Euphyllia problems  9/24/05
Dear Mr. Fenner,
<Marcelo>
One month ago I started to have problems with all my almost all my Euphyllia
genera corals.  One by one all of them started to have some kind of disease.
Telling the truth I don't know if it's a disease, nutritional problem or some
fish picking at corals.  Some of them are with me for almost two years and was doing fine until last month!
I also have a problem with a fan that dropped in the aquarium and release some
cooper in water and make me do a 150% water change.
<Yikes, trouble!>
But it was 8 month ago
(I lost some corals and a derasa clam one week before the stupid accident).
I think I can now recognize the symptoms: the mouths are opened more than usual
with some "gaping", sometimes the mesenterial tissue (spaghetti like white mass)
are saw on the outside and the coral (or the branch) do not open as it used to.
After some days the tissue starts to tear up, like a laceration, until it drops out the
skeleton, but it stays alive for a week ore more (laying on substrate like a ring with
semi-inflated polyps and  with the same spaghetti like (mesenterial filaments?) tissue
underneath. Does it looks familiar to you?
<Mmm, yes... environmental... a deficiency syndrome... need to know, check your water quality, switch out/replace some of your live rock (10-20%)...>
First was my "Salomon hammer" (electric green with pink tips), after that
my metallic
green hammer (E. ancora), after that my brown branch hammer. Now my green
frogspawn
(E. divisa) and my torch (E. glabrescens) started with the same problem.
Some of these corals are with me for
All other stony corals (Caulastrea, Plerogyra sinuosa,
Physogyra lichtensteini and an open brain) and
more than 20 Acroporas are fine, as my softs (mushs, polyps and 5 leathers).
My fish list is Siganus doliatus, YT, Zebrasoma desjardinii, Genicanthus melanospilos, Regal angel (1 year
and a good citizen until now except for open brains, Scolymia and meat corals he/she can reach), 2 Firefishes
a mandarin, a pair os ocellaris clowns  and a  watchman goby.
Please, feel free to ask any other information you want!
Best regards,
Marcelo Gomes
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
PS: Sorry for my english, it's not my native language!
<I understand you... and this is fine. Do add a unit of Polyfilter (to check for metal contamination by color) or activated carbon if you can't get the Polyfilter. And do look into your calcium, magnesium, alkalinity... Do you use natural seawater? How is this processed before use? Do exchange or add more LR... This is neither a pathogenic disease nor a problem with predation by your listed livestock... but something deficient in your water quality. Bob Fenner>

