Chemical Warfare

antonym518 · 06-26-2008, 02:49 PM

OK pretty sure that I was experiencing some chemi warfare. My galaxea first, now my two montis. My galaxea got a brown jelly infection and I removed it after three days of getting worse by the minute. My monti cap looks bad after one day. There are a lot of tiny white spots where the tissue was coming off. I am not going to mess with the monti cap though because there is no area to frag. Usually when it has been damaged before its not long before it grows that tissue right back. Now the monti digata that I am posting pics of is not doing the same. It is actually sluffing off its tissue. I have plenty of area to frag this thing. The owner of reeffx.com is going to frag it for me on Sunday but I don't know if it will last that long. How should I frag this thing?? HELP?????

Also what I did was a large water change, new unit of chemipure, 2.5 total, 1 about two months old and the other half is older. I also added these media pad that my lfs has and it removes toxins. After all this my hard corals are doing much much much better. EXecpt the digata, not getting any better.

I am going to not buy am more hard coral, no lps and no sps. If what I have starts acting funny I will remove it right away. I love zoas and plan on just keeping most poylps. They are easy to move also. I do live in an apt. This is the worst thing I have had to deal with so far, but look at my tank I have a TON of softies and I think that those zoas are starting to want to take over.

coral reefer · 06-26-2008, 03:48 PM

Montipora coral has very little, if any, in the area of toxins and chemical warfare! The Galaxea coral is a different story as they have very potent sweeper tentacles that will sting and injure neighboring corals. BEWARE!
With a large selection of soft corals, stonies normally do not do very well due to the toxins released by them. Dilligent skimming, carbon and water changes are necessary if you are to have long term success with both types of corals!!!

omard · 06-26-2008, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coral reefer

... Dilligent skimming, carbon and water changes are necessary if you are to have long term success with both types of corals!!!

Very big issue in my tank.

Try more frequent and amount of water changes. Change that carbon often.

Re: "Water Changes/Ex-changes"
By Anthony Calfo

(Webmedia.com)

"...Under the best of circumstances, water quality in the aquarium after one month typically strays unfavorably downward in pH. It certainly increases in dissolved organics. Water clarity from discoloration becomes darker, however inconspicuous that might be to the naked eye during casual daily inspection. In heavily stocked reef displays – allelopathic compounds (chemical warfare) between corals, plants and algae amplify. Phosphorous and nitrogenous compounds inevitably accumulate too. The list of challenges to water quality goes on. Now instead of allowing these dynamics to crescendo before reducing them abruptly with a large monthly (or less often) water change, the smaller, more frequent water changes will dull the peaks and valleys of such swings in water quality to minimize the stress on the tanks inhabitants..."

Good luck.

antonym518 · 06-26-2008, 04:12 PM

I am going to stay on the water changes. I also use chemi pure. I am going to take the half unit out soon. Then the 1 unit, and get a new one. I also run my skimmer all the time. It usually keeps up. I may need to do the water changes more. 1 a week. Also what about fragging the monti digata.

BluePhish · 06-26-2008, 04:34 PM

im paranoid that im also on my way to nuclear winter, thinking about selling all my softies or all my lps,

. i dont know if i could do it. how would you choose.

BaxterS80 · 06-26-2008, 05:04 PM

I am having the very same problem. We have four huge leather corals, including a long polyp toadstool, huge toadstool, huge Kenya Tree, and a large finger leather. We started loosing some of our LPS corals last month. I was bumming. Our Montipora are growing out of control as well as our Xenia, Green Star Polyps, and lots of Zoas...The only thing I can chalk it up to is chemical warfare. We use a Euro Reef RS 100 skimmer, run carbon or chemipure which I change every few weeks, and perform water changes weekly.

Godbert · 06-26-2008, 05:29 PM

from what i know fragging arcos is just breaking them off

omard · 06-26-2008, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluePhish

im paranoid that im also on my way to nuclear winter, thinking about selling all my softies or all my lps,

. i dont know if i could do it. how would you choose.

Frogspawn does great in my softie crowed tank... chemical warfare goin on does not bother them in the least...

Kenya Trees, leathers, mushrooms, zoa's seem to battle between themselves for space...

Kenya trees seem most sensitive to it, and they serve as a great indicator that a water change is due.

Tangster · 06-26-2008, 07:29 PM

If you just get a carbon reactor set up and use a good grade of carbon that will do the trick more then water changes will . Someone mentioned chem pure its a good product but its not as efficient as a good carbon to remove toxins like these skimmers do little also. 1 cup carbon per 50 gallons when soft corals are kept and change it out every 4 weeks . This what I do for all the water in our soft coral systems.

antonym518 · 06-26-2008, 08:46 PM

So chemi pure does do it as well, what kind of carbon does everyone use? I have 2.5 units. on like 65 gals of water. twice what I need. I am also running this mechanical media stuff that removes toxins. My frogspawn never looks bad, weird. No one else did either on the softies side. It was the hard coral. Its easy for me to decide because I will be moving in a year. I will move to a sps dominated tank once I have more experience and more money. Oh and when I won;t ever move again, buy a house.