Acro/Mille issues

[scottwhitson]

Unfortunately there isn't much left to take pictures of.

 

[Bilk]

Do you have a controller that tracks parameters? If so can you post them? PH, ORP Temp, DO if you have that. Maybe we can see something in the logs that tells a story.

I recently lost two large colonies with similar symptoms as you described. They were growing at a pretty fast clip too. I suspected the usual pests, but nothing turned up. The only thing I can attribute it to was poor circulation as I had removed two MP40s for cleaning and then didn't put them back into service for a while - all while I was seeing the decimation of those two colonies. I still had two Tunze 6105s running - I started the tank with just these and never assumed that the flow might be the issue.

It's the only thing I can assume as I was able to get two good sized frags from the red dragon that was having issues and they're doing well now. Since returning the MP40s to service, there have been no problems.

That's the only change that was made over that timeframe. I know it's anecdotal, but it's all I came up with as a reason for what happened. My guess is that the usual nightly drop in PH caused stress to those larger colonies because they couldn't respirate properly. My logs showed that PH dropped below the normal nightly 8.1 to s low as 7.7. Smaller colonies had no issues.

Maybe your logs will reveal something too.

 

[121]

My MH bulbs are approaching the one year mark so I am thinking of changing them and trying that.

Maybe the old bulbs are doing it to your acros. I remember reading RC years ago when everyone was using MH and most changed them every 4 months. I might expect what your experiencing if I ran the same bulbs for a whole year.

I don't recall exactly what happens to the bulbs when they're over used. I think it's something to do with the spectrum shifting to something undesirable.

 

[scottwhitson]

I did change the bulbs about a month ago I will take a look at the log files and post them.

 

[121]

Have you tested for stray electricity?

 

[scottwhitson]

Just checked my graphs for the past week.
Temp: MIN.76.9 MAX.81.7 AVERAGE.79.36 the average daily swings aren't that much the day the temp hit 81.7 the low was 79.3
PH MIN.8.22 MAX.8.41 AVERAGE. 8.31
Don't have an ORP probe.

 

[scottwhitson]

It has been a couple of months since I checked for stray voltage but non was found at the time I can do that again and report back.

 

[scottwhitson]

Just checked for stray voltage only 1.5V AC so that shouldn't be causing the issues I will try and get a pic of one colony that still has some flesh on it so the receding pattern can be seen by all.

 

[scottwhitson]

Here are a few pics. Sorry about the quality of them.

 

[scottwhitson]

The recession on these corals has taken a few months to happen some of them have been receding for close to 3 months some only a month.

 

[Bilk]

Do you feed the corals anything? No scientific evidence here, but I think many times when we see this happening it's because the corals aren't receiving enough food in the water borne foods like reef pearls or similar. They then go into slow decline as seems to be happening to your corals. If it were a pathogen or water parameter, I think it would be much quicker than over a period of months.

This is a pretty large system by any standard. What's the fish stocking level? If there was a good amount of fish being fed, then the food issue would be less likely, but the pics you did provide make the tank look pretty empty of not only corals and other inverts, but fish too.

 

[kevin_e]

Just asking, but how are you keeping 8.1-8.2 PH with Calcium reactor? Only time I could accomplish that was with very large water volume.

I ask, because on my smaller tanks I've had to forgo the calcium reactor and reduced PH to maximize polyp extension on my milli's....well this after I got rid of AEFW...which I denied I had for months because I couldn't see them.

I maintain my 30 gallon system at 8.1 with a calc reactor. Set the pH controller at 6.9.

 

[kevin_e]

I just had a similar issue. Lost my milli and some light STN of s prostrata and valida. Tank was cloudy for weeks. UV killed it in 24 hours. Crystal clear and gapy coral.

 

[Aqualund]

I maintain my 30 gallon system at 8.1 with a calc reactor. Set the pH controller at 6.9.

This may be true, but just by the number of corals you could possibly keep in a 30 gallon tank and the calcium/alk required to keep them happy ...versus the water volume, does not really compare to a 120 full of very large SPS colonies packed to the brim.

Believe me, I've tried everything, including upping the ph to 6.9...that just requires more drips to keep the calcium on par with consumption.

So i've adopted a half and half strategy where I do half balling, half reactor. Seems to be working out!

 

[scottwhitson]

Do you feed the corals anything? No scientific evidence here, but I think many times when we see this happening it's because the corals aren't receiving enough food in the water borne foods like reef pearls or similar. They then go into slow decline as seems to be happening to your corals. If it were a pathogen or water parameter, I think it would be much quicker than over a period of months.

This is a pretty large system by any standard. What's the fish stocking level? If there was a good amount of fish being fed, then the food issue would be less likely, but the pics you did provide make the tank look pretty empty of not only corals and other inverts, but fish too.

This has been a consideration of ours. About 2 months ago we started dosing some Acropower along with another supplement that I can't remember the name of right now. The stocking load is currently very light only 14 fish and only one bigger fish we are bringing more fish in all the time but I may try a different coral food and see if that helps. All LPS seem to be doing ok but they may be catching some of the larger particle stuff that the SPS cant?