Resolved Something killing SPS! (Pic!)

So, something seems to be killing 2 of my millipora AND my neon birdsnest! I have NO idea what is going on... everything was perfectly fine yesterday! Then this morning I noticed these white fluffy looking things. It kind of seems like they are rotting away then leaving the dead skeleton behind. But it doesn't look like recession to me. But the thing is that the over all coral seems fine! No color loss, polyp extension is good... looks normal and not upset other than these dying branches. That goes for my neon birdsnest and my other mille too. The mille in the pic has its polyps retracted because I was rubbing to see if this fluffy stuff comes off and it does but comes back. You think I should try and frag off the dead/dying tips to see if that stops whatever is happening? My tank is a good year and a half old, all parameters are perfect for an SPS dominated reef. All other sps and lps in the tank seem fine! At first I thought maybe my torch coral stung the pink mille pictured but the exact thing is happening to my other mille on the other side of the tank, and my birdsnest in the middle of the tank. What does this look like to you? And is seems t be happening at a good rate because last night everything was fine! Sorry for the pic, its the best I could do with my camera.

 

Definitely try fragging the affected corals. Make sure you cut well back into the healthy tissue and do an iodine dip to help clean and heal the frags.

Not sure what the offending organism could be.

Please list your parameters we might see something in them that could help.

What is the flow in the area of the corals like?

How do you dose and where?

 

I just lost 2 mini colonies this past week...same "symptoms". I attributed my losses to my doser malfunction a few days prior.

Tissue receded at the tips, like Alk burn, but then STN from the tips down...weird. All other SPS colonies are fine. No ill effects.

 

That looks like burnt tips to me as well. What's your Alk level?

 

ya looks like your alkalinity is having issues

 

Ill jump on the band wagon here and agree with the burnt tips...

 

It's not burnt tips. My alk is fine. I actually haven't needed to dose Alk, Mag or Cal for the past couple weeks! I changed my water sorce from an RO/DI fill yourself $2/5gal machine to RO/DI water from my LFS. It must be good water or they dose their RO/DI water because my alk,mag and cal stay perfect and stable. If it were true burn wouldn't it affect all or at least most of my sps? 3 sps out of the 15+4 small frags on a frag rack doesn't really give me enough reason to believe it's burn. If it was a burn, then why is there white fuzz around the effected area? I've never seen alk burn do that. Like, I'm kind of worried but at the same time I'm not because other than those 3 being affected (which are only small areas at the moment) EVERYTHING else is fine! I did frag away and remove the affected areas from the tank and even changed the flow to those areas to a bit stronger, because they were in a lower flow than sps typically like... maybe that will help. So far, the corals look perfectly fine after the fragging. No signs of the "fuzzy stuff" so far, good color and full polyp extension. All the fish are acting completely normal and healthy aswell.

 

Alk might only effect certain corals...you know, "all fish are different...". So are corals. You say your Alk is fine, what is 'fine'? I find it really hard to believe that a LFS would dose anything...as they generally try to skimp out on extra costs.

 

+1 agree

 

I fragged the effected tips away. Everything is fine now. I still don't think it was a burn of any kind. It would be affecting other branches of that same coral, and fragging the branch away wouldn't have fixed the problem. Thanks anyway guys