Losing Everything.....

ReefDoberman

New member
All of a sudden every one of my sps has bleached is or bleaching and I can not figure out why? My tank is a 265 gallon reef with a 100 gallon refugium and a 40 gallon sump. I have 2 250 watt 10k's in the canopy. I more lights in shipment from aquauniverse }( another set of dual 250's, they are replacing dual 175's that I took off a few days ago)

Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
PH- 8.1


They are all very small frags with exception to a blue acro and a montipora digitata. They were doing great then all at once they began to bleach. I've lost 3 staghorns, 2 millaporas, yellow acro, blue acro and am losing my green digitata.

The polyps stop extending then they fade within hours to pure white. Is there anything I can do? What should I do before adding any new sps?

All of my softies are doing great. The fish are great. It is just the sps???????????
 
Temperature? Above 85 can cause bleaching of coralline, at least.
Alkalinity? I hit as low as 2.19 and noted an effect on sps: much lower and it might do worse.
 
Temp is steady at 78 by Ranco temp controller on heater and fans, Alk is a bit high at 10.2 - 11.8 dripping kalk 24/7.
 
Lights have changed, yes? That's one thing different from before. How long has the kalk been running? How long has the alk been high? I don't know if these things might bear on the problem, but so much else seems normal, and I'm just trying to pose questions that might ring a bell as to what's changed. Softies also a question, if there's a new one, or some threshold reached chemically. I'm way out of my competency here, and I hope someone with expert advice will pitch in soon.
 
Have you noticed any changes in your sandbed lately? I have had the same problem you describe twice. It usually occurred near the one year mark of the tank being established. All parameters were fine but corals were dying. Even a phosphate test kit revealed nothing. The best I could determine was organically bound phosphate which aren't detected by our test kits. Once I started using a phostphate remover such as rowaphos, my problems corrected. I would notice green or film algae and dinoflagellates start growing on the sandbed before both incidents began.
 
I had a kalk dosing accident that caused many corals to bleach and several to die. 24-7 kalk dripping with that high alk would be my leading guess.
 
Get a big water change ready and check RO/DI TDS to ensure its zero. I'd change 50-70gallons and then keep an eye on it daily and prepare to do further water changes. You can sit and try to determine the cause but corals will die while you try to uncover it and my never do so (i.e., if you have checked all levels and everything is normal and stable). Also, if you are not running carbon, give it a try and do so ongoing in consideration of your softies.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6944631#post6944631 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KevinFJB
Get a big water change ready and check RO/DI TDS to ensure its zero. I'd change 50-70gallons and then keep an eye on it daily and prepare to do further water changes. You can sit and try to determine the cause but corals will die while you try to uncover it and my never do so (i.e., if you have checked all levels and everything is normal and stable). Also, if you are not running carbon, give it a try and do so ongoing in consideration of your softies.

I second that notion. Change as much as you can as soon as you can. It should help.

Keith
 
Well I figured it out. My digital thermometer was off by 20 degrees. The actuall temp was about 89 degrees. This is unbelievable.
 
So why would your water be hot just because your therm was off??? Dont your heaters have built in thermostats??? I just cant imagine why that would cause your temp to rise 9 degrees.
 
I had a temp swing and my heater light was off but was still heating. Another heater would not shut off. I hate heaters. I have tried several brands now.
Heck Thermometers are just as bad especially Digi ones. The batteries get low and they are way off. Put new batteries on one and thought it was reading right. Boy was I wrong. Sorry to hear of your losses.
 
a Ranco temp controller should be considered Mandatory just like lights and heaters. Nearly everyone (including myself) has fallen prey to the heater curse.
 
Are you sure you need heaters? I don't have one on my setup. My tank is enclosed on 3 sides. I have 3 honeywell fans (K-mart $15 a piece) that I use to keep the temp down. One of them is hooked up to a temp controller that is set for 80 degs. The other 2 come on when the mh lites start. My temp stays at a constant 80 and doesn't vary by more that 1 degree. JME.
 
I don't run a heater either on my 155. Temp fluctuates from about 74-82 over the course of a week. Never had any problems.
 
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