rusty coraline?

doobiej · #1 10-31-2010, 02:09 AM

a lot of my purple coraline has been fading over the past month and some of it has turned to this rusty orange. the picture isnt the best but this rusty orange coraline has showed up and is increasing?

any thoughts?

I have patches of this on almost all my rock.

Myka · #2 10-31-2010, 03:08 AM

Coralline can get what is called CLOD or Coralline Lethal Orange Disease, and you have photographed a great example unfortunately. Resources say it is caused by an "unknown bacterial pathogen". I know of no cure and as far as I know, neither does anyone else. Scientists are researching it though as it threatens the world's reefs. It doesn't cause nearly as much damage in our reefs though as our tanks don't need coralline to hold it all together, albeit looks rather nice.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...6/ai_15811426/

doobiej · #3 10-31-2010, 08:57 PM

do i need to remove all my live rock that has it? that would suck but if its gonna wipe my tank out I'll remove it. about 40% of my rock has a patch or two.

anything else I can do?

Myka · #4 10-31-2010, 08:59 PM

I don't think there is anything else you can do. I'm not sure if removing the infected rock will help...not sure if the pathogen would be infecting the water column? Personally, I would just let it run its course, and maybe in a few months/year who knows it will start coming back. I wouldn't take drastic measures to be rid of it since no ones really knows hoe to get rid of it anyway, so at best you're just taking a stab at it.

doobiej · #5 10-31-2010, 09:07 PM

is it harmfull to my corals or livestock? im trying to do some research but doesnt seem to be a whole lot of info on it.

like most i've sunk a ton of money into my new setup ( upgraded from a 90g to a 8 foot long 220 gallon) and it would kill me, and likely my will to
continue with this hobby if it went south on me.

Palmer · #6 10-31-2010, 09:14 PM

How quickly did it take to spread in your tank? I have a couple of dime size spots that are a dark brown/orange in my tank. Took a year to get about that size and do not seem to be spreading fast. They dont exactly look like your photo but it may be the same thing.

doobiej · #7 10-31-2010, 09:19 PM

fairly quickly I think, my tank is only 7 months old and I probably have spots on 40% of my 150lbs of rock. this is definately rusty iron orange color. each month I can see more spots so I would say its spreading aggresively.

Palmer · #8 10-31-2010, 09:31 PM

Here is a thread on RC about it and has a picture of the coralline eating disease.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...oraline+orange