corals dying?

[me2003]

This article has a lot of info Goniopora.
It likes more light than many people realize and low to medium current.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2
This coral is more sensitive to being handled. I always moved them
by lifting from the base of the coral and not touching the rest of the
coral. The coral skeleton has sharp edge and can damage it.
It can take weeks for it to recover from a move.

 

[wish]

You might want to do a reef dip on your corals so you could revive them from being stressed. Also if they start to die off you should take them out and dip them and remove any loose dead
skin bc inverts would snack on them with the fish. Do you have a skimmer and is it going crazy?

 

[me2003]

You should ask others but these are my top suspects in order.
You may have to spend a lot of time observing to catch it if fish/crab/shrimp.
Bristleworm traps are a better way to catch them.
bristleworms can be a major problem for LPS
sally lightfooted crabs If you feed your LPS, They will occasionally remove the food from the mouth of the coral. This damages the coral
emerald crabs
small red and orange star (Not sure but timing makes it look guilty)
peppermint shrimps
sand sifting stars

 

[Moose]

yes, My skimmer is, have emptied it alot! more than usual, As in the dip, am I using my normal "reef dip coral disinfectint" ??? I I used a light flow to blow the lobo and most of the dead blew off (I assume what came off was dead because it blew off so easily) but other than that, how do I know whats dead? Or if im causing more damage?

 

[Moose]

This article has a lot of info Goniopora.
It likes more light than many people realize and low to medium current.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2
This coral is more sensitive to being handled. I always moved them
by lifting from the base of the coral and not touching the rest of the
coral. The coral skeleton has sharp edge and can damage it.
It can take weeks for it to recover from a move.

I will definatly not move it again, great to know, will try some hand feeding nice an slow see what happens

 

[Moose]

the bristleworms have been an issue, mostly because I just hate them, but haven't seen any big issue with them hurting the corals, The sallys are horrible, and I know have killed 4 fish of mine that I've had to replace, but I just can't catch them, they are larger so they could be stealing food from the corals too.

 

[me2003]

carbon dose?
I think that is vodka etc.
My logic to suspect a bristleworm/fish/crab/shrimp is the chemistry looks good.
It is focused on LPS which should do well if other corals are doing well.
I my reading and experience bristleworm/fish/crab/shrimp cause the most
problems with LPS. You read many posts of I was waking by my tank and
saw a bristleworm wrapped around my LPS or This fish was fine then one day
It just decided to attack the LPS.

Sally lightfooted crabs and emerald crabs also can have issues. They
can be active at night and eat fish.

I asked about carbon because when I ran it on my tank it would
cause the red gonipora to retract
so I would not run all the time.
(This is just a single coral observation and there may be people that run carbon all the time with no issues)

 

[me2003]

Bristleworms (especially the larger ones) are a major problem for corals
especially in large numbers. I have seen them damage the lower part of many corals.
Some of the larger one will stay in one area and can be located by the damage they cause
in an area.

If you can reduce the numbers the six line may help control. You may want to post about controlling
and catching Bristleworms

 

[Moose]

I will have to set out a post for that def. I have the two wrasses to help, and have used the trap too, but the trap barely catches anything and when it does, the ones it grabs are tiny, I will also pick up a red light for scoping the tank out tomorrow night, see if I can find anything going on in their, should I be redipping my corals in the coral dip? again or will it stress them out more

 

[delta]

Put it in the shade and see how it does, Brain corals do not like a lot of light. Actually many LPS do not like a lot of light.

The Goni's well they are hit or miss. If it was tank raised might do OK. If wild chances are it will perish try feeding the tank target feeding will more than likely aggravate the Goni.
They are a tougher coral to keep.

Bristle worms are scavenger that cleanup dying livestock. People often blame them when the corals are having other issues

Also your calcium is little high

How old is the tank?

 

[reeferpj]

Run AC in the room for the tank, its 2 years old, the corals are all within 2 months old, temps usually around 76-79 degrees

here ya go greg

 

[pallobi]

Sorry to hear about your corals... and i further apoligize if i missed it, but have you recently replaced your bulbs? i saw greg mention shading them a bit, and if you recently replaced bulbs this could have been a factor...

 

[delta]

My first thought is still lighting

the Goni is just a hard to keep coral not impossible but tough to impossible in some tanks

A few years back Bec was selling tank raised Goni's. In some tanks they took off. In others, even after trying a few times, they could not keep the Goni's alive.

