Help with my microscope view of SPS

[Toddah]

Hey all,
I am in need of some SPS help, I have been having an issue for about 6 weeks or so where I am losing my SPS frags one by one.
My tank is a little over a year old and everything was doing well.
It all seemed to start with a lighting change (seemed to I say) I had a Finnex 150 Watt DE HQI 14K with 2 24W T5 03 bulbs about 6 inches off the water and everything was growing well but not lots of color.
In anticipition of a tank upgrade I swapped out the Finnex light for a Luminarc 3 Stealth Mini with 250W DE HQI and no supplement lighting. I started 18" off the water and lowered 1" or so each week until it was 7" off the water. First my Green Birds nest started getting algae on on tip at a time and then proceeding to slough off all colored tissue. Then a purple Acro like a bali green slimer but purple with blue tips started the same progression until just a bleached hulk now I have a rainbow monti frag started a white spot on top and is working it's way down the whole coral.
These are over the period of the problem thus the from to

Temp 77.8 to 78.6
Sal 1.025 to 1.026
PH 8.2 to 8.4
Cal 390 to 420
Alk 7.8 to 8.0
Mag 14.2
Ammo 0
nitrites 0
Phos 0

All water is RODI
Dosing Randy's 2 part @ 48 ML per day of each part by dosing pump 24X7
All topoff is automated 24X7
Skimmer running 24X7 Pulling 2 cups per week light green to dark green Skimmate
4 DSB in show and 40 Gallon Sump
return is Iwaki MD40rxl
2 Tunze 6055 on Aquacontroller 3 with Aquasurf controller
1/5 HP chiller when AC3 calls for cooling

Here are my microscope shots these are at 40X
Sorry for quality trying to learn how to use this thing. just shooting with my wifes digital pocket cam thru the eyepiece.
These shots are of scrapings at the edge of the tissue where it's dying. I don't know if what I am seeing is part of the coral, Something attacking the coral or just bacteria eating the decaying coral tissue.
The coral tissue is covered with these red dots. they seem to be moving and some seem to be vibrating. is this my problem or just part of the coral? They seem to be single cell (in my microscope)
Sorry for all the horrible descriptions I am a computer guy and I think I was " busy" during biology class (damn!)

Can you see anything I should know about?

[Flint&Eric]

that's a lot of red bugs. Tegastes acroporanus, they prey on acroporas. Interceptor will treat them. here's a link to melev's site which in it has another good linke to eric borneman's.

http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

hth.

[King-Kong]

Those might be zooxanthellae

[Toddah]

Thats kind of where I am I don't know if they are really redbugs because when I look at them at X400 they look like single cell type of things. I do not see heads or anything just a red/orange dot.
I guess I don't know that much about things microscopic.
Do zooxanthellae move about?
some of these are moving when I first place the scraping on the slide.

[johndonaldson3]

Looks like redbugs to me also. It looks like most of the tissue is gone so there would not be much zooxanthellae left.

[eagleONE]

Trying taking a regular picture of it. I'm actually surprised you tossed in a microscope shot. In any case, if you have red bugs, it's easily treatable.

[Toddah]

With the naked eye or with a 2X and 5X jewelers rouge I am unable to see anything other than the line where the tissue stops and the bare structure starts. I am at work right now but I can do another shot tonight. I had redbugs WAY back (completely different system) when the interceptor treatment was still very expirmental. my wife works for a vet so I did the treatment with great results. this is maddening. I posted the microscope shot to see if there was something smaller I could not see with my eyes.

[fatrip]

if you can not see them with 5x and they all look about the same size. they are not red bugs especialy if under 500X they look like a single cell. on a red bug you can see it s head and legs under even a 5X scope. i dont know what it is but it is interesting, it sounds like some type of bacteria i would take the colony out and do an iodine dip to see if it would do anything. but if you could get a pic with 5X then 40x and maybe 500x to compare the images that would be good as well in trying to id these lil buggers. by the way very nice pics through the scope..

[Ding2daDong]

I have had similar problems and I switched from randy's two part to bionic 2 part and all the corals look 100% better. Try it and see what happens.

-Matthew

[Lobster]

That's not red bugs, I agree with Kong that its probably zooxanthellae. Red bugs would not explain the problems with your monti and seriatopora anyways.

Some full-tank shots would be more useful than the microscope shots. You also did not mention what your nitrates are testing at. How long is your photoperiod?

I recently had a bleaching event and finally narrowed it down to my refractometer. It was not calibrated, and drifted 0.004 off! Not that this is your problem, but don't rule anything out.

[Toddah]

Nitrates 0
Photoperiod 10 Hrs was 12 cut back when I changed the lighting out.
I have not checked my Refractor in awhile, I am sure it is some simple thing I am missing. thanks for the tip I will check it out tonight.

[fatrip]

also check your RODI for 0 TDS. a friend of mine had his mebrain go and had no idea untill things started looking grim.

[Toddah]

Tds 000
Checked my Salinity with a deep 6 plastic guage it agreed with my refractometer at 1.025
here is a pix of the last one in the group.
I have a undata 4" diameter doing fine, and a baby blue Acro doing well just a little faded but looking better every day.
little red dots are polyps on the side

[Toddah]

[Toddah]

Everything was moved on Nov 11 from my 33 cube to this 54 corner.
I will rebuild my SPS stock after I am sure I do not have some ongoing issue.
All this started about 3 weeks before the tank move.

[fatrip]

i'd say dip it. if it keeps going it will die, so you have nothing to loose really. i would also maybe try a fresh water dip first. not as stressful on the coral, but not as effective usually as iodine.