Blasto Woes

[nautical_nathaniel]

Hey everyone,

I'm having a bit of an issue with my Blastomussa wellsi, around this time last week it wasn't having the best polyp extension and I was having an influx of film algae so just as a general precaution I did a 5 gallon water change (20 gallon aquarium). The Blasto still didn't come back to it's normal health and PE so I removed the chemipure blue nano I had put in before the water change (only big change I made to the tank leading up to the poor PE) and decided to wait and see what would happen with it.

Fast forward to last Saturday and I start seeing the skeleton show under one of the forward edge polyps and then the polyp begins to have some STN on the top most edge. None of my other corals were upset and all had good polyp extension.

I immediately begin treating it by turning down my new Maxspect Ethereals from ~75% to ~65% peak average channel strength and testing the water. Everything was where it should have been except for alkalinity which was at 8 dkh instead of the 9-10 dkh I normally keep my tank at. I put in some Seachem Reef Fusion 2 to help bring it up a bit.

NO3 and Phosphate were both reading a little north of zero (crappy API kit, I'm ordering some salifert or red sea kits this weekend). I've been having more film algae than normal but normally that doesn't bother the blasto, if anything it makes it happier to have higher nutrients.

I managed to stop the tissue necrosis, or at least prevent it from progressing. I did another 5 gallon water change yesterday but water changes don't seem to be helping much. I don't think the light is the culprit either since the blasto was used to high intensity from my old SB Reefs fixture. The main thing I adjusted on the Ethereal was the UV channel (went from 75% t0 40%). I have been having some clarity issues with the water that I was thinking were because of some fish guards I installed to the overflows and the crappy IM ghost skimmer not pulling it's weight.

I'm probably going to throw the media reactor in with some BRS rox 0.8 carbon today and see if that helps clarity and get out whatever is making the Blasto upset. I considered dipping it in some Brightwell Aquatics Koral MD but it's encrusted onto a structural joint on my rockwork.

Here is what it looked like Friday:

Here is what it looks like this morning (notice the UV difference):

This is what it normally looks like (ignore the hawkfish, he has to be the center of attention):

If you guys have any other suggestions, I would be happy to hear them. This is my favorite coral and I really don't want to lose any bit of it.

 

[Jimbo662]

Are your NO3 and Phos always that low? Did you have anything die in the tank that would have possibly caused a spike and the algae growth?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Are your NO3 and Phos always that low? Did you have anything die in the tank that would have possibly caused a spike and the algae growth?

Had a pistol shrimp that died and might have swung things, the pistol shrimps (I had two, only one now with a goby) were a recent addition and I think their digging under the rocks might have up rooted some nutrient rich sand and spread it out through the aquarium and caused the algae bloom but the death of the one shrimp is the most likely suspect in my opinion. It died around the same time the blasto was getting upset but not before it.

I don't necessarily think my nitrate and phos are ever low enough to hurt corals, my euphyllias are always happy but I still get good growth on my plating montiporas and Acros so phosphate is not high most of the time either. My tank has been very consistent lately in regards to nutrients but I think the alkalinity reduction has been a work in progress of me not dosing alk/calcium and just relying on water changes and my salt mix (Kent's Reef Mix) to keep it level.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Bumpity Bump.

 

[DSC reef]

Blastos have always been very sensitive IME. Chemistry swings, to clean of a tank and high alk have almost killed the blastos we have. I honestly gave up on them but they bounced back greatly. Mild flow is all they get, alk steady at 9, mag 1480, calcium steady at 420-450 and nitrates around 10ppm or a little higher has been working great this past year. If I had a pic of how bad they looked you wouldn't believe it's the same colony.