 

[pallobi]

goni's dont have the best results in captivity i dont think... i could be wrong

 

[RadReefer]

You have 4 clowns, clownfish frequently kill goiniopora. They "play" in the tentacles and can do a lot of damage to the delicate flesh. The way you described how the polyps are mostly retracted is a clue to this. gonis get irritated by clownfish very easily. I have a pair of clowns and tried a goni once, it did really well until I started to see the clowns take a liking to it and within days it's tentacles retracted and it rapidly declined. Another reason may be the shrimp. I have seen peppermints tear through the flesh of LPS to pull out the food that the coral has eaten, keep a close watch on ornamental shrimp with LPS.

 

[frank180reef]

I would try stopping the carbon dosing

after running pellets and or vinegar dosing I am convinced (ok fairly convinced) that my LPS suffered due to the clean water....this included serveral goni colonies.....

gonis are hard to keep and are unforgiving if ur alk or calc slip for a bit. Hammer and all will bounce back, gonis normally wont

 

[inverted]

I would try stopping the carbon dosing

after running pellets and or vinegar dosing I am convinced (ok fairly convinced) that my LPS suffered due to the clean water....this included serveral goni colonies.....

gonis are hard to keep and are unforgiving if ur alk or calc slip for a bit. Hammer and all will bounce back, gonis normally wont

I think the op is running Granular Activated Carbon, not carbon dosing. Bristle worms are my favorite scavenger, they are one of the most effective parts of the CUC. They are never a problem for LPS. When a bristle worm brushes our skim, the bristles irritate us and maybe even stick in us. LPS corals are adapted to them. They can crawl all over them even and they won't o much as irritate the LPS, due to the texture and composition of the corals tissue. Also, how long did you say the corals have been in the tank? How long did they do well?

Is the red bran a Trac? If so, should probably likes moderate light (on the lower end maybe 100 PAR or so), with relatively low flow. Should probably be on the bottom. They are very sensitive to tissue damage from the rocks and can be kept there, but are best kept on the sand. Also, I am not 100% sure about tracs, but there are a number of LPS corals, that get nutrients from the sand. I believe tracs are one, but don't quote me on that.

Lobo also, should like moderate (low side of moderate again) light and low flow (I definitely wouldn't aim a power head at him). What I do in situations where algae starts growing on an LPS, is move the coral to a dark sump with no light for a few days until the algae dies off. Then move the coral to a very shaded area and leave it there for a few days. Then slowly move the coral back out into the light. This has worked on numerous occasions.

The Goni is just tough to keep. They die slow, so, you may think they are doing well, but long term, the success rate is pretty dismal. Also, they pack some serious toxins, so, while they are dying, they may release them. These can be a big issue for other corals. Definitely run a lot of carbon, do a lot of water changes, skim heavily and do not place any corals down current from the goni.

 

[frank180reef]

my bad, I think you are right on the carbon

 

[Moose]

You have 4 clowns, clownfish frequently kill goiniopora. They "play" in the tentacles and can do a lot of damage to the delicate flesh. The way you described how the polyps are mostly retracted is a clue to this. gonis get irritated by clownfish very easily. I have a pair of clowns and tried a goni once, it did really well until I started to see the clowns take a liking to it and within days it's tentacles retracted and it rapidly declined. Another reason may be the shrimp. I have seen peppermints tear through the flesh of LPS to pull out the food that the coral has eaten, keep a close watch on ornamental shrimp with LPS.

I have two RBTAs that the two pairs have each claimed on of them, they don't hang on any other corals that I've seen except getting to close and curious with my torch.

 

[inverted]

I would try stopping the carbon dosing

after running pellets and or vinegar dosing I am convinced (ok fairly convinced) that my LPS suffered due to the clean water....this included serveral goni colonies.....

gonis are hard to keep and are unforgiving if ur alk or calc slip for a bit. Hammer and all will bounce back, gonis normally wont

BTW though, you are probably correct. Although, not necessarily due to the clean water. Corals have a number of symbiotic organisms living on them, in addition to zoox. This includes a wide array of bacteria, viruses etc... The coral controls these organisms through access to resources such as sugars. There have been a number of studies that show excess organic carbon can break this host controlled growth and allow certain bacteria to multiply on the host surface, throwing off the natural balance of organisms. An interesting note, phosphate, nitrate etc... has never been shown in the scientific literature to be strongly associated with coral mortality. Organic carbon has been experimentally shown to be highly associated with coral mortality

Personnaly though, I like carbon dosing. It also has a lot of benefits, and low carbon is also an issue (and we know that highly filtered tanks tend to be low in organic carbon BTW). However, it should be done very cautiously and implemented with a very slow acclimation. LPS seem to be particularly sensitive, I spent a long time acclimating mine.