Re: Euphyllia problems  9/25/05
Mr. Fenner,
<Marcelo>
Thank you VERY, VERY MUCH!  I forgot to mention that I'm a HUGE fan of
WetWebMedia and your work. Now I'm "in shock" with your fast response to
my question too. It's my first contact and I'm really amazed.
Back to the problem.  I forgot to mention that I'm having some problems with alkalinity
in the last two months.  It dropped to 5.5 dKh (~2 mEq/L)  and I'm having some "imbalance"
with Ca and Alk.  I was only using Kalkwasser (PA CaOH2) as my Ca and Alk supplement
<... I would switch to a two-part supplementation program>
but the Alk started to become very low, but the Ca level was OK.  I read all the articles I
can get my eyes on and found some very good info in an Randy Holmes Farley article.
<He is a very knowledgeable person re water chemistry and able relater of what is known>
Resuming the history I started to use a home made buffer (1 part of sodium carbonate and
5 parts of sodium bicarbonate) to keep my alkalinity. I don't know if he sodium imbalance could be a problem,
<Mmm, a consideration, but not likely important here... yet>
but I don't think so. Now I'm working on a Ca reactor.
I use tap water  to do my Kalkwasser from the start of the tank and it could be problem
but until now I don't find any problem.
I'll try to take some pics of the "lacerated polyps" tomorrow with my
fiancé digital camera. Please, check my answers below:
<Okay>
WWM FAQ Crew wrote:
>Euphyllia problems
>Dear Mr. Fenner,
><Marcelo>
>One month ago I started to have problems with all my almost all my Euphyllia
>genera corals.  One by one all of them started to have some kind of disease.
>Telling the truth I don't know if it's a disease, nutritional problem or some
>fish picking at corals.  Some of them are with me for almost two years and was doing fine until last month!
>I also have a problem with a fan that dropped in the aquarium and
>release some
>cooper in water and make me do a 150% water change.
><Yikes, trouble!>
Stupid accident, stupid aquarist (me). I am an complete idiot!  It was obvious the fan will drop in water.
The worst part is that it dropped inside the aquarium running and the short circuit dissolved some of
the cooper  wires and the veneer that covers it (later someone told me
that this veneer usually have arsenic and other very harmful substances).
<Que hombre! Sorry, my Portuguese is even more limited>
When i saw the fan in water i think I'll  lost all the aquarium.
> But it was 8 month ago
>(I lost some corals and a derasa clam one week before the stupid accident).
>I think I can now recognize the symptoms: the mouths are opened more than usual
>with some "gaping", sometimes the mesenterial tissue (spaghetti like white mass)
>are saw on the outside and the coral (or the branch) do not open as it used to.
>After some days the tissue starts to tear up, like a laceration, until it drops out the
>skeleton, but it stays alive for a week ore more (laying on substrate like a ring with
>semi-inflated polyps and  with the same spaghetti like (mesenterial filaments?) tissue
>underneath. Does it looks familiar to you?
><Mmm, yes... environmental... a deficiency syndrome... need to know, check your water quality, switch out/replace some of your live rock (10-20%)...>
I initially think the same because only the "Euphyllias" are affected! All
other corals are growing well and looking fine!
My water quality looks fine. I tested the usual parameters last week:
18/09/2005
density 1024
pH    8.2              Alcon
NH3 0.0 ppm    Alcon
NO2 0,0 ppm    Alcon
NO3 5,0mg/L    Hagen
Dureza   7.0 dKH    Alcon
Dureza   120 mg/L    Hagen ( 6,72 dH /  2,4 mEq/L)
Ca      440 mg/L    Hagen
Po4    0,0  ppm    RedSea
>First was my "Salomon hammer" (electric green with pink tips), after that
>my metallic
>green hammer (E. ancora), after that my brown branch hammer. Now my green
>frogspawn
>(E. divisa) and my torch (E. glabrescens) started with the same problem.
>Some of these corals are with me for
>All other stony corals (Caulastrea, Plerogyra sinuosa,
>Physogyra lichtensteini and an open brain) and
>more than 20 Acroporas are fine, as my softs (mushs, polyps and 5
>leathers).
>My fish list is Siganus doliatus, YT, Zebrasoma desjardinii, Genicanthus
>melanospilos, Regal angel (1 year
>and a good citizen until now except for open brains, Scolymia and meat
>corals he/she can reach), 2 Firefishes
>a mandarin, a pair os ocellaris clowns  and a  watchman goby.
>Please, feel free to ask any other information you want!
>Best regards,
>Marcelo Gomes
>Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
>PS: Sorry for my english, it's not my native language!
><I understand you... and this is fine. Do add a unit of Polyfilter (to check for metal contamination by color) or activated carbon if you can't get the Polyfilter. And do look into
I can't find a Polyfilter in Brazil. I looked for it when i had the fan accident a lot!
<An opportunity for someone to import...>
I never used activated carbon, but after the fan accident i put ~500g and forget it in the sump. Last week
i removed the old carbon and put a handful of new activated carbon. (my aquarium have 240Gallons).
<Good>
>your calcium, magnesium, alkalinity... Do you use natural seawater? How is this processed before use? Do exchange or add more LR... This is neither a pathogenic disease nor a problem with predation by your listed livestock... but something deficient in your water quality. Bob Fenner>
I don't have (and can't find in Brazil) a magnesium test.  I always use natural seawater, it is collected in an beach
near my house pumped from the soil (beach sand) It's filtered by the sand and don't have organisms/plankton, etc.
Several aquarists in my city use the same water, without problems. The beach is oceanic, almost desert and have some of the best water quality in Rio.
You remembered me a very important thing! I did a large water change (~86 L or 10% of tank volume) some days
before the problem started. I also did a small (45L or 5%) water change in May with the same water but from a
different recipient. The water was collected in march and are armazenated in plastic gallons.
No LR changed or added in more than an year.
<I would switch some out>
One interesting thing is that the "Salomon hammer" remained with some of the base of the polyps tissue and it started to form
what looks like a mini polyp now. It's very little tissue but it didn't died.
<This is likely a response to adverse conditions... the animal/colony is reproducing in the event of death>
I'm thinking in put the corals in a fellows aquarium until I can discover something.
Thank you very much again!
Best Regards,
Marcelo
<Bob Fenner>
 

