Freefloating palytoxins killing off corals

[Reefinmike]

yesterday, I went to coral ranch and bought some more of the prickly green palys they have for a great price. I had a patch of these before, and I just keep them in a darker area to fill in the space. I knew that this particular species slimed up a lot, and were probably loaded with palytoxins. I made the stupid mistake of releasing the coral along with the half gallon of water it came in (though I didnt add the water from my big nassarious because it was slimy on the bottom ). within an hour of adding my new stuff, all hell broke loose. first it started with my two little orange lobo brains. They started spitting their guts out of random places. These guts looked very similar to what comes out of mushrooms if you make them mad enough. within an hour, about half of my corals were looking really bad and spilling their guts out. among these were my hydnophora, three little lobos, a few chalice frags, and several trumpet colonies. all of my sps with the exception of my millepora and an orange cap had the tissue bleach, but the polyps are hanging in. corals that were completely unaffected were GSPs, mushrooms, a scroll coral, fungia plate, the palys , and some zoos. within an hour of moving the affected corals to my biocube, they looked as healthy as could be. at the time (12:30am) when I decided i needed to take action, I had no water so I added all the carbon I could. The system is a 20g tank with a 20g fuge, this morning I did a 17 gallon wc, and just a little ago I did a 10 gallon change. I just added the lobo that first showed signs yesterday to be a canary in a coal mine.

just a reminder to all to not be stupid around palys- they obviously can be very potent

 

[KeepOnReefin]

I doubt that was the issue to be honest. I have fragged them in the water before.

On a side note, you always dump whatever water your corals/fish come in.

Run some carbon incase it is a toxin from the Palys.

[Reefinmike]

certain species carry palytoxins, some to a greater degree than others. I have fragged hundreds and handled thousands of palys/zoanthids with no ill effect in aquariums. however this is the only species that I have ever dealt with that slimes up to this extent. The circumstances surrounding the event lead me to believe that It could have been nothing but the palytoxins. I am running about half a gallon of carbon at this moment, did a 17 and a 10 gallon waterchange today. the labrat coral I added did well for an hour before I added the rest of my corals.

[Kenn]

certain species carry palytoxins, some to a greater degree than others. I have fragged hundreds and handled thousands of palys/zoanthids with no ill effect in aquariums. however this is the only species that I have ever dealt with that slimes up to this extent. The circumstances surrounding the event lead me to believe that It could have been nothing but the palytoxins. I am running about half a gallon of carbon at this moment, did a 17 and a 10 gallon waterchange today. the labrat coral I added did well for an hour before I added the rest of my corals.

for what it's worth I completely agree with your conclusion. I have had a similar experience (twice) before I got a hold of the problem.

Now I always acclimate with a drip into the original transport water until I have completely gotten rid of the old stuff and then place the zoas / palys into the tanks. and NEVER put the water into my tanks.

[Reefinmike]

were your corals spilling their guts out? Typically I just temp acclimate all livestock as long as the salinities are the same, but this time i actually acclimated the corals and dumped the water in... DOH!!!!!! All the corals I removed last night have been back in the tank for three hours now and are looking great. It looks like I may have only one fatality. My small green monti cap has bleached out completely, but all the polyps are alive and healthy.

[HUNGER]

thats goo that every thing is doing great now

[KeepOnReefin]

How big is this system?

[harleyrider]

How big is this system?

It tells in the first post.

[Kenn]

were your corals spilling their guts out? Typically I just temp acclimate all livestock as long as the salinities are the same, but this time i actually acclimated the corals and dumped the water in... DOH!!!!!! All the corals I removed last night have been back in the tank for three hours now and are looking great. It looks like I may have only one fatality. My small green monti cap has bleached out completely, but all the polyps are alive and healthy.

Yep ... Looked like a cheap version of the exorcist 

IMO there are just too many chemical variables that are not addressed if you just temp acclimate. For example, simply changing salt brands in your home tank can cause all kinds of nightmares if not done gradually. So just to give my new arivals a better shot of success, I drip. That way they can slowly become accustomed to their new environments parameters such as Ph, alkalinity, and salinity. Just to name a few.

And as you mentioned about toxin leakage from palys, I humbly say that we truly have no idea as to the chemical defenses / offenses the creatures of the marine world are capable of unleashing. we are only making educated guesses at best.

As much as I would like to think I run an average tank I KNOW my complex parameters are different from EVERYONE else.

So, for me, the drip is the preferred means of addressing potential problems.

[KeepOnReefin]

Guess I should learn to read

Lesson learned, don't dump shipping water into your tiny tank. That explains it.

[Reefinmike]

Yep ... Looked like a cheap version of the exorcist 

IMO there are just too many chemical variables that are not addressed if you just temp acclimate. For example, simply changing salt brands in your home tank can cause all kinds of nightmares if not done gradually. So just to give my new arivals a better shot of success, I drip. That way they can slowly become accustomed to their new environments parameters such as Ph, alkalinity, and salinity. Just to name a few.

So, for me, the drip is the preferred means of addressing potential problems.

I do usually slowly acclimate sps corals and stuff that cost more than a jackson but I have never had any ill effects by just temp acclimating my corals. now as to why I added the water- I remember seeing that my salinity was at 1.024 and I wanted to bring it up some, so I just threw the water in to bring up the salinity with the help of evap.