**** is dying :(

[little_fish]

Ugg, **** is dying in my tank. Mostly SPS corals.

I know the tank got cooked a few times before i got home to take care of the temperature things, so a few were looking pretty bleached.

The salinity also got dropped quite a bit while i was gone, so i have been slowly bring it back up. Ive been trying to not raise it more than .001 a day, which has been pretty successful.

Two days ago, the two leathers i have in the tank decided to shed.

Could this combination of events cause this? only the bleached SPS are losing flesh, but as of today everything is pretty withdrawn, including the LPS and softies. But of course, some of the LPS look great, as do a few of the SPS.

I am so confused. Did a waterchange, no improvement. All test are coming out normal.

Any other ideas? Suggestions, general comments . . . drinking suggestions?

 

[spstimie]

What are the actual parameters? Just "normal" may not help. If the leathers slimmed and the corals ingested it, that could cause issues. Check for parasites. How about a list of effected corals?

 

[SAZAMA]

rtn and stn suck

 

[little_fish]

ammonia, nitrite, nitrate = 0
calcium = 400 ppm
alk = 8

dying sps
green, pink and red digi (brown is just fine)
all but one bird's nest colony
horn coral
pink milli

all other SPS look fine, mostly mont's and a plating coral (name sounds like an umbrella)

LPS not extending
Tyree war mouth (skeleton showing through within the last few hours)
frogspawn (5 different frags)
various acans
duncans
trumpets
candy canes
meteor shower

Softies not extending
2 leathers
GSP
encrusting gorg and branching gorg
some mushrooms

Zoas have mixed feelings

Clam looks a little upset, but not much

Plate coral is fine
chalices are fine

Fish are fine and happy

 

[spstimie]

Mag? pH? PO4?
Light bulb age? Type?
Filtration? media?

We are missing something

 

[chris 67]

did your alk dip or spike
that could cause stn,rtn on sps

(mostly mont's and a plating coral (name sounds like an umbrella))
^^^^^^
undata

 

[phillipj2]

Temp and salinity it's too late whatever is going to dye will. I did the same thing when my top off overflowed. The only way I saved some is break off what's alive. Then put is in another tank.

 

[Wicked Color]

1- the continuous stress of temp and salinity swings are 90% of the issue.
2- this stress is not done as you are still changing the salinity, some corals can handle these stresses better than others.
3- bad will happen fast, but to recover from a bleaching event can take months, or years.
4- continue water changes and get the system as stable as possible,
5- try to bring the Alk up a bit.

 

[Wicked Color]

notice the correlation between your thread and DJKMS's from about a week ago?
temp swings, birds nest issues.........

 

[Wicked Color]

horn coral ie; hydnophora, is an LPS, it is a super good indicator of PH issues as well.

 

[little_fish]

pH= 8.1 as of this morning, ill retest when the lights have been on for awhile.
I dont test for phosphates nor do i have a mag test.

Also my alk has always been at 8, so i dont really want to change it because with that i have gotten fantastic growth from the SPS i had.

Ill just keep up with that water changes and hope for the best

 

[little_fish]

Also, i have a 4 bulb t5 fixture. Bulbs are 9 months old, but i had planned on replacing them this week, but i think i will wait a bit.

I run an algae scrubber, have for several months, no issues.

I dont dose anything, i just do a 10 gal water change every 3 weeks or so or when ever my calc or alk level start to drop.

 

[spstimie]

I run an algae scrubber, have for several months, no issues.

I had some bleaching in my birdsnest and several monti's while running one. It was removed when my nitrate reactor grew back its bacteria. That is also gone now. They stripped out too much nitrate. Not enough bioload. The acros loved it, but everything else bleached. No losses, but my other parameters have been very stable.

Also my alk has always been at 8, so i dont really want to change it because with that i have gotten fantastic growth from the SPS i had.

dkh is a measure of several different ions. Not all of them are capable of use by corals. I wouldn't try to raise alk a lot, but a non boron buffer may be beneficial.

You can change your bulbs. Just don't do them all at once. Do them over the course of a month. I write the date on the ends of the bulbs so I know which are the oldest. I change 1/month then get 4 months w/o change and start over. I want LED's so I can be done with that.

 

[little_fish]

But i dont think the scrubber is causing this bleaching because it happened over the course of a few days for a few corals and week for some others. I would think that if it was the scrubber, the bleaching would have been much more gradual.

Plus the birdnest that i have, i accidentally bleached/burned pretty bad by not light acclimating it, and it recovered 100% with the scrubber going.

 

[spstimie]

When was the last time you trimmed the scrubber? More algae = Less Nitrate.

 

[little_fish]

yesterday