Bubble coral problems 9/2/05
Hello,  I've been an avid reader of your site for almost as long as I've been in the saltwater fish world (it took me a while to find your site!) and it's been a world of help - and now I need your help again. <Glad to hear!>
I've had a good sized (about 4 inches in diameter shriveled) piece of bubble coral.  Over the past two months or so, it has spent most of its time 'shriveled' up, and the tissue has started receding and more and more of the skeleton is becoming bare.  When I got it the 'stem' was almost half covered with tissue, now, there's no more tissue on the stalk at all - just the top.  Sometime the coral will be fully expanded for a whole day, and then boom, shrinkage city for another four days.  I have a candy coral that's doing great, as well as a red bubble tip anemone int he tank that's thriving.  Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are at 0.  My ph is 8.0 and my Ca is 420...  Any ideas on why my poor coral is slowly dieing?  Please help! -Pauli <A few things come to mind.  First... if you have a lot of mushroom anemones or large soft corals, they may be producing a lot of defensive chemicals.  Second, you did not mention alkalinity.  Alkalinity is just as important as calcium, but often neglected.  Lastly, nipping fish. Dwarf angels, blennies and even some tangs can be culprits here.  Hope this helps.  Best Regards.  AdamC.>

Battling corals 1/11/05
I have searched and posted on the forum for this, got no answers.
<OK>
My tank-
90 gal, 135 lbs LR, 2 x 250 HQI Ushio 10K halides + 1 96 watt 50/50/PC,  G-2x skimmer, 2000 gph closed loop( adding an additional 1800 gph pump with SCWD soon),  77.5 F, 1.024 SG, 0 Amm, 0 trite and trate, 9 alk, 375  calcium.
<all fine>
My branching torch coral is placed about 5 inches off the bottom, got it 2  months ago.  1 month ago, I noticed one tentacle was extremely bloated, and  I found another tonight.  It has been doing OK since I got it, but has  never been as extended as it was in the display tank at the LFS.  All my  other SPS, LPS, encrusting, and plate corals are doing very well.  What is causing this?  
<the sensation of competitive species of coral in the tank. It can be tempered by more aggressive chemical filtration (Chemi-pure or Poly-filters) and/or ozone use... all good>
Also- is there any known amount of calcium in a 2 teaspoon to 1 gallon Kalk  solution?  
<do check the reef chemistry forum at reefcentral.com... lots of good info on types of Kalk there in Randy's archived answers and directs to articles>
I have 2 new SPS placed high, is it safe to assume that if the  
polyps are fully extended (they are), that they are content?
<not an indicator... only one of water flow, not "happiness">
Sorry to add the last 2 questions, but they have been bugging me-:)
Thank you so much for your time, it is appreciated! James
<you've described a wicked assortment of unnatural tankmates my friend... please do consider being a little more focused with species selection by family or biotope for starters and you will enjoy better long term success. Else, the escalating levels of chemical warfare/allelopathy will be a source of continued frustration for you in the future. With kind regards, Anthony>

Elegance issues
Hi Crew
I have had an elegance coral for about 6 months now. everything has been great with it until recently. We have had 3 hurricanes in may area and the last 2 have caused power outages. I had a generator going but it was only enough to run the pumps on my 90 reef and 200 FOWLR, and run the lights some. I didn't run the chiller and to my dismay the temp in the 90 reef went to 85 The power was out for 2 days. a week after the power was restored I noticed in the center branch of the 3 branch elegance some of its tentacles missing, like they had been eaten? I then noticed the same on the left branch. The left branch has regenerated its tentacles but the center has deteriorated. much of the flesh has receded and exposed the skeleton. the tissue left looks fine and healthy, but there seems to be more exposed skeleton every day. the other branches seem healthy. what should I do??
>>I would do nothing other than your regular routine. Anything different will stress the coral more and it sounds like the damage is done, so best leave it alone to heal.
Also, I am not aware of a branching elegance - perhaps what you have is actually a hammer or a torch or a frogspawn.
Rich>>

