90% of Acros Bleached OVERNIGHT!!!

[Dooly]

So this is completely new to me; I've been keeping reefs for over 5 years now. SPS heavy for maybe the last 1.5-2 years. I haven't really had issues, always have the same routine.

Lighting is 8x54w T5's, colors on all acros were great and improving with each and every day. I run 6 hours on all t5's and actinics only before and after for a total of a 9 hour photoperiod.

I dose about 140mL of cal and alk each day manually. I use BRS bulk 2 part; my mag levels have been pretty elevated around 1250-1300 with my DD salt so I haven't really dosed mag, but thought I would dose 50mL yesterday night as I haven't dosed mag in about 4 months. I used some BRS mag that I mixed about 10 months ago and that is the ONLY thing I did different yesterday than any other day of the year and today I came home to a bleached tank.

All LPS were fine, all fish are fine, no one is missing, no real tissue loss on SPS, but heavy color loss.

I have a 120g display with 40g sump 10g fuge; params are as follows as of yesterday evening..

Cal 400
Alk 8.5
Mag 1250
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.04 or less
I run rowaphos in a fluidized reactor and have an algae free tank.

any ideas?.. could old mag cause all this insanity?.. advice would be appreciated.

 

[wickedfish]

POST IN the reef chemistry Reefhighlander usually hooks it up. He doesnt really do sps but knows his chemistry.

 

[buy_baff]

Hmm that's a head scratcher. I useualy don't dose mag eather except every once in a while I'll throw 100ml in just to use up the mag that came with my BRS kit. I have never had any ill effects.

 

[mike_cmu04]

Did you have any kind of a temp spike?

 

[Dooly]

Nope,I've got a 1/4 chiller. No ammonia/ph/temp/alk spikes... Only thing I did was add 50mL of old mag

 

[seashark]

sound like magnesium problem,i had the same problem two months ago due to false result from my test kit ? after buying difrent test kit, it was clear that my mag was near 1700, my corals sps lost colors but didnt bleach, all colors came back once mag was under control, what test kit did use to check your mag levels?

 

[reefsponge]

Are your lights on a timer? Are the sps
bleached or dead skeleton white? Did your chiller run to long becoming to cold?

 

[nano427]

sounds like a mag problem, maybe give brs a call and ask how long their mag can be stored. good luck

 

[Toadally]

That's intersting. I have BRS mag stored and use it once in a while with no issues as of yet. I have had my mag as high as 1770 before with no issues at all. Very strange....

 

[buy_baff]

I don't see how his mag could be high as he stated he dosn't dose reguarly and only dosed 50ml which wont chance a thing.

 

[Dooly]

Yeah, I've had my mag at over 1600 before with no ill effect, but I'm thinking it fouled up somehow during the period in which I did not use it? Like I stated, nothing else has changed. And not a single spike issue occurred

 

[Larston]

High Sg perhaps

High Sg perhaps

High mag can be related to high Sg levels perhaps, altough that doesn't explain the whiting.

I have had similar with a problem with high temperatures.

 

[Reef Bass]

Unless the mag was somehow contaminated with something, I doubt this is a mag issue. 50mls is relatively insignificant, and you could use a little mag anyway (I like 1350ish). I've had my mag over 1800 with no ill effects (in fact, it helped to thin out bryopsis).

 

[saltywet]

Sudden faulty equipment leading to stray voltage?

 

[sanababit]

maybe stray voltage?, do you have a photo of your tank

Sana

 

[mayjong]

50ml of mag would not affect a 120 gallon tank, it would barely change the mag level at all. imho-
salinity problem? or temp change? possible short/voltage?

 

[Dooly]

there is no stray voltage; I run 3 tunze streams inside my tank and everything else is perfectly fine. LPS is affected in no way whatsoever; clams are fine, zoos are great..

no temp change, salinity is 1.0265 with calibrated refractometer

 

[JamesJR]

Magnesium doesn't go bad.

 

[d0ughb0y]

just an idea, did you have any visitors the day before? for open top tanks, kids can stick their dirty hands in or toss stuff into the tank.

 

[Dooly]

my tank has a closed canopy, childproof front doors. no visitors the past couple of days.. I am extremely OCD when it comes to my tank and I do the same routine every single day. Like stated, the only difference was that I added 50mL of old BRS mag when I used to use Kent Tech-M for the past year or so, just because I let my friend borrow the Tech-M for bryopsis treatment..