Help! SPS being eaten???!!!

[SkiFletch]

Yikes, a coral beauty and a green goby? Could be either, or some kind of nocturnal predator like that worm. Might be time to breakout the flashlight and do some detective work

 

[longiotti]

looks like there are going to be some late nights!
unless you have a video camera with night vision!
then you could just fast forward through the boring stuff
following along to see how this ends!

 

[sedorusc]

You'll have to get cully to bust out some pictures from a few years ago. He had a monster worm. Tim from abc kept it alive for a little while. Idk what happened in the end.

 

[NeverlosT]

my vote is the Goby. I think your params are ok. Either Goby or a Crab or worm probably nocturnal munching on things.

Hope you catch it! Use a flashlight covered in red cellophane, the critters wont see the light but you can see in!

 

[friendlyAlien]

I had the same happen a with my last tank and mine was due to water quality issues. Time for a good water change, or two, or three, or four over the next week, alk test, ph test, etc.

Some of the sps frags that started to be like this never recovered, had to break the tips of to grow from scratch. Others came back once I was doing proper husbandry again.

Good luck!

 

[MD Ocean Girl]

Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions...going to do another water change tonight. It's got to be something eating them at night....neither the coral beauty nor the green goby, or any other fish/crab/shrimp/etc has been seen munching on any coral in the tank during the day.....sigh... :sad2::hmm2::furious:

 

[tmz]

What is the PO4?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I would suspect elevated PO4 in this aquarium but coral polyps are showing classic signs of being munched by the Goby as well as possibly something else.

The best approach to keeping SPS IMO: design and maintain a reef aquarium specifically for them. For example: LPS and softies can usually thrive in a SPS type aquarium whereas SPS cannot always thrive in an ideal LPS/softie type environment.

 

[pascal32]

for PO4 recommend a digital test, the titration tests don't seem to read well unless you have a really high level.

 

[MD Ocean Girl]

Blurry, I don't have a digital test for PO4, unfortunately. I'm going to do another set of tests now and see where the levels are.

Gary, even with RO/Di water, there's always been a detectable PO4 level in the aquarium since moving it into my apartment in the city. Any suggestions for lowering the PO4 level even more? Any other suggestions as to what might be eating the corals? And what exactly would an elevated PO4 level do to SPS corals? The RBTA, mushrooms, zoas/palys, and LPS are all thriving in the aquarium.

What exactly is the difference between and SPS type aquarium and one where LPS/softies will thrive? This tank has been established for at least 3 years. I believe this is the first time my bf has tried to keep SPS. He's really hoping that when he upgrades his tank again he can do a mixed reef with an anemone, softies, LPS and SPS. As for me, I just started keeping a saltwater tank in September, so this is really new for me. And keeping a saltwater aquarium is a completely different challenge from freshwater ones. I've done a ton of reading, but I know I have so much yet to learn. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I'll post up new pics and test levels asap.

Thanks!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

What exactly is the difference between and SPS type aquarium and one where LPS/softies will thrive?

Good news: Hanna has now made available a rather inexpensive low range PO4 tester. SPS thrive in low range PO4 (ie: less than .02ppm) and LPS/ softies can do just fine in this low PO4.... BUT...... not vice versa.


kapeesh?

 

[MD Ocean Girl]

Here's the updated values:

pH: 8.0
NH3: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
PO4: 0.5 ppm
Calc: 480
Mg: 1410
KH: 7.7
Alk: 2.74

Here's pics of the SPS:

As I said, I just don't understand why this just happened so quickly. They were perfectly fine in the tank from October until the end of December, and the PO4 has been between 0.5 and 1 the whole time.

Thanks for the explanation Gary. Guess I have more reading and understanding to do.

And here's a few pics of the tank if you're interested:

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

it's a beautiful aquarium and I have no doubt you'll have success with a lot of those corals but you might have a difficult time growing certain SPS.

Note retracted polyps and the constant presence of the Goby around SPS corals. I've dealt with these Gobies before. I'm not saying it's impossible to keep the Gobies with SPS but they do cause SPS some harm.