Re: elegance issues
> Hi Crew
> I have had an elegance coral for about 6 months now. everything has been
> great with it until recently. We have had 3 hurricanes in may area and the
> last 2 have caused power outages. I had a generator going but it was only
> enough to run the pumps on my 90 reef and 200 FOWLR, and run the lights
> some. I didn't run the chiller and to my dismay the temp in the 90 reef
> went to 85 The power was out for n2 days. a week after the power was
> restored I noticed in the center branch of the 3 branch elegance some of
> its tentacles missing, like they had been eaten? I then noticed the same
> on the left branch. The left branch has regenerated its tentacles but the
> center has deteriorated. much of the flesh has receded and exposed the
> skeleton. the tissue left looks fine and healthy, but there seems to be
> more exposed skeleton every day. the other branches seem healthy. what
> should I do??
>>>I would do nothing other than your regular routine. Anything different
>>>will stress the coral more and it sounds like the damage is done, so best
>>>leave it alone to heal.
> Also, I am not aware of a branching elegance - perhaps what you have is
> actually a hammer or a torch or a frogspawn.
> Rich>>
it's an elegance. it is slowly dying I'm afraid. its recession is continuing.
what a shame. it was so beautiful for the 6 months I had it. I'm sure it was
the power disruption that began its decline
>>Bummer. Let us know if it turns around.
Rich>>

Treating a sick torch coral
Hi, crew.  Back again with a question.  I have a torch coral that suddenly went from looking happy and lush to having 3 of its branches covered in nothing but that brown jelly I have seen described on your site. << Frustrating thing to have happen. >>  
Based on a search of similar problems on the WWM site, I moved the torch to a QT tank, and am on my way to buy Lugol's solution and give some dips a try.  My question is, how long of a process is this? << Wow, risky.  I'd say it is only takes a couple days in a hospital tank to make or break the coral. >> Any special instructions?  When do you know if the coral has turned a corner and/or should be returned to the tank? << You never know, but I think lighting is so important that I'd move it back after one day. >> And what would cause such a sudden event?  It's not a new coral, nor have I added anything to the tank in several months.  I need to know if I'm doing something wrong or what things to investigate. << I'd check water quality of course, as well as water motion and the health of all other corals. >>
Thanks, as always.  Will let you know either way what happens.
Laura
<<  Blundell  >>

Treating a sick torch coral continued
Hi.  Thanks for getting back to me.  I'm a little confused by the answer,
though. What is it you're referring to as "risky?"  According to the site,
you should remove the brown jelly infected corals from the tank immediately
because they're infectious to other corals. << I usually don't remove any corals, but if they are infected then I guess you should.  I think most corals that we lose aren't really infected, just poorly cared for.  In other words if I saw an ailing coral in a friends tank, I could put it in my tank and often times nurse it back to good health. >> And the Lugol's dip appeared to
be what was recommended.   (I wasn't able to find it locally so it didn't
happen anyway, but I did a quick fresh water dip.) << Lugol's is great stuff, but very potent.  I'd be very careful using it. >>  We have good lighting in
the QT tank, or is the comment about lighting just that it would be
different from the lighting in the main tank? << My concern was that you may have a 10 gal QT tank sitting there, without any lights, or with just some cheap normal output fixture on it.  If it well lit then that is great.  Most people don't have QT tanks, and those who do often have very simple systems. >> We're trying to do the right
thing here.  We've lost corals before and are determined, now that we have a
QT tank set up, to do whatever is needed to help this guy. << Well if he is dieing, then you really having nothing to lose by trying the QT methods.  So go for it, and write back letting us know how it goes. >>
Thanks.
Laura
<<  Blundell  >>

Bubble Coral color 9/9/03
I have a bubble coral that had a 1/2 exposed skeleton when I bought it.  I have been feeding my coral 1/4'" pieces of shrimp.  For a while after feeding the coral was growing and looking great.  
<excellent and as it should be. Kudos>
It is now starting to get a red tint and some bubbles stay small and week looking.  I also add BioPlankton every other day.  Is this anything to worry about and if so do you know what I can do to help the coral. Thank you, David
<no worries... the pigment does not sound at all problematic. Variation is quite common Plerogyra... blue and green individuals too. A function of light quality and feeding/foods. Keep feeding well and regularly and all will be fine. Best regards, Anthony>

