Help with sudden decline in SPS health

eder10986

eder10986

New member
Wife and I have a stable tank stocked with all reef safe fish. Out of no where some of our SPS corals began to loose some tissue however it does not look like stn to me. We have a Hollywood stunner who has loved life and grown like a weed All of a sudden begin to lose some tissue around its edges and small random patches in the middle. "” coral is ~6-7 inches across. Also one of my monti dig corals and favias are showing the same pattern and my green echinata browned out.

150 g tank 40 g sump
Two kessil 360we and 36" ati 6 bulb
Salinity - 1.026
Mag - 1320
Alk - 8.5
Calcium - 325 (working on slowly raising it but I can't see this being the culprit)

Any ideas gang?


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Temp 78.8-79.9

Nutrients are definitely low. However it has never been a problem. I thought about overfeeding and such for some time but many recommended not to. Any ideas how to increase nutrient levels would definitely be helpful.




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84d68212aa81d5117e5ae54cb6f915c4.jpg


Pic when tank had been recently set up for reference and pic of tank now


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Get your ca up and you might think different about low ca not causing problems. Chemistry is way outta wack


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eder10986 said:
Temp 78.8-79.9

Nutrients are definitely low. However it has never been a problem. I thought about overfeeding and such for some time but many recommended not to. Any ideas how to increase nutrient levels would definitely be helpful.




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Click to expand...
Not knowing what your nutrients are I can't make to many suggestions other than add some fish if they are truly low.

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Your Alk and calcium are way out of balance
For alk of 8.5, calcium should be around 430.
Slowly bring it up in 3-4 days.

I see potential other issues. Seems like these are the only sps. Lots of softies/ lps.
Maybe coral chemical warfare.
They could also be missing nutrients but if your softies lps ate fine, there must be enough nutrients. Coz when nutrients are low those go first.
Keep us posted


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What are your Alk stability.... can I see the list of alks you have measured in say last few months?


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I agree the calcium is out of whack and I have adjusted my doser and will measure daily. I do run carbon for chemical warefare but most of these corals have been in the tank together for a year without an issue. We have fragged the stunner several times!

Alk for the last few months has ranged from 8.4-8.8 so really small swing.


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lynchmob3000 said:
Get your ca up and you might think different about low ca not causing problems. Chemistry is way outta wack


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Click to expand...



Way out of whack? How? Seems only my ca is off which I'm beginning to remediate. Right?


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A few suggestions, in addition to those already mentioned:

Check your potassium level. It can get too high or too low surprisingly easily.

If you're not running carbon, you might add some on the chance that a build up of organic toxins is causing the problem.

Consider adding a PolyFilter too, on the off chance that a toxic metal has somehow gotten into your system.

Get a test kit and send a water sample off to Triton Labs or ATI for spectroscopy (ATI will also test your RODI water at no additional charge). It will give you levels for elements that hobbyist test kits don't measure well (iodine, strontium, etc) or at all (lead, tin, mercury, etc). Results you get will probably surprise you; when I first sent one in, when my tank wasn't looking so good, I found that I had poisoned my tank with an iodine supplement, despite having used less than half the recommended dosing.
 
rkpetersen said:
A few suggestions, in addition to those already mentioned:

Check your potassium level. It can get too high or too low surprisingly easily.

If you're not running carbon, you might add some on the chance that a build up of organic toxins is causing the problem.

Consider adding a PolyFilter too, on the off chance that a toxic metal has somehow gotten into your system.

Get a test kit and send a water sample off to Triton Labs or ATI for spectroscopy (ATI will also test your RODI water at no additional charge). It will give you levels for elements that hobbyist test kits don't measure well (iodine, strontium, etc) or at all (lead, tin, mercury, etc). Results you get will probably surprise you; when I first sent one in, when my tank wasn't looking so good, I found that I had poisoned my tank with an iodine supplement, despite having used less than half the recommended dosing.
Click to expand...



Great suggestions! Thank you kindly. I am running carbon. If things to pan out soon I think sending out a test kit will be a great idea.


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!

!

eder10986 said:
Great suggestions! Thank you kindly. I am running carbon. If things to pan out soon I think sending out a test kit will be a great idea.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. One thing I forgot to mention - At the time of my iodine overdosage, three different hobbyist test kits had told me, on multiple occasions, that my iodine level was zero or very low.

Spectroscopic testing can really pin down what's wrong, sometimes. For example, one sample I sent came back with quite elevated tin. Say what? Well, it helped me track down the cause, which I hadn't even noticed - An almost-new return pump with prematurely rusting screws. Got a new pump, did my usual water changes, tin went away.

On the other hand, sometimes it's too much data, know what I mean? For example, suppose your lithium level is twice that of normal seawater - Well, does it matter? Should I be alarmed? Or forget about it? And good luck finding a solid answer to any questions like that.
 
adtravels said:
Did you change your carbon near the time of the tissue loss?
Click to expand...



This is interesting. I hadn't been rubbing carbon at all, however, per recommendation of the lfs due to our mixed reef they suggested I run carbon. Prior to this no corals has any health issues. Y'all think that could cause this?


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