Coral Death Mystery

Zen685

Zen685

Member
I lost two mature SPS colonies today and I have no idea why. Everything else in my tank seems to be fine including frags from one of them I cut a while back. These two corals were growing together on a separate rock in the center of my tank. I noticed them turning white on Saturday and today they're completely gone. Something took them out extremely fast. Does anyone have any theories?

More info on recent changes: New t5 Bulbs last week, changed GFO and Carbon this weekend, switched from 2 part recipe 2 to recipe 1. Dosed 100ml of Mag solution on two different days to top of magnesium. This is all standard maintenance that doesn't usually affect the tank.

Parameters are stable: pH 8.1 (was 8 before switching 2 part recipes), Alk 9, Calcium 400, phospate 0, nitrate 0

This was a few days ago.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7145699@N06/6644304833/" title="Untitled by Zen685, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6644304833_812ea6f922_z.jpg" width="478" height="640" alt=""></a>

This is today.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7145699@N06/6751651163/" title="IMG_2574 by Zen685, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6751651163_c3108a0fdb_z.jpg" width="478" height="640" alt="IMG_2574"></a>

Dead colonies are in the center of the tank behind the tangs.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7145699@N06/6751650161/" title="IMG_2573 by Zen685, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7174/6751650161_cf3152f7e2_z.jpg" width="640" height="478" alt="IMG_2573"></a>
 
Are those colonies touching? If so, how long were they touching for? I don't know, and can't really pinpoint any parameter issues unless you had a major swing ( I know you posted 9 on alk, but any rapid swings lately?) or anything else, since your other frags and colonies seem fine.
 
I dont know but somthing did happpen. the new bulbs could have shocked it and the gfo could have helped that aswell how many bulbs did you change.
 
No alk swings lately. It's been locked in a 9 for a couple of months.

I changed all 6 bulbs but I can't see it completely killing the coral. None of my other corals bleached at all. It started dying off from the base near the rock and moved up very quickly.

I've noticed that the two colonies were beginning to grow together. I'm wondering if they finally nuked each other? It just seems like one would win and take over the other instead of both dying.
 
Do a higher water change . dose sponge powder and pohl Xtra. Use coral snow and activated Carbon. Cross check salinity and basic water pprameters. This is the Zeovit guide. Im not an expert but is the coral in the back also a sps or a leather. if they did kill each other then what a fussy lil ***** they both are no?
 
The coral in the back is another SPS. I'm not sure what kind. It's never really colored up like my other corals. It's always stayed a pale yellowish green.

If they really did kill each other then I'll have to chalk it up to fate. I cut both of those corals off of a dying colony a couple of years ago and placed them 4" apart on that rock. I didn't expect either to live but they both grew like weeds until they were completely entangled. There were small areas of black tissue where they were touching which is to be expected. I just always assumed one would win and kill off the other.

I already changed the carbon. Overall I'm not that worried about the rest of the tank. I'm seeing no signs of distress anywhere else. I'm a little bummed about the birdsnest because it had become somewhat of a showpiece in my tank. Looks like I'm in the market for another showpiece. :) Any suggestions?
 
Your pink birdsnest seems a little bit bleached already. I know it looks better but they are usually darker than that. In my experience birdsnest type of corals are very sensitive to lighting (t5 in my experience).
My birdsnest had stn when i was givin them too long photo period.
They are also sensitive to alk swing. Gfo does lower the alk.
 
1. Combined, all of these changes may have adversely affected the corals. So normally it doesn't affect the corals right? But have you ever changed gfo + carbon + the lights at the same time before?

2. I have had issues with my sps after refreshing the gfo... the fresh batch might reduce the levels of phosphate in the water too fast for the coral to properly adjust too (??).

3. Do you run RODI? If so, check if the membrane still works etc, maybe the top off water might have introduced nasty substances into the water.

And lastly, which seems to me to be the most rational explanation for the deaths is chemical warfare. They are very close to each other so their chemicals don't have the chance to dilute before they come in contact with the coral.


Either way, that's really to bad mate... You grew a very nice colony there!
 
Last edited:
Bugger: I'm running a controller and the temp doesn't swing more that .5 deg this time of year. In the past I've seen 3-4 deg temp changes over a few hours but it's never affected anything.

Lamball1: I checked the RODI a couple of weeks ago and it was 0. I think you might be on to something with the combination effect of multiple changes. I did quite a bit of maintenance over a few days. Maybe the combination of water change, mag and calc boost, GFO/Carbon change out, new bulbs, and an ongoing war with their neighbor shocked them.
 
I run my temp at 78 heat on 82 cooling on trying to maintain 80. I wouldn't worry about it. my opinion was to much to fast.
 
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