy. Edited June 16, 2020 by Emerald525 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMeyer Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 How are the frags and remaining colony doing? I have an experimental medication that specifically kills Vibrio, and have used it to save several Acro frags. For almost a year now I've used it on any acro that STN or RTN. It's saved most, including a few really extreme cases. It has to be used as a dip, which makes it tough for colonies. But great for frags. Message me if you want to give it a shot, I have a lot of it... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 4 hours ago, EMeyer said: How are the frags and remaining colony doing? I have an experimental medication that specifically kills Vibrio, and have used it to save several Acro frags. For almost a year now I've used it on any acro that STN or RTN. It's saved most, including a few really extreme cases. It has to be used as a dip, which makes it tough for colonies. But great for frags. Message me if you want to give it a shot, I have a lot of it... So far, so good. Out of 10 frags, only one is showing a bit of loss at the base, but I think I probably didn't cut enough off on that one. I'm not seeing any more loss on the mother colony either. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 9 hours ago, EMeyer said: How are the frags and remaining colony doing? I have an experimental medication that specifically kills Vibrio, and have used it to save several Acro frags. For almost a year now I've used it on any acro that STN or RTN. It's saved most, including a few really extreme cases. It has to be used as a dip, which makes it tough for colonies. But great for frags. Message me if you want to give it a shot, I have a lot of it... This is interesting! Have you thought about recruiting a few folk for some testing? It might work to distribute some so people have it on hand to try when something crops up - especially if it's RTN and the response time is short. Would definitely like to hear more about this. Sorry for the hijack John 😄 5 hours ago, SuncrestReef said: So far, so good. Out of 10 frags, only one is showing a bit of loss at the base, but I think I probably didn't cut enough off on that one. I'm not seeing any more loss on the mother colony either. I think this might be one that I got a frag from you of - it's still alive so there is hope 😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 That algae looks a bit like Dino to me, John. That stuff can certainly take over corals like Rudy described. Have you had any Dino before in this tank? Sorry to see that nice colony in trouble! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 4 minutes ago, Lexinverts said: That algae looks a bit like Dino to me, John. That stuff can certainly take over corals like Rudy described. Have you had any Dino before in this tank? Sorry to see that nice colony in trouble! No, I don't believe it's dions. I looked at a sample under my microscope and it appeared to be simple algae. Also, dinos typically thrive in low nutrient environments, but my PO4 is around 0.04 ppm and NO3 is around 8 ppm, so not necessarily very low nutrient. Since fragging and cutting off all the dead areas, the colony has stabilized and the frags are looking good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 Just now, SuncrestReef said: No, I don't believe it's dions. I looked at a sample under my microscope and it appeared to be simple algae. Also, dinos typically thrive in low nutrient environments, but my PO4 is around 0.04 ppm and NO3 is around 8 ppm, so not necessarily very low nutrient. Since fragging and cutting off all the dead areas, the colony has stabilized and the frags are looking good. I think I remember seeing it in your tank when I visited a while back. Is it on the return nozzles too? I wondered about it then but we were talking about something else and it slipped my mind. You’re right that Dino is most often found in low nutrient systems, but not always. If I were you, I would try to manually remove as much of it as possible, and then keep at it. Good luck! BTW, my yellow tips frag is doing great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Just following up on this thread. I got my ICP test results and nothing seemed too far out of normal: I haven't seen any signs of further loss, and all my other corals appear healthy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 Have you seen the reef moonshiners guys dosing witch hazel for STN/RTN? Apparently works? They have some strange methods but some parts are definitely intriguing. They are on FB and R2R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.