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Dying Favites

pixelpixi

pixelpixi

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I got a really nice favites frag at new alameda aquatics yesterday... and it's doing the same thing the mycedium I got at the frag swap did. Tissue isn't coming off yet, but I can see skeleton in various places.

:'(

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. It looked great in the store. This time it was in a bag for less than an hour. I slowly drip acclimated just to be on the extra safe side, dipped for 25 minutes, rinsed in tank water, then placed on the frag rack. It was only a matter of hours before I started seeing skeleton.

I tested everything (temp/salinity/alkalinity/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) and all the parameters are in line. Salinity in my QT is a couple ppt higher than the store water, but I don't think it's enough that it should cause this much of a problem, especially with a slow acclimation.

*sigh*
 
bummer. Can't say to the why but based on what I've learned, an acclimation of 25 minutes is short. A cautious acclimation would be a couple hours for sensitive items after floating to temp acclimate if needed.
 
I never acclimate . I do dip , then toss them in the tank . When ever I get new lps I put them in lower light than I think they need and make sure that the flow is very low on them . I tend to do that for a couple of days at the min. . Also make sure no critters are bugging it .
 
[quote author=pixelpixi link=topic=4347.msg52771#msg52771 date=1219000986]
The dip was 25 minutes. The acclimation was several hours.[/quote]
What can I say, I failed speed reading class :) sorry
 
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=4347.msg52779#msg52779 date=1219005144]
How strong a dip and what did you use? Sounds like it might be the dip considering how quickly you saw issues.
[/quote]

Yeah, it seem like the dip to me too, but I followed the instructions precisely. I used the povidone from the swap. After acclimating, I used 500 mL of the water the coral was in and added 1.5 mL of povidone, for a 3mL/L ratio. It looked like beer... I'd say amber ale.

During the 25 minutes it was in the dip, I used a pipette to blow water at the coral several times, hopefully knocking off any potential pests. Then I moved it into another container with water from the tank, squirted with the pipette a few more times, and then moved it to the QT tank.

I guess next time I'll try a weaker and shorter dip and see if it does any better, but 25 minutes at 3mL/L is what's on the dip instruction sheet from the swap.
 
Favites are pretty tough. Should be able to come back.

For weaker and shorter dip, you can try 2ml/L and 15 minutes.

I'd skip the acclimation.

In some cases, acclimation can make things worse. Not in your case, but after shipping/transport, the container water can have high ammonia and depressed pH. Ammonia is less toxic at lower pH, and acclimation raises pH and can cause problems for the fish/coral.
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=4347.msg52783#msg52783 date=1219009614]
Favites are pretty tough. Should be able to come back.

For weaker and shorter dip, you can try 2ml/L and 15 minutes.

I'd skip the acclimation.

In some cases, acclimation can make things worse. Not in your case, but after shipping/transport, the container water can have high ammonia and depressed pH. Ammonia is less toxic at lower pH, and acclimation raises pH and can cause problems for the fish/coral.
[/quote]

Yeah, I'm aware of the issue with ammonia and pH with shipping, but figured since this was a short period of time in the bag, acclimation would be at worst a waste of time and possibly beneficial.

This is a bit of a tangent, but I was wondering if adding a drop of Prime to the bag when receiving something that's been shipped might alleviate the ammonia toxicity concerns. It supposedly detoxifies ammonia as well chlorine. Any thoughts on that?
 
I've wondered about Prime also. But haven't read anything about that application. Haven't tried it for that myself either.

Gresh probably knows.
 
I've had issues with Prime when dealing with ammonia issues, it's great for making the bleaching of decorative coral safe, but neutralizing ammonia is not it's forté. I like Amquel for ammonia issues, although it really helps more when you add it to the bag prior to packing for a long trip, rather than when you are acclimating.
 
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