Help!! My corals are bleaching!!

[aaronlp]

SO after about 3-4 days of being away from home on a small vacation i com home to all my sps blached my torch colony starting to bleach and fuzy hair algae starting to pop up on my zoanthids....whats going on with my tank.

I will test everything tmrw and put more details up when i get a chance tomorrow.



PLEASE HELP

 

[pascal32]

Any chance things got toasty while you were away - check with a digital temp meter to see where you are? did you leave the AC on? Did a lot of water evaporate while you were away or do you have a top-off?

check salinity, phosphate & KH. any changes recently like new lights?

is the SPS from the base up or from the tips?

try not to go crazy and change a ton of stuff dealing with this. start with a healthy 25% water change.

 

[aaronlp]

yeah im gonna do a water change today....do you think is was the kalk and something bounced up like the ph or something?

 

[mr86mister]

+1 for what Pascal said. Answer some of the questions we ask and we can pinpoint what the issue may be.

 

[aaronlp]

I checked the salinity its about 1.027-1.028...the temp is fine im going to check nitrites nitrates and amonia in a second and let you know

 

[boosted chemist]

check alk and ca too.

 

[mr86mister]

Whats the lighting they are under.? Which tank is this in? Temperature swing might have had something to do with it. Was someone feeding the system?

 

[aaronlp]

theres no fish in it right now just corals and a pair of banded coral shrimp...the nitries are at 0ppm, the amonia is at 0ppm but the nitrates were at 5ppm...noone is feeding the tank...im going to do a water change in it soon....do you think that the kalk would have anything to do with it...and why is there random algae growing in it now...o and the light is 2 actininc t-5s and 2 250w halides

 

[Tonynlo]

What was, and what is your alk now?

 

[boosted chemist]

How old is the tank ? The algae can throw off the readings ( it's eating the no and po) what's your alk and cal ?

 

[aaronlp]

could changing the type of salt mix do anything...i went from reef crystals to a gegular salt mix..

 

[dan10342]

yeah that can do it lol. Stick with one type of salt, and slowly change if you feel like changing salts.

 

[aaronlp]

yeah i think its the salt maybe..............BUT what about the kalk doser couldany swings from that cause stuff to die off?

 

[NirvanaFan]

Aaron... What were your alkalinity readings before your vacation? What is the alkalinity now?

 

[aaronlp]

i couldnt tell you...i dont have any test last time i had it checked it was pretty good

 

[cardiffgiant]

It sounds like what I've seen in my systems shortly after an alkalinity swing.

 

[boosted chemist]

i couldnt tell you...i dont have any test last time i had it checked it was pretty good

What is good, acceptable range and swings are two things

 

[NirvanaFan]

It sounds like what I've seen in my systems shortly after an alkalinity swing.

I was thinking the problem was alkalinity too. Aaron, get your alk tested. It really helps to keep a log of test dates and results somewhere. Write them in a notebook or keep them in excel. It can help narrow down problems sometimes.

 

[aaronlp]

I was thinking the problem was alkalinity too. Aaron, get your alk tested. It really helps to keep a log of test dates and results somewhere. Write them in a notebook or keep them in excel. It can help narrow down problems sometimes.

thanks!

 

[mr86mister]

How long have the corals been in this system and what is your light schedule? Did you acclimate them slowly with lighting and start at the bottom of the system, that's a lot of light for the 75 which is great down the road you are just going to need to acclimate corals to it. Alk and Cal tests are what you should have with a Reef, those are part of the basic testing things. Get the Alk checked ASAP!