Bubble in LPS coral tissue 7/15/03
Hi all, just a brief question. My candy cane coral has formed a bubble on one of the polyps. Any idea what this means or why this happened?
<It is never a good sign when they appear, but it is not often/always fatal either. The least worrisome explanation is that a polyp ball is forming for polyp bailout due to another coral stinging it or simply being placed too close. A bigger concern is if they coral is suffering light shock from being new and placed too bright or too shallow without proper acclimation... or... if it is established, but the tank has seen a sudden increase in light (fresh carbon, large water changes, cleaning dirty lamps or lenses/canopies, new bulbs, etc)>
Other than this it seems to be doing ok. Tentacles extend at night.. has multiplied nicely over the year. Thanks Angelo
<no worries... but do watch closely and try to determine the cause to prevent reoccurrence. Anthony>

Bubble Coral 
Hi There, 
<Hey! Scott F. with you today!> 
I have an x-large bubble coral. It has white spots on the bubbles. It is not opening up the way it did before. I wasn't feeding it formula one until recently. It started opening up better after I started feeding it but wasn't sure if it got weak and fell ill because of malnutrition. Are there any antibiotics that might help if it is a fungus? I don't know which ones might help............ Chet 
<Well, Chet - lots of possibilities here. I don't like the idea of medicating unless you know exactly what your working with. This may not even be a disease. If you suspect that it is- and, if you deem it appropriate, you could employ a dip in saltwater with Lugol's solution (iodine in potassium iodide) may be effective, but it can be dangerous if the coral is left in too long. The recommended concentration is usually 5-10 drops of 10% solution per liter of water, and the coral can be left in for about 10 minutes. Again-if you go this route- watch the coral carefully. This is not a panacea, but it can be effective at reducing some pathogenic microorganisms. Alternatively, you could use a freshwater dip, with similar cautions. All in all, I'd recommend watching the coral carefully for a while before embarking on a course of treatment that could be more problematic than effective! Good luck! Regards, Scott F>

Brown Jelly and Hawkfish 7/28/05
Hello,
<Hello, Mike G with you tonight.>
How are today?  
<Good. Big storm's coming this way. Doing my part to answer a few queries before the power goes out.>
Well, I have two quick questions today. First, I have a torch with about twelve heads on it, and one is closed up and a brown mucus is forming on it.  
<Yikes. It's called "Brown Jelly." Brown Jelly is a bacterial infestation of many species that often takes the lives of its victims. To halt it, you could try first gently siphoning as much of the "jelly" as you possibly can. Next, remove the coral from its tank and treat it with an Iodine solution. Lugol's Solution is said to work in this instance. Return the coral to the main tank. Keep your water quality up, a water change could not hurt at this point. Repeat if necessary.>
I have never seen this before, and wondered what to do?  
<See above.>
Second, is it aggravating for corals if a hawk fish sits on them frequently?  
<Yes.>
Thanks for the help.
<You're very welcome. Good luck with the jelly. Mike G>

Bubble coral 7/27/05
Hello all,
<Justina>
Just a quick question about my bubble coral. I have a 40 gallon tank which I
relocated two weeks ago, everything has been looking great until today I
noticed a piece of the bubble coral has either detached itself from the base
or has grown out and is hanging "in the wind" - should I be alarmed?
<Mmm, not necessarily. Are other organisms fine? This sort of "breaking off" behavior is one clever means of distribution in space and time (i.e. reproduction)>
My ph
8.2, temp 79.9, calcium was low several days ago however I did a 40% water
change and it is  currently at 320.
<A bit low, but not likely a problem. Please take the read re the family, Caryophyllidae... on WWM: http://wetwebmedia.com/caryophyllids.htm
and the linked files above...
Bob Fenner>
Thanks all
Justina

Fading Frogspawn 7/15/05
Hello all. I just recently purchased a frog spawn coral from my local fish store. It's pretty small with only 2 branches coming off. I've had it for about a week now. Everything looked good until last night. I noticed that one of the branches closed up totally the other is still open and looks great. Today when i came home it looked even worse it looks like it's melted or something. This is the first time I've ever had one of these so I'm not sure what's going on. It looked good at the store and looked even better in my tank. I have MH lighting and the levels are all great (just tested to make sure) the other 2 corals are doing fine and I've had them for a while. Can you please help me? I really don't want it to die.
<... At times like this, it is often suggested to break/frag the remaining healthy part of the phaceloid skeleton... and toss the bad. Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/carydisfaqs.htm
and the linked files above... till you understand. Bob Fenner>

