White Spot On The Reef, And Unhappy Bubble Coral

[rabbut]

Hi all,

More bad news in my nano reef. I'm dealing with White Spot (Ich). My Female Skunk Clown and my Neon Goby are peppered with it, but as yet (touch wood quick if you are superstitious) the Royal Gramma is still OK I have no way of getting a UV unit into my tank, and I obviouly cannot use any Copper, Malichite Green or Formalin based meds, this being a reef and all... I know that Clowns have a thicker slime coat than most fish, so a freshwater bath on her will likely not work. The Neon Goby does keep trying to clean her though. Should I freshwater bath the Neon Goby for a few days and hope it cleans off the White Spot on the Clown, or am I best just letting this thing run It's caurse. Would dropping/raising my salinity be of any use, again, this being a reef running currently on 1.023. QT is not available for me with Marines

Secondly, the Bubble coral is not as far out as it was before. I'll try get a pic for diagnosis, but it doesn't look happy ATM I'm still waiting on my test kits for Calsium, Alkalinity and Magnesium, so I can't post stats for that

Would the use of Poly Filter be recomended? Will be doing a water test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH shortly

Thanks to all
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

OK a round of photos and the vital stats for water quality...

Ammonia 0
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 0
pH 8.3
Salinity 1.023

Photo's, the deflated Bubble coral

The Female Skunk Clown with Whitespot

Unfortunately, the Neon Goby has vanished so I cannot get a pic of him/her. It was not as bad as the Skunk clown. i appreciate that the white spot won't show very well in these pics

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

can't really help but why are you waiting for test kits? you not been able to pick them up locally? interfish usually have all the salifert ones in

 

[SkiFletch]

Hummm, have you calibrated/verified your salinity measuring device against a known standard recently? Quite possible it's drifted a bunch which is making the bubble coral unhappy. As for the fish, in the absence of QT your best bet is freshwater dips on both of them and pray.

 

[rabbut]

Miss Wiggle, no, due to cold wether, nobody localy has the Salifert kits in. i called Interfish, Waterscapes, Cascade e.t.c and they were all out of stock. Salifert kits have to be ordered from TMC, the marine wholesaler, and they aren't shipping any livestock out ATM due to the cold wether. You can do a dry stock order with them, but their handeling charges with that would double the normal price on the kits Almost all marine equipment is either collected in person by your supplier from them directly or purchased as a tag-on on the livestock order. TMC have a monoploy here in the UK and are genuine rip off merchants with their prices You could also go and collect in person, but nobody round here wants to send any staff on a van down to Manchester ATM Internet orders were the only option...

SkiFletch, the refractometer is only days old. I have calibrated it as per the instructions and it reads comparably to the recently calibrated refractometer at work, so I'm fairly shure it's correct Salinity when the Bubble coral went in was 1.022, but I've brought it up over the last few days gradually

Freshwater baths for 3min twice daily now shedualed for both. Here's hoping. Some fun comming up catching them that often without destroying my tank...

It's interesting to note that the only fish un-affected was the only fish not bought from the same place as the dadgy pair of Skunk Clowns... I suspect my issue is with the supplier.

Thanks all
Rabbut

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, if you're confident about the refractometer I would suggest continuing to raise the salinity. Top off with hyper saline water instead of RO, a good way to raise it safely and naturally. Also even before the kits come in, I might suggest adding a little baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) just in case that's the issue. Bubble corals take very poorly to low alkalinity, so raising it would probably be a decent idea. Maybe at least a tablespoon would do it

 

[rabbut]

I have all the supliments already. Shall I just follow the "on the bottle" dosages for Magnesium, Calsium, Alkalinity and the trace mixes?

I was planning to bring the salinity up to 1.025 ish anyway, so I will continue raising the salinity as you surgest As I understood it, there are different species of marine White Spot, all of which prefur different water conditions, so changing the salinity could sort/help kill it? Is this just on-line hype or is there a real meaning to that advise

Thanks Ski
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Quick after lights on and dipping update.

The Female Skunk Clown is showing no real improvement.

The Neon Goby has no visible spots left on him, but now has some rather large growths from his gills and dorsal fin. They look like fungus I suppose this is to be expected after White Spot though, and the freshwater dips will be helping...

There was a Seachem ZX product in for parasite infections at work the other week. Anyone used it? Recomended? Reef Safe? I can check the latter at work on Saturday, but if it could help, it's worth a go right?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Looks like you were right about Alk, Cals, or Mag being low and upsetting the Bubble Coral Ski, it's realy opened out again after the Magnesium, Calsium, Alkalinity and Trace mix doses being added... Just waiting for those blasted test kits to get the levels bang on perfect...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

not sure if we've got our test kits still but we had all the salifert ones, want me to hunt around and see if we still have them?

 

[rabbut]

That could be a good help if you do have them Miss Wiggle If you do, you might want to look for that bust Hydor exturnal heater you have, and I'll look at it and try to fix it as a way of thankyou

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'll have a look tonight and send you a message, are you working over the weekend?

no promises, i know we kept some stuff from the marine tank and gave away/slung some other things, not sure what happened to all the test kits.

 

[rabbut]

i'll have a look tonight and send you a message, are you working over the weekend?

no promises, i know we kept some stuff from the marine tank and gave away/slung some other things, not sure what happened to all the test kits.

Fair enough Yes, I'm working at the weekend, unless I die mestiriously in between now and then... It's just Saturdays I'm in at work ATM

Even if you don't find the kits, feel free to bring along the heater

All the best
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Just an update for anyone who may still be following/interested...

The Female Skunk Clown has only one or two spots on her and looks to be clearing up. Not bad considering I could only catch her for two freshwater dips over the caurse of a week. The Neon Goby is getting there, but is still quite bad with fungus on top of the White Spot now. I've only managed to catch him once for a bath though. He is still offering a cleaning service to the Skunk Clown though, which she has grown to appreciate (wasn't keen at first bless her). The Royal Grammar still supprisingly is clean

The corals are varyable ATM. They are out first thing on a morning, but have usualy retracted by lunch time and are semi-out in the afternoon. I'm running Polyfilter in there ATM to cover any nasties, allong with skimming (Both have been removed for the last 24hours due to marine snow being added for the softies) Any ideas for getting them to purk up a bit more, or is it just a case of wait and see untill I get the kits. I'd adding the suppliments as per instructions for now, and can fiddle the doses as reguired I suppose when I get the kits. If I overshoot the KH, pH should go up and allow me to stop before doing damage. The Suppliments are supposed to be a ballenced 3 part system, so hopefully I'll be OK winging it like thus for the moment...

Salinity is now on 1.024

Having e-mailed the company I ordered from, I've found that they don't have the kits in stock ATM, and are awaiting an order from TMC Nice of them to tell me... If I'd know they were out of stock I'd have gone else where... Anyhow, they will be delivered on Friday at the earliest now They will get a nice follow-up e-mail after the kits arrive and I'll likely phone to check stuff is in stock before ordering next time, to avoid this issue, or alternatively look elsewhere...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sorry i took a few days to come back to you, been poorly again and had to go back into hospital on friday.

anyway sadly not got the kits anymore, must have given them away with the tank.