Sick Coral Beauty

Hi all--

I've posted this over at MFK, but haven't gotten much help. I hope someone here has some ideas! Sorry in advance for the following novel.

I'm seeing some strange symptoms on my Coral Beauty Angel. We've had her about 2 years. Recently, we moved our fish from a 75 to a 180 (within the last couple of months). I can say that she didn't have these symptoms prior to the move.

This began at the beginning of the month as a discolored patch on her head, along with some abrasion-or-something looking marks. Now, they have turned into what looks to me to be HITH. I am totally confused here, though, because I was either doing everything to prevent it (food variety, good water quality) or have begun to do so after the onset of symptoms (Selcon, grounded tank). Here's the info:

180 w. Sump, Protein Skimmer

Tankmates: Clownfish, Blue Tang, 8 inch Snowflake Eel, 1 Blue Chromis (working on getting more of these). No new additions.

Corals: Softies

Parameters:

pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
KH 6
Ca 380
Phosphate 0

There's about 120-140 lbs of live rock.

Supplements:
AquaVitro Fuel
Calcium by Seachem
Selcon (in food, water from the food)

We make our own saltwater, and use tap water with dechlorinator.

Feeding: Hikari Spirulina Brine shrimp, Mysis shrimp, Hikari Mega-Marine, Hikari Squid, Hikari Mega-Marine Algae. I feed a mixture of these daily, and she seems to eat it all, and isn't picky. Also, Hikari Marine -S-.

No other fish exhibit these symptoms. She is still acting quite normal.

Water changes are 50 gallons, about every 2 or 3 weeks.

Since the problem began, we began dosing the Selcon. We also bought a titanium-probe grounding kit and grounded the tank.

There was suggestion that this is being caused by the tap water that we use. I'm not ruling it out, but we've used the same tap water for the two years that we've had the fish. I just feel like this must have something to do with the move from the 75 to the 180, but I can't figure out what it is. We are in the process of beginning to use RO/DI for our water changes and in our auto top-off supply, but this will only slowly change the water over. That's beginning next weekend.

Here are some photos. The first two photos were taken on the 4th, when I first posted the problem on MFK. The last three photos were taken more recently, within the last couple of days. As you can see, it seems to be getting worse.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on what we can do to reverse what it is that's going on and save our fish. Thanks for any help.

BUMP in case someone knows exactly what's wrong with my fish and how to fix her, but hasn't seen the thread!

The only way I could get closer pics is if I were take her out of the tank, which could be a problem. I can try to get closer photos through the glass, though. What more do you need to see to determine whether it is HLLE? I can try and focus on those aspects in the photos.

If it is HLLE, are you saying there is nothing more I can do? Is she suffering -- I mean, is this a painful condition? She doesn't seem to act differently, but fish are quite stoic, and often don't show evidence of pain until they're about to die. Is this a fish I should consider euthanizing if there is no cure for her condition? I don't want to watch her deteriorate until she dies if I can help it.

This tank does have carbon in the sump, but it was washed very well. It's time for it to come out, anyway, so I just won't replace it. I don't usually run carbon at all, in any of my tanks, but the carbon came with the Marineland sump and I figured we'd run it.

I state in my initial post that the tank was not initially grounded, but we ran a grounding probe after the symptoms began.

Thank you. I haven't fed Nori in a very long time. I will begin to add it to the menu! Also, I like your idea of adding little pieces at feeding time instead of the usual "clip on" idea. There is a lot of algae on the back wall of the tank, because I don't scrape the back wall, and I know that she eats that algae, because I see the little lip-marks everywhere LOL. But I will begin to feed the Nori as well.

Yeah, I feed Hikari Mega-Marine Algae, and like I said, I know she eats the algae on the back glass, but I will try this. It couldn't hurt, and I'm at a loss as to what else to do. We had to drive two hours one-way in order to get the Selcon and grounding probe we started using after this first started, and they haven't improved the situation at all. I just can't stand to watch it happen and not try to fix it!