All my SPS are dead

[CoralKitty]

A month and a half is not long enough for quaratine apparently.

The only new items I got since spring were things from YR in the fall.

I noticed a problem a month after adding the corals to my display, as in 2.5 months after purchase.

And now sea spiders and monti nudies have officially killed $200 worth of coral.

I did my best to fight it but each one is now more than half dead and what is alive looks sickly.

I give up.

The pests have won.


And now I worry if sea spiders can in fact eat any kind of coral, I dearly hope that when I read that they meant just any kind of SPS.



A $60 purchase killed $200 worth of coral and ended the beautiful growth that used to fill me with glee and happiness when I looked at my tank, they had all grown so much since spring and I was oh so happy.



I am going to go curl up in a corner and cry now.

 

[smtank]

Sorry,:sad2:

Sea spiders yet another pest to give me sps nightmares.

I have not purchased a new corals since beginning of Dec, because of my new found pest paranoia.

I hope it all turns around for you and the tank once again feels you with glee and happiness.

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

Make a list of what you lost, I can probably give you back most of it for free.

Ron

 

[CoralKitty]

Make a list of what you lost, I can probably give you back most of it for free.

Ron

If I am still in this hobby half a year from now I may just have to take you up on that offer...I read that you have to leave the tank free of the food source for at least 6 months...

In the meantime I will hope these buggars only eat SPS and if they don't I will go fish only for a while and maybe get a few things I could not have before because they eat coral...namely crabs, starfish and maybe a small flame angel (I had one but it was a coral nibbler)

Man I hope the spiders do not eat my alien eye favia, I have had that coral since 2007...

 

[iriejp1]

Make a list of what you lost, I can probably give you back most of it for free.

Ron

Wow...how nice was that? The generosity in our area never ceases to amaze me! :beer:

And FWIW...I have bought a couple of pieces from YR in the last month or so with absolutely no issue.

 

[dlee300z]

I have some GSP I can donate, lol j/p. That really sucks. What I'd like to know is what and where this $60 purchase was and a warning too.

 

[marioensf]

If you are going to keep it running for six months then why not start from zero?
Get everything out, let it dry and cycle again.

 

[mayjong]

CK-
would it be possible for me to come over an see your tank?
i am also losing all my sps, and can't figure out why. i purchased some stuff from YR in the same timeframe, and all of SPS are dying. 100% of them are affected.
i can't seem to find any pest, though. it may be i'm just not seeing them....

anyway, if i could SEE them in your tank (could you actually point them out?) and see the damage i might at least KNOW what is happening in my tank.
as of now, i have no idea!

let me know-
sent you pm

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I'd be really curious to know, mayjong, if you have tangs or wrasses because I would expect either to eat the spiders for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why not just add a 6-line CK?

 

[Paulca916]

Wow...how nice was that? The generosity in our area never ceases to amaze me! :beer:

And FWIW...I have bought a couple of pieces from YR in the last month or so with absolutely no issue.

Coral Kitty sorry to hear this happened to you.
I know how it feel's to lose a reef.
I've lost two 135 and 125 gallon's the reason I got out in the late 90's broke my heart.
Ron way to be :thumbsup: Ron's always generous with his coral's.

I myself have bought coral's from YOUR REEF over the last two year's (since I restarted reefing) 99% of my coral's come from YOUR REEF never an issue.
I've also seen the precautions taking at YOUR REEF first hand when new stuff come's in so I would be suprised anything you got came from there.
I hope this don't take you away from this hobby.
Check the board's see if there is anything that kill's what ever you have.

Also you may want to frag what's alive try to save some of them.
If you can pull most of the water out of your tank set up a tank for the new frag's
Good luck

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I have some GSP I can donate, lol j/p. That really sucks. What I'd like to know is what and where this $60 purchase was and a warning too.

Part of being in the hobby is learning to deal with all kinds of pests. There's just no way around it. Aiptasia (easy to deal with), red bugs (mostly harmless), flat worms of various types (many predators), damn star fish (siphoning every other day -- YUCK), etc.. I'm sure most of us don't have spiders because we have things that eat them.

 

[mayjong]

i have no wrass, because i have a neon dottyback, but i've never seen him "picking" at any rocks or anything. i do have a mandarin...

just hoping to find out why all my sps are dying!

