Bubble on plana, what's the issue here?
- Thread starter JCRomero
- Start date
We have had a lot of experience with these types of lesions on acropora. This is very closely related to the brown jelly disease that affects LPS and might be the same pathogens.
When we had this popping up on our acros we actually had a veterinarian come to our store and aspirate the "cysts". He identified bacteria and ciliates that closely resembled those found on corals with brown band disease in the wild. After going through our systems he pinpointed the biopellets as being the cause of the infection. These bacteria are able to fix the carbon just like the nitrifying bacteria that we depend on to keep our nitrates in check. The problem is that these are BAD bacteria and they kill our coral.
If you are carbon dosing I would recommend stopping it as soon as possible. If you don't want to stop it you should cut the dosage down significantly. In my opinion, you should never carbon dose if your nitrates are below 5 ppm or your phosphates are below 0.05 ppm. Remember, the good nitrifying bacteria can only grow if there are sufficient amounts of both nitrates and phosphates. If you are missing either one the good bacteria will not grow and this will leave excessive carbon in the aquarium which the bad pathogenic bacteria will use to multiply and infect coral.
As far as dip, most coral dips we use have poor antibacterial properties. They are excellent for larger pests like flat worms but are not sufficient for bacteria. We always use iodine based dips because they are probably the best for killing bacteria. All of our wild coral is dipped in iodine and we always dip new frags and mother colonies in iodine after fragging. I personally like Tropic Marin Pro Coral Dip because I've been using it forever but any Lugol's solution should work.
When we had this popping up on our acros we actually had a veterinarian come to our store and aspirate the "cysts". He identified bacteria and ciliates that closely resembled those found on corals with brown band disease in the wild. After going through our systems he pinpointed the biopellets as being the cause of the infection. These bacteria are able to fix the carbon just like the nitrifying bacteria that we depend on to keep our nitrates in check. The problem is that these are BAD bacteria and they kill our coral.
If you are carbon dosing I would recommend stopping it as soon as possible. If you don't want to stop it you should cut the dosage down significantly. In my opinion, you should never carbon dose if your nitrates are below 5 ppm or your phosphates are below 0.05 ppm. Remember, the good nitrifying bacteria can only grow if there are sufficient amounts of both nitrates and phosphates. If you are missing either one the good bacteria will not grow and this will leave excessive carbon in the aquarium which the bad pathogenic bacteria will use to multiply and infect coral.
As far as dip, most coral dips we use have poor antibacterial properties. They are excellent for larger pests like flat worms but are not sufficient for bacteria. We always use iodine based dips because they are probably the best for killing bacteria. All of our wild coral is dipped in iodine and we always dip new frags and mother colonies in iodine after fragging. I personally like Tropic Marin Pro Coral Dip because I've been using it forever but any Lugol's solution should work.
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Most Lugol's do not have instructions for dipping but I think Kent Lugol's might. I would suggest picking up the Tropic Marin product and I typically use 2-3x their dosage recommendation without trouble. I also vigorously shake the corals in the solution to ensure that the slime/crud is sloughed off the coral.
I actually found Kent's instruction on their website for Lugol's. Since most Lugol's are the same concentration this should work for most products.
"Directions for use as a Coral Dip: In a separate bucket add 40 drops Lugol’s Solution to 1 gallon aquarium water, and immerse coral for 10-15 minutes."
Obviously you shouldn't typically need 1 gallon of dip but I would suggest about 5 drops per cup (double dose). And remember never to add Lugol's directly to your tank. Although many people use it to dose iodine to their tanks and can become toxic if not done carefully.
Also, if you're carbon dosing make sure to stop that as soon as possible. We actually ended up bleaching all of our tanks and live rock to completely eradicate this disease and then recycled everything. This was very extreme but the results were perfect, our tank look better than ever. I personally would not recommend this action for any aquarist, I'm just sharing our experience.
I actually found Kent's instruction on their website for Lugol's. Since most Lugol's are the same concentration this should work for most products.
"Directions for use as a Coral Dip: In a separate bucket add 40 drops Lugol’s Solution to 1 gallon aquarium water, and immerse coral for 10-15 minutes."
Obviously you shouldn't typically need 1 gallon of dip but I would suggest about 5 drops per cup (double dose). And remember never to add Lugol's directly to your tank. Although many people use it to dose iodine to their tanks and can become toxic if not done carefully.
Also, if you're carbon dosing make sure to stop that as soon as possible. We actually ended up bleaching all of our tanks and live rock to completely eradicate this disease and then recycled everything. This was very extreme but the results were perfect, our tank look better than ever. I personally would not recommend this action for any aquarist, I'm just sharing our experience.
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We're running a store and felt the best and quickest fix was the bleach. Since we had room in quarantine systems in the back of our shop we were able to dip the coral and keep the fish and coral alive while the main tanks were bleached.
This is not practical for somebody's home tank so I would never recommend it. Actually, once we stopped the carbon dosing we noticed a major improvement almost immediately and we contemplated not bleaching the tanks.
This is not practical for somebody's home tank so I would never recommend it. Actually, once we stopped the carbon dosing we noticed a major improvement almost immediately and we contemplated not bleaching the tanks.
This is actually a pretty common problem with carbon dosing. We've had at least a few dozen customers that have had similar experiences. [MENTION=3580]pciscott[/MENTION] mentioned a similar problem but I'm not sure if the biopellets ended up being a problem on his tank.
As far as I can tell, there are a few things necessary to cause problems:
1. Carbon dosing when your nutrients are too low (NO3 or PO4 near zero). This is the main problem but we still carbon dose as needed. If our nutrients are low we don't dose (NO3 < 5 or PO4 < 0.05). .
2. Of course the pathogenic bacteria has to be present in the aquarium. Our vet suggested that this bacteria might be introduced from humans and suggested washing our hands thoroughly before working on our tanks.
As far as I can tell, there are a few things necessary to cause problems:
1. Carbon dosing when your nutrients are too low (NO3 or PO4 near zero). This is the main problem but we still carbon dose as needed. If our nutrients are low we don't dose (NO3 < 5 or PO4 < 0.05). .
2. Of course the pathogenic bacteria has to be present in the aquarium. Our vet suggested that this bacteria might be introduced from humans and suggested washing our hands thoroughly before working on our tanks.
This is what happened on my big system and lost 75% of coral, most of what I saved was moved to other systems. I did have corals recover after removing pellets and my tank is rocking 8 months later. The blister is a brown jelly type infection and it infected SPS first, but then moved to LPS and wiped out all my chalice collection.
I wI'll not run pellets because of the lack of control And understanding.
I wI'll not run pellets because of the lack of control And understanding.
Negative on the carbon dosing or pellits, try to keep it simple. have never had this issue before. I have plenty contamination time in with out hand washing, however this problem i believe, or at least would like to believe, was specific to the Plana colony. Is this issue acro plana specific? As of now all other colonies in the tank are normal.
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