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I've started to journey into the microscopic world of the reef tank. Invested in a good microscope with a camera hooked up. Its great to be able to pinpoint issues and apply the correct fix. For example : Is this dinoflagellates or diatoms? What kind of algae is this? Or be able to identify various parasites. For a start, many have experienced brown jelly disease on hammer & torch corals. The common advise is to discard it immediately as the brown jelly can spread. Another common advise is to dip the coral with coral dip or with iodine to disinfect it. This post hopes to give some insights on what works & what does not. Under the microscope, the brown jelly are actually a huge colony of a type of protozoa (single celled microscopic animal) known as ciliates. They are characterized by the presence of hair like organelles called cilia. Pic from Wikipedia From numerous articles (eg : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385110115300095), the common ciliate associated with coral diseases are Philaster Lucinda & Philaster Guamense Pic below taken by my microscope. The brown bits you see are zooxanthellae. Some have been ingested. I tested some new purchased / store bought hammer corals and a tiny amount of the ciliate are present. Apparently, ciliate are always present in the water but have no effect if the coral is healthy or if the population of the ciliate is small. However, when they colonize in large populations, they attack the weak coral & the infamous brown jelly or RTN occurs. I collected the brown jelly & soaked them in various kinds of coral dips and iodine. Apparently, the ciliates do not die! All still alive! This means that while coral dips & iodine may do well to 'wash' the coral, bits of this parasite are still present and can cause further issues. Possibly that's why brown jelly tends comes back a few days later. In the video below, you will see big colonies of the ciliate. This slimy cloud contains the parasite that can move around to infect the nearby coral. Hence the advise to dip & trim away the infected piece is correct. Of all the products tested, the only one that actually destroys the ciliate is Polyplab Reef Primer. Within 10 minutes, the cilates stop moving (die!) and the cell walls start to disintegrate. And if left for longer periods, it seems to disintegrate entirely (or perhaps it becomes so transparent that I can't see with my microscope) Next step is to understand how to prevent brown jelly or ciliate colonies in the first place.

Looking to fragging out the lower portion of this Grafted monti for a frag swop. Please PM or watsapp with pictures of specimens available to trade with for discussion.