Can Scraping coraline algae harm corals?

[jacko]

I scraped a large amount of coraline today. I let it all fall behind the rocks, the pumps were off during the operation, and for a while afterwords for cleaning. Within 15 minutes, all LPS withdrew into their skeleton and slimed like crazy, and all digitata and orange cap bleached. in a 30 gallon tank.

Has anyone else had problems with coraline?

 

[KAS2]

The coralline itself should do nothing but contribute to the rubble on the tank bottom. Without knowing details, I would wonder:

Were your hands clean before you started tank maintenance? (oils, detergents, fragrances)

During cleaning, did you rip out any organisms that spilled their guts? Volonia and xenia do that for me, sometimes with a small cloud of stuff, but never with any bad effects.

Again, there's no reason to suspect the coralline.

 

[jacko]

I have been thinking about this one a little more. I might have had vinegar on my hands from washing the pump. I use a lab vinegar stronger than cooking-grade. More potent, so a small amount will change the pH quite a lot. Perhaps a quick rinse of my hands was not enough. damn.

of course having the pumps off meant the vinegar was concentrated in my 'show' tank...but the good news is the 30 gallons in the sump seems to have gotten the pH back on track now.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Jack,

I personally doubt a little acetic on your hands caused any problems. I also have never had any problems with corals negatively reacting to the scraping of coraline, other than corals being slightly irritated with the particulates in the water. Did you say that the corals bleached in 15 minutes!?! I cannot imagine what would cause that.

 

[jacko]

I would not be shocked if the acetic acid did cause the problems. Glacial Acetic is 20 times stronger than household vinegar... so 0.25 to 0.75 mL equates to 5 to 15 mL of household vinegar dumped into a 30 gallon !!

Luckily, I only lost a few small digitata frags. all the LPS have recovered, and acros & clam were not affected at all.

Does anyone have (free or cheap) digitata frags? I lost green, purple, pink, and orange. They were all small frags that I had gotten for free along the way, and that is what I would like for replacement. If so, Please email me.

 

[Greg Hiller]

A pH probe would tell you in a second. Or you could do the calculations!

 

[~Flighty~]

I have orange and I think green. depends on how clumsy I've been recently