kryptonite candycane/trump coral bugs?

[MGolder]

Hey everyone!

My candy cane coral has slowly been dying over the past few months and I have not yet been able to identify the problem through monitoring parametersor research. I dipped it in coral RX twice. It would initially look aweful, seem to bounce back, and then slowly get worse again. Today I noticed that is has small white specks moving around on the truck. I am guessing they are some sort of pest. The specks/pests are about the size of a pin head and I cannot make out any shape or identifying markings. Also, I cannot find any info online. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas what the pests were or hot to treat them.

Thanks everyone!!

 

[cablez]

Looks like brown jelly disease to me my man...and the pin head bugs sound like copepods to me. helpful beings in the tank, scavangers and if your piece has brown jelly, they will 100% clean the dead rotting flesh around the head. Now for brown jelly there has been some good information out there, look into peroxide, look into witch hazel <-this worked for me with brown jelly on a torch coral. And chemiclean I heard also.......anecdotal on the chemiclean

 

[Matt Kiely]

Posting ur tanks parameters would help aswell as ur husbandry and maintenance schedule

 

[elaminator]

MGolder - I have plenty of trumpets. You can have a few heads, PM me if you ever head down my way.

 

[MGolder]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

My parameters are:
Nitrite fluctuates between 0 and 0.02ppm
Nitrate: 2 ppm
NH4: <0.0191 mg/l
KH: 8

I broke one of my cuvetts so I haven't been able to test phosphate in a few weeks.

 

[MGolder]

Looks like brown jelly disease to me my man...and the pin head bugs sound like copepods to me. helpful beings in the tank, scavangers and if your piece has brown jelly, they will 100% clean the dead rotting flesh around the head. Now for brown jelly there has been some good information out there, look into peroxide, look into witch hazel <-this worked for me with brown jelly on a torch coral. And chemiclean I heard also.......anecdotal on the chemiclean

Thanks for the help! Wil look into the brown jelly.

 

[MGolder]

MGolder - I have plenty of trumpets. You can have a few heads, PM me if you ever head down my way.

Thank you!! That is so kind! I have to get a tennis racket strung near you in then next week or so. I would love to stop by. I'll definitely pm you.

 

[MGolder]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

My parameters are:
Nitrite fluctuates between 0 and 0.02ppm
Nitrate: 2 ppm
NH4: <0.0191 mg/l
KH: 8

I broke one of my cuvetts so I haven't been able to test phosphate in a few weeks.

Completely forgot the maintenance schedule. The tank is a 20 innovative Marine with approximately 16 gallons of water in it. I change 4.5 gallons of water every week or every other week. When I do water changes I change all of the filter floss. Not currently running any chemical filtration and no skimmer.

 

[cablez]

Ok ur nitrate is a bit low, and likely ur phosphate, I would increase spot feeding corals, you change alot of water bi weekly, change it to maybe 2 gallons weekly, I have a smaller system myself, and this is how I do it. 5 gallons on a 16 gallon-ish system after water displacement is really alot of change hella fast. It sounds like me, you have a fear of overloading system, but trust me, you need to increase them nutrients, or else the corals starve

 

[MGolder]

Ok ur nitrate is a bit low, and likely ur phosphate, I would increase spot feeding corals, you change alot of water bi weekly, change it to maybe 2 gallons weekly, I have a smaller system myself, and this is how I do it. 5 gallons on a 16 gallon-ish system after water displacement is really alot of change hella fast. It sounds like me, you have a fear of overloading system, but trust me, you need to increase them nutrients, or else the corals starve

Thanks for the help! I have been increasing feeding recently to try and get the nitrates up. Right now I am spot feeding the corals twice a week. Should I increase that? Or increase the amount per feeding. Right now I am just going with the recommended amount. Also, the thinking behind the water changes is more to replace elements and keep kh stable. I am assuming you are saying that 2 gallons will still be enough to do this?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[cablez]

I have a 34 gallon system with about 40 heads of LPS and my alk stays 8.8 with just water changes, I also have montipora. if you dont have a huge bio load your trace element uptake is gonna be minimal

 

[MGolder]

I have a 34 gallon system with about 40 heads of LPS and my alk stays 8.8 with just water changes, I also have montipora. if you dont have a huge bio load your trace element uptake is gonna be minimal

Thanks! I'll try increasing feeding and going to smaller water changes.

 

[cablez]

LPS like a "dirtier" tank.......this is what I found.....somewhere around 10-20ppm nitrates makes them color up well, and I keep my phos over .003 and as under .009 as I can....I dont use GFO or anything generally water changes, filter sock cleaning does the trick for me