Frogspawn coral health... much worse... crowded, mis-stocked, poorly filtered, too-small system
thanks for the comfort on my xenia.. It's doing great
now it was just adjusting itself i guess.
Now I Have a real problem. I bought a frogspawn about
1 wk ago it had 3 heads (maybe two heads an one that
was on the verge of being it's own branch). I bought
it from Liveaquaria.com which is a very respectable
company great reviews. It was supposed to be a green
one but when i got it it was brown with a green hue and
white tips. with in 2 or three days one of the head
suddenly shriveled up and died with the brown mucus
stuff and everything. I cleaned off the dead parts
<Mmm, a note... sometimes better to break off the dead parts... or alternatively the live parts and toss the other>
and
hoped the other two heads wouldn't get affected. I
also lowered the frogspawn to the bottom of the tanks
thinking the light was burning it. during the same day
the other head that was slightly connected died
as well.. I cleaned both heads off completely so that
there wouldn't be an ammonia spike and did a water
change. the third head never fully came out so today i
moved him in an even shadier spot
<... not a good idea to keep moving stony corals (or other cnidarians for that matter)>
so he most
definitely isn't going to be burned. I have on ly one
other LPS which is a bubble coral and it's doing great
all my other corals are softies or SPS.
<... these may not be (easily) mix-able>
I have had one
other LPS ( a Hammer) it also died with similar
symptoms
<Very similar biology to the Frogspawn...>
but i attributed it to being stung by a rose
BTA.
<... this is in the same system?>
the anemone is far from the frogspawn so there is
no way it could have stung it.
<Not really... please read on WWM...>
here is a little
background on my tanks it's a 16 curved front tank
<?>
with 175 MH 20K and 36w PC they are placed about 20
inches from the tanks in a 24 inch canopy there my
temperature stays at 80degrees and i have a protein
skimmer Lees
<Piece of junk>
big enough  for a 40 gallon tank.
<No...>
I also
have a Bak pak filtration system for a 50 gallon
tank. (adds about 2 more gallons )  in the tank I have
a bubble coral, green hairy mushroom, Montipora
Capricorn (orange), bird's nest, Crocea clam, xenia,
greenstar polyps and some Zoanthids. I have 3 Hawaiian
feather dusters, and a flame scallop. 2 clownfish
with a Rose BTA , 1 mandarin and 1 tiny (half-dollar
sized) regal tang... Everything is doing great except
the frogspawn. I'm at a loss.
<And soon to be more, in the way of livestock. What you have is an aquatic time-bomb... The mix, jamming of the listed species (I take it you're not joking here) is incompatible, the filtration gear feeble and the tank way too small... My advice? Keep doing water changes, get/use a quarantine system for all new livestock, buy none of the above, READ on WWM, other sites re the life history, husbandry of the species you list... You need to do some investigating, soul-searching before "just buying" this and that because you think it's neat, can afford it... Would like to help you, but only you can educate yourself, make reasonable choices. What you have currently is... a mess. Bob Fenner>

Euphyllia Health
Hello. <Hello Mark>
I have 75 gallon established reef tank, water parameters just fine
except for nitrates about 10-15 ppm, which I'm not losing much sleep
over.
Two to three weeks ago I bought a torch coral and what was supposed to
be a hammerhead coral (its a close relative, anyway), and large areas
have closed up and died within the last couple days. They had been
doing great. There are only two things I can think of:
1) lack of invert specific food, although that wouldn't' account for the
partial die off (I think) and in any case I feed every 3 days with a
mixture of Selcon soaked flake food and newly hatched brine shrimp.
<No need to feed that often, healthy corals produce most of their own food.>
2) I add 2-3 gallons of RO water the day before the corals closed up. I
poured the water directly into the tank in a high current area. I've
never had any trouble with this before. Would a brief exposure to
hyposaline water (at 75 degrees vs. the 83 degrees in the tank) kill
Euphyllia type coral? <Shouldn't.  May be your lighting. You don't state lighting being used. James (Salty Dog)>
Thanks very much. I appreciate your help over the years.
Mark

