A call for help. SPS reef failing

[Peter Eichler]

From the information given I would suggest cutting back on GFO and GAC use, dropping the alk to 7-8, and upping feeding a bit. Maintain that for a few weeks and reevaluate. The fact that your corals reacted adversely to alk spiking above 9 dKH tells me that nutrients are low enough to be stressing corals.

 

[Piper27]

I have noticed a lot of small random looking things in the media I used to use. It was not that much, or that big of pieces though. Looks like someone tried to throw random junk in the media to cut it, or maybe that stuff always looks like that?

I don't think peters advice is bad, I would do the same, but keep carbon running maybe just not as much. If the tips of the corals are singed that could be gfo.

 

[Reef Bass]

It could take some time for them to recover, especially when global stn breaks out.

This is true in my experience. Last year my tank experienced a couple significant back to back alk fluctuations. Entirely my fault. :facepalm: It was at least 3 months after stabilizing alk again before the full extent of the damage was evident and things started to turn around. Lost most montis and a number of acros.

 

[xxxduke62xxx]

Low nutrients high alk is a bad combination. Either lower your alk to 7.5 to 8.5 or raise your nutrients in the tank. 0 no3 and low po4 your starving the corals especially since your cleaning glass once per week

 

[NeverlosT]

A call for help. SPS reef failing

Hi Nashorn, The calcium reactor is online but has been cleaned and rinsed, and filled with new media. We did your best to unsure that no foreign materials made it in, just limestone skeletons.

Peter, that is good advise. Ill be upping my feedings to try to increase robustness. I am running my standard amount of carbon and gfo, 2 cups of each, but ill consider reducing that.

 

[NeverlosT]

Piper, i agree and am troubled at the amount of "junk" in that caribsea media.

Bass, im ok with a long road to recovery, heck any evidence of a halt to the destruction would thrill me at the moment.

 

[NeverlosT]

Duke that is great advice, thank you. Ill be doing my best to increase no3 and po4 slowly.

For all: i am going to do a big water change today in case a toxin is still present in my water. Question: while the corals are exposed with tissue recession, can i dab them with iodine on a qtip IN THE TANK? Might that help them recover? Are there consequences to putting iodine in the tank like that?

 

[Peter Eichler]

Duke that is great advice, thank you. Ill be doing my best to increase no3 and po4 slowly.

For all: i am going to do a big water change today in case a toxin is still present in my water. Question: while the corals are exposed with tissue recession, can i dab them with iodine on a qtip IN THE TANK? Might that help them recover? Are there consequences to putting iodine in the tank like that?

Iodine isn't something that actually helps corals heal, it's something that's toxic to them and many organisms at higher levels, which is why it's used as a dip.

 

[NeverlosT]

Ok, Thanks Peter. I thought in this case it might act as a disinfectant. I'll stick to the major water change and let the corals fight the good fight.

I am writing to CaribSea regarding their "colorful" media contents. I'll update the thread to let folks know where that goes.

 

[nashorn]

Hi Nashorn, The calcium reactor is online but has been cleaned and rinsed, and filled with new media. We did your best to unsure that no foreign materials made it in, just limestone skeletons.

Peter, that is good advise. Ill be upping my feedings to try to increase robustness. I am running my standard amount of carbon and gfo, 2 cups of each, but ill consider reducing that.

Hi
When I ran my CA reactor I used my dead sps skeletons....had a lot of those.
Can't tell but looks like most of those are rocks?? looks inert to me. I would be concern with any wood items.

Have you replaced anything else in your tank before the problem started?

 

[NeverlosT]

Hi Nashorn,

That was the major change in the tank, the beginning of the SPS issues followed the CARX media swap by about 2-3 weeks. I haven't changed any other major equipment in the last 3 months. I did get a new skimmer pump from ATI to replace a problematic pump about 2 months ago, but it is a classic Jebao DC3000 pump, which a lot of folks are using, so I don't think that it is a likely source of a pollutant.

Not sure if I mentioned it above, but I also checked for stray voltage and there was none.

after a few days of high feeding, even though I changed 40% of my water in the last two days, PO4 is up around 0.049ppm, I need to check the nitrate, my nitrate test kit is pretty old though. I'll be keeping my nutrients a bit higher in coming weeks/months to give the corals a bit of a "leg up".

At this time, the decline has not stopped, lost the last of the red dragon colony yesterday. Hoping for a turnaround soon. I also wrote to CaribSea, I'll let you know what they say.

 

[NeverlosT]

UPDATE:
At this time I have run Cuprisorb in the system, done some massive water changes, and have seen a slow in the decline of most SPS (some are still failing just since it is difficult to stop the decline once it begins).

I have also reduced my ALK slightly since some folks seemed to think that it may help.

I did hear back from CaribSea who admitted that this has been an issue in the past, but that they think that the foreign material in my reactor media shouldn't contain anything toxic to my corals. That sounds like quite a leap of faith to me. It does not sound at this time like they will be trying to help me out at all or taking action on my behalf.

Basically, my biggest suggestion is that if you use CaribSea media, stick to Fine or Coarse media, and not the Extra Coarse. The largest rubble hides impurities better (some are actually hidden within CaCO3 chunks, and others are just make it in with the large rubble).

My hope is that I can soon get this decline to stop and begin to rebound. The last to perish was my colony of Reeftek starburst monti, my colony of Tropical Hurricane Monti (can't even find that one anymore), and my colonies of RR Wolverine and a green tip blue stag that I hadn't seen anywhere else. Pretty heartbreaking overall.

 

[arashsheikhpoor]

I would move this to the sps forum.

Maybe try running some of that mechanical media that changes colors in the presence of different toxins. The name escapes me atm. Try to at least rule out contamination of some sort. I don't think a swing of alk as you described would cause that much of an issue.

I think it's called poly filter

 

[NeverlosT]

For all, regarding polyfilter. Definitely do some research on that product. It may be good for reducing copper or heavy metal contaminant levels if they are extremely high (like if you medicated a fish system with it), but the product itself has 30ppb of copper in it, so it cannot reduce your reef beyond that point like Cuprisorb can.

In fact, if your tank has NSW levels of copper in it ~5ppb, putting in a polyfilter will actually add copper to the system.

They seed the polyfilter with trace elements and metals so that it wont just wipe your system completely out of trace elements and metals (from what I read).

So long story short, you probably want your reef at or beneath 30ppb copper, and the polyfilter will only get you down in that direction, and if you don't already have a copper issue, it might add to the level in the tank.

There are some great Randy Holmes-Farley threads on the topic.

 

[bigzman]

Has the CupriSorb changed color a bit? If so that is the indicator of metals. I hope all works out.

 

[NeverlosT]

In case someone finds this thread down the road. Slow SPS decline continued for the next several months. Finally, when we had to move anyway, I rebooted the tank. New media, new rock, and QT all livestock.

SPS is now growing happily in the display once more. There seems to be an unfortunate point where a tank just isnt getting better, and a reboot is the only way to salvage it.

Caribsea never did me any favors with their impure media, I'll be a destaco man from here on out. Two little fishies with their rusting magnets has also lost my business. This hobby is hard enough without crappy companies selling shady products.