Need help.. live rock and now galaxia being attacked

[Radix]

I've noticed that one of my live rocks has slowly sunken in on one side and has been eaten away by some white mucus-like stuff.

Now I check out my tank and literally overnight one my Galaxia has been attacked by the same thing - almost a third of it is gone already!

Galaxia damage:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TSIPLxMojL4/S68k78RUE6I/AAAAAAAAbHA/aTIvtF-dC0A/s800/IMG_0353.JPG

Live rock damage:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TSIPLxMojL4/S634xJMFP2I/AAAAAAAAa9o/Ixse2FbDOCo/s800/IMG_0334.JPG

What can I do? Please help as I'm still new to this!

[Cerianthus]

Try sucking out the dieing/deteriorating portion of galaxy using 3/8" or 1/2" tubing so it may not be a total loss of Galaxy. Just be careful not to suck out healthy meat.
You can do same with LR although i dont/cant see much of what you described on the LR other than it is very nice piece.

Was Galaxy on the LR where you say it has sunken in? How long yo had this Galaxy?

Is that a glass thermometer/hydrometer inside the tank? Although it may be methanol based, not mercury, it can still crack cause more implication as i ve seen and experienced.
I personally would not leave it in 24/7/365.

What are couple of things with orangish tip and black cross (looks more like head of screw)on the lower left corner by the snail/hermit? Is it some sort of Tubastrea SP ?

Sorry I couldnt be more help and Good Luck!

[Germanman]

Looks like Rotting organic material to me. Just suck it out as stated above and keep an eye out. I'm concerned as to hold long u have had the coral and what you water parameters are. Have you tested the water? If so what are the results? What is on the galaxia looks liike signature deter from acklamation shock or improper water perams. I used to see it all the time in coral shipments that sat on the truck/plain to long

[Amphiprion]

I'd have to see before/after pictures with the rock to get a good idea of what is happening. Though I'll agree that it simply sounded like an organic deposit (common, especially with new rock) that eroded away over time. The coral, however, is more serious. You're observing a potential spreading infection with necrosis. I would follow Cerianthus' advice on this, since it is exactly what I would do. I would also elevate local water motion a bit (but not so much as to make the coral retract). The higher water level will actually drop localized bacterial concentrations and at least help a bit by flushing away mucus (which is where the bacteria prefer to be).

[Radix]

I'd checked the water just the day before, ammonia, nitrates and phosphates were all negligible, kH was a bit high at 12 - only thing was that pH was a little lower than it should be - closer to 8.0 than 8.5 on my test kit it seemed - it was due for a little buff.

I haven't had the galaxia long - only a week - but it had seemed to adapt fine. The day before I had taken a heap of photos of it a couple of days before with my new camera and here's one of them:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TSIPLxMojL4/S6tFNiCqD_I/AAAAAAAAapA/-0r2jtJYipA/s800/IMG_0092.JPG

It's in a corner, so probably doesn't get a lot of water flow, but this necrosis or whatever it is came on incredibly sudden - and affected about a third of the whole thing literally overnight. Could it have been caused by a bristleworm or something? I just noticed I still have one in the tank.

So anyway, I had some water that I'd been preparing for a water change, so I extracted a bit of tank water for the tiny QT I have and topped up both with the ph buffed water I'd prepared.

I've removed the brown gunk on top of the galaxia, scrubbed it clean with a toothbrush and rinsed it off with tank water, then placed it in my QT with a powerhead blowing water over it. It doesn't seem to have worsened overnight so that's good. The little featherduster thingy's on top seem to be going well and the rest of the galaxia seems to have opened up - so I'll give it another day and if no further changes I'll put it back in the main tank.

As for the LR I mentioned - it's a great rock, has all sorts of green growth and tubes growing on it - both the red ones you saw and a bunch of little green ones. It unfortunately also has a bristleworm and a mantis shrimp still inside it seems. I thought I'd removed the bristleworm weeks ago, but discovered the other day that there's still at least one left - I'm trying to draw him into a pill bottle with food on the bottom atm in the hope to extract him. He may not be in that rock - I'm not sure - all of the ones I have are riddled with holes.
The mantis shrimp is still small and I've seen a glimpse of him, but he's continually working away on the rock as evidenced by continual clicking noises - he's got a couple of holes on either side of one of those red tubes and if I knew how to get rid of him without killing everything else on that LR I would!

Maybe I'm overreacting with the necrosis on the LR - just looked back on a photo just over a month before and maybe it's just normal evolution:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TSIPLxMojL4/S4DwKU4telI/AAAAAAAAZoA/Tu5SrVf5nDU/s800/IMG_4614.JPG

[FishSuperStore]

To me it looks like you don't have enough lite or a fish is possibly pecking at the coral.

What size tank is it and what type of lighting and how many watts.

Have you seen any of your fish bothering the coral?

[Radix]

Could very well be lighting - I have a small tank - only 70 litres and have a couple of T5 white lights which I use. I give it 8 hours of light a day on timer - a few hours in the morning and the rest at night. I have a couple of moonlights too, but it's all in the one unit and no easy way to alternate them using the timer I have.
I've been considering getting a bigger tank of late - trying to convince the missus atm!

None of my fish seem interested in pecking at the coral with the exception of my bicolour blenny - but he's more interested in algae and stuff ;)

This section of the coral is right in the corner and doesn't get as much light because of it though - so that could well be the explanation I've been looking for - will have to see if I can reposition the LR so they're all under the light better and see if that helps.

[Pufferpunk]

I'd checked the water just the day before, ammonia, nitrates and phosphates were all negligible
Are you showing any ammonia or nitrite at all? What is the nitrate exactly?

[Cerianthus]

You do have some gorgeous LR!!!
I never heard/seen live rocks erode that fast in the tank.
You should remove all the browinsh mulm that developed/deposited over the dieing tissues before whole thing is a loss!!! DO not touch the mulm, odor may stay on your fingers for a while, very unpleasant odor to a point you might not get any dates for next few days, LOL!

Good Luck!!!

[Amphiprion]

One other thing I notice from the picture is that sand has covered a portion of the colony toward the bottom. I recommend against this, if at all possible. Try to get some rubble to elevate it a bit. This can cause localized anoxia and increase the bacterial concentrations considerably (100x in some cases).


I'd have to see before/after pictures with the rock to get a good idea of what is happening. Though I'll agree that it simply sounded like an organic deposit (common, especially with new rock) that eroded away over time. The coral, however, is more serious. You're observing a potential spreading infection with necrosis. I would follow Cerianthus' advice on this, since it is exactly what I would do. I would also elevate local water motion a bit (but not so much as to make the coral retract). The higher water motion will actually drop localized bacterial concentrations and at least help a bit by flushing away mucus (which is where the bacteria prefer to be).

Fix'd.

[ToeJam]

Isn't there a iodine dip he would do to put a halt on necrosis? I read about folks doing this for SPS. Don't know about the LPS here.

I also don't recommend brushing anything ..it only puts bacteria on the toothbrush and spreading it to where ever that brush scrubs. Siphon it off....best bet.

Amph has a point about having it out on the island there...get a base rock in place so it is raised off the sand ....