 

[marioensf]

How old are your test kits? Have you checked for low Mag, Alk and other basic things?
I normally use API for general testing, backed up by Salifert if I'm suspicious of something.
GL, you have a good group of reefers up there

 

[westreef]

Very sorry to hear that. My last purchase from YR was last fall. No issue what so ever. Of course I dipped them in Revive and I have a 6 line wrasse. Would it be possible to have a pic on these pests?

 

[mayjong]

ya , i've done ALL that and more!
still can't identify what is killing my sps...

i've posted a couple threads about it, nobody knows...

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Dipping doesn't kill the eggs of many pests.

If your goal is a pest free tank then you have to kill the newly hatched pests in quarantine before they can lay eggs. You have to keep dipping until all the eggs you started with have hatched and been killed before they can lay more eggs. This process is very hard on the corals.

Oh, and good luck figuring out how long the eggs of the known pests take hatch and how long it takes for them to reach sexual maturity. As for the unknown ones, lets hope you don't discover any of the thousand that are likely to exist.

Many of us will simply never be willing to do everything possible to prevent pests from getting into our tanks. Those that do everything possible still get no guarantees. Nobody can guarantee they have no pests. Some can come very close though. If you are willing to put the effort in will help.





I do what's easy and hope for the best...

• Keep your existing corals, fat, happy and ready to fight. Set up the filtration that is required to feed them well.
• Introduce frags only, no colonies or rocks, too many hiding places. If you get a frag on a rock break the frag off the rock and remount it on a new plug
• Scrap off all visible (magnifying glass) eggs
• Dip all frags once. I prefer iodine based for this purpose
• Keep fish that are known to eat pests, i.e. lots of wrasses
• Avoid fishes that are killed by pest eaters, e.g. mandarins
• Avoid fishes that kill pest eaters, i.e. the meanest of the wrasses
• Mount some of your pest magnent corals, e.g. acros and montis, so they are close enough to the glass to visually inspect with a magnifying glass
• Verify your pest control crew is keeping up by dipping a few corals occasionaly in a clear dip, not iodine based, and inspecting what comes off

EDIT: just because a coral that is dying has pests on it doesn't mean they killed it. IMO - unidientified water problems kill way more corals then identified pests.

 

[dots]

Pictures are a thousand words....or a thousand dollars saved in chasing your tail.

Post some of the tank, and describe what was going on when the SPS were going downhill.

A lot of us have seen it all, and more than once ourselves, so we can probably help get you on the right track.

 

[dots]

just hoping to find out why all my sps are dying!

Exactly how are they dying?

 

[CoralKitty]

I'd be really curious to know, mayjong, if you have tangs or wrasses because I would expect either to eat the spiders for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why not just add a 6-line CK?

I tried TWICE the first I added days after setup before my old fish got settled and I never saw it after the first day...the other I added the following week and I found it half eaten. All I have is a clown and a blue damsel and while neither are much bigger than the 6line they bully them to death.
The damsel attacked the bag.. and even though I floated the fish for a good 5 hours in a hole punched clear platic tub to try and get the damsel used to its presesnce...it still chased the damsel right into the rocks and the next day it was dead
And yes I tried to catch the damsel >_<
(I love my damsel for the most part, had the buggar for years, but, well dangit $4 fish killed $30 of fish!)

And I know the water parameters are good, I have been putting more effort into saving my sunset monti than anything else and it has new growth on it, like a hoof half inch all the way around since the issue started...which so stinks! It means everything would be doing well if it was not getting nibbled D:

 

[CoralKitty]

CK-
would it be possible for me to come over an see your tank?
i am also losing all my sps, and can't figure out why. i purchased some stuff from YR in the same timeframe, and all of SPS are dying. 100% of them are affected.
i can't seem to find any pest, though. it may be i'm just not seeing them....

anyway, if i could SEE them in your tank (could you actually point them out?) and see the damage i might at least KNOW what is happening in my tank.
as of now, i have no idea!

let me know-
sent you pm

Flash light, long after lights out, look at the dead areas, pick corals up and look under them if you can. You are looking for clear daddy long leg spiders with black marks. They are really small like ants. They look JUST like spiders and move like them too. If you freshwater dip the adults flaot off real quick and curl up like a dead spider.