andyman
10/26/2004, 05:23 PM
I have been collecting ricordia yuma's for a while and something strange happened recently. All the corals were doing great but 3 weeks ago San Francisco hit a weird heat wave. Tank temperatures probably hit 83 degrees in the day and dropped to 76-77 at night. I'm not sure if this was the cause of the problem.
The only corals affected are the Ricordia Yuma's. I've got about 4 - 5 individual on different rocks and colors all exhibiting the same problem. Their mouths are gone (I can almost see the substrate through what use to be there mouths.) The rest of the coral hasn't melted, just the mouth. Now I've seen my fair share of melting corals and this isn't a melting symptom. More like an infection. I don't know if thats true and I don't know what to do.
I've had one of these corals for 2 years, another one for 6 months, and finally the most recent is 3 months. They are all still alive and have been showing their guts through the mouth for the last 3 weeks now.
The tank has been up for over 5 years. Ammonia, Ph , etc are all normal. There has been no pH fluctuations since I'm monitoring that. my ORP meter has been normal too. nitrate is about 10ppm but its always been that way. I do water changes every other month for the last 2 months to try to reduce nitrate. I've got a 120gallon with a deep sand bed (6"). There are no other corals near the ricordia (they are in their own island almost). Calcium is at 450, kH=9, Mg = can't remember but last I checked it was normal. Lighting is 2 250watt 20k MH. But the ricordias have been relocated to the frag tank where there is less flow to disturb them. The main tank has a 10gallon surge.
Anyway one of my most treasured ricordias starting to develop the same symptoms as the others. The mouth area no longer looks like a yuma and looks to start to be deteriorating. The worst ricordia I have with this symptom has a huge hole where his mouth is. I can put my finger through it almost. The coral itself feels and looks solid still and even folds up at nite like the other ricordias do. Is there any medication I should use? I'm running carbon 24x7.
Any immediate help would be appreciated.
andy
The only corals affected are the Ricordia Yuma's. I've got about 4 - 5 individual on different rocks and colors all exhibiting the same problem. Their mouths are gone (I can almost see the substrate through what use to be there mouths.) The rest of the coral hasn't melted, just the mouth. Now I've seen my fair share of melting corals and this isn't a melting symptom. More like an infection. I don't know if thats true and I don't know what to do.
I've had one of these corals for 2 years, another one for 6 months, and finally the most recent is 3 months. They are all still alive and have been showing their guts through the mouth for the last 3 weeks now.
The tank has been up for over 5 years. Ammonia, Ph , etc are all normal. There has been no pH fluctuations since I'm monitoring that. my ORP meter has been normal too. nitrate is about 10ppm but its always been that way. I do water changes every other month for the last 2 months to try to reduce nitrate. I've got a 120gallon with a deep sand bed (6"). There are no other corals near the ricordia (they are in their own island almost). Calcium is at 450, kH=9, Mg = can't remember but last I checked it was normal. Lighting is 2 250watt 20k MH. But the ricordias have been relocated to the frag tank where there is less flow to disturb them. The main tank has a 10gallon surge.
Anyway one of my most treasured ricordias starting to develop the same symptoms as the others. The mouth area no longer looks like a yuma and looks to start to be deteriorating. The worst ricordia I have with this symptom has a huge hole where his mouth is. I can put my finger through it almost. The coral itself feels and looks solid still and even folds up at nite like the other ricordias do. Is there any medication I should use? I'm running carbon 24x7.
Any immediate help would be appreciated.
andy