Demise of Euphyllia
Hello.
I have 360 watts of power compacts, 1/2 10,000K and 1/2 actinic. I
should probably add that I have a plate coral, a hundred mushrooms, and
a pearl coral, all of which are growing and otherwise doing fine. I
went from 130 to 360 watts, over a week, about two months ago; no
apparent ill affects that I can see.
Also, the brine shrimp and Selcon soaked flakes are also for the fish:
four clowns, and a few tangs, who eat most of it, of course.
The current also seems to be around right: enough to move the polyps
around, but not enough to knock them flat, so to speak.
I'm wondering if disease would be the reason, but it seems strange that
it would affect both corals at exactly the same time and not bother the
pearl coral, for instance, at all. <It's also quite possible that the coral was handled improperly.  Not necessarily by you, but somewhere up the line.  The tissue is very sensitive and if a hand/finger presses the tissue against the skeleton, damage to the coral could take place.  I'll ask Anthony to take a look at this.  James (Salty Dog)>
Mark

Re: demise of Euphyllia
Hi James.
Well, almost all the polyps died last night, so there's no rush about
consulting Anthony. I do have one question that would be of general
interest, though. Its quite possible I handled these corals too roughly
(accidentally, of course), but in the three weeks I had them, they
opened beautifully. If one damages the tissue, how long might it take
for the coral to die or otherwise show symptoms of the damage? It seems
like two weeks would be a long time. Also, any tissue I did touch would
have been around the edges, and as I've said, both corals died last
night, even the parts which were still fully opened yesterday.
Thanks very much, <You're welcome Mark.  I see the message is not in the draft folder here so either Anthony or Marina must have sent out my reply with any input from them.  James (Salty Dog)>
Mark

Battling Brown Jelly
Hello,
<Hey, Mike G with you this afternoon.>
I have a frogspawn frag, and in about a 24 hour span it has closed up completely. This is very unusual for this coral. As of this morning, the coral looks ragged, and has what appears to be a hunk of brownish dead tissue hanging from it.
<Ouch.>
Is this the dreaded brown jelly disease?
<Sounds like it.>
What is my best option for treating it? Thank you.
<Brown jelly is a pretty vicious disease, and takes many corals as its victims. To halt it, you could try first gently siphoning as much of the "jelly" as you possibly can. Next, remove the coral from its tank and treat it with an Iodine solution. Lugol's Solution is said to work in this instance. Return the coral to the main tank. Keep your water quality up, a water change could not hurt at this point. Repeat if necessary. Hope this helps.>

Frogspawn Coral w/Brown Jelly?
While I awaited your response, the condition only seemed to worsen. So I went ahead and did a freshwater dip and siphoned/pulled some of the brown mess away. 
<A freshwater dip for coral is not a good idea Eric.> 
It was definitely dead tissue as it smelled quite bad. Now almost a day removed, there seems to be no more of the jelly, however one polyp is down to the white skeleton, while the other large head doesn't seem as bad. The really new/small polyps seem unharmed. Now to my question (sorry for the length). Do you think that my other corals are safe at this point or should I take further action. Other corals include a torch, xenia, star polyps, button polyps. Thank you for all of your help. 
<The others should be safe as long as they are healthy. I'm thinking about your flow rate...do you have at least 10x total water flow in your system? We want our corals to be constantly bathed/washed if you will. James (Salty Dog)>

Hammerhead coral
Hello -  I am having a couple of problems. First my branching hammerhead coral has slowly been receding.  I have had it for about 3 years, started it out w/ just four 4' fluoro tubes and it did great, opened huge, etc.  I upgraded to pc's (6 - 55w), but I mostly just run 4 - 55w (55g tank) and it was OK. But for some reason, possibly due to moving the tank or others, it has slowly been shrinking away -- seems I have already lost about 2 heads. Also, my mushroom corals don't seem to open as much either. All the way around my coral health has slowly gone downhill, and I have only made improvements to the tank,  refugium, RO water (I never used RO water before). Any ideas how to get the corals to open back? Calcium is at OK levels etc.  Also I have a big problem right now w/ bubble algae -- what should I do? All I have been doing is pulling rock out scraping it off and rinsing and putting back in. Any other thoughts etc...? 
<Brad, you should be adding some strontium and iodide in your system and feed the corals with DT's phytoplankton or Cyclop-Eeze. The corals do manufacture most of their own food but do require some supplemental feedings to thrive for any length of time. As to the dreaded bubble algae you need to keep nitrates/phosphates down. The emerald crab is known and used to munch down bubble algae. James (Salty Dog)>