Losing SPS, need some advice. PICS

[impur]

I have a 29gal mixed reef, but the majority of the corals are SPS. In the beginning of march i bought a house and moved the tank from my apt to the house. We bagged all the stuff we could, large rocks in buckets with water, and left about 2" of water covering the sand in the tank. After the move, some corals lost a little color, i figured due to stress. But some never recovered and i've slowely been losing SPS one by one since. The tank is 27 months old. I have plenty of flow, using a Seio 820 and MJ1200 in the main tank with a GenX2400 return. Needlewheel skimmer that pulls gunk, not as much as a top notch skimmer, but its held its own. I have a fuge with LS and cheato. I do weekly 5gal WCs. I simply cannot figure out why they keep dying, and what i can do to stop it. Today i discovered that the very first SPS frag i bought is dying, and it had done so well for over 2 years. Some of my SPS are doing great, so i'm very confused.

I DO HAVE REDBUGS but have not treated yet. I have the interceptor ready, just need to make a QT tank.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated by me and my dying SPS. Specs and pics

I literally just tested everything.

SG - 1.025
pH - 8.4
Temp - 79.5-80.2 (AC Jr temp controller)
alk - 10dKH
calcium - 420ppm
nitrates - 0ppm
phosphates - 0ppm
nitrites - 0ppm
ammonia - 0ppm

 

[impur]

Losses so far

 

[impur]

As you can see, i've tried fragging, iodine dips, moving them to higher or lower flow and higher or lower in the tank. Nothing seems to work. But i have plenty of other SPS encrusting, growing, and having great PE.

 

[marine_freak]

That is a tough one..... I would see if there is any predator in your tank that could be munching on certain corals causing stress and RTN... not necessarily red bugs but maybe AEFW, or hairy leg crabs...... good time to check for predators is after the lights go out....... Are you sure about all your perameters??? Many times our equiptment will be faulty in testing the water...... salinity is a good example with a hydrometer.... also temp can be another... How old are your bulbs?? I would pay close attention to your perameters and look for a predator........ if all else fails yank the dying to save the living... or attempt to frag the dead part well into live tissue... do a large water change and run carbon for awhile.... Let me know how it goes..... I will be following this thread

 

[twon8]

i would do some large water changes, run some carbon. perhaps you stirred up some nasty in the sand bed during the move.

 

[impur]

Thats my thought, that stirring up the sand in the move threw things off. But its been 2 months, i hoped it would have balanced out by now. I'll start doing two 5gal WCs a week for awhile and pick up some more carbon, i usually run carbon but ran out.

I am positive there are no predators. No AEFW for certain and i haven't added anything new other than 1 zoo frag for the last 4-5 months. I did order some salifert tests, as i am not sure of the precision of the tests i'm using. Salinity is check with a refractometer. Temp is controlled by the AC Jr. and i double check the temp reading with a glass thermometer every few weeks. Fragging has not helped, the frags die as well. The bulb is about 8 months old.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, the WCs are a good idea so i will do those more often.

Its just so odd to me, as you can see in a few of the pics, that some of the corals are doing so well, like the blue mille in the background in the pic above. My Oregon tort is doing awesome as well as a few tricolors and all my montis plus that blue mille.

 

[JAANDGC]

Welcome to the "WHAT THE HECK" club. I've been dealing with this for about 2 months now and have not been able to figure it out yet. I have a ? on your larger colonies do you just loose a branch at a time. Looking at your pics it looks a lot like my tank. I have tried every thing I can think of and nothing has worked. If I find some thing I will let you know, and If you find something that works please let me know.
Jerry

 

[impur]

Thanks Jerry, i'll take you up on that and keep you updated. It usually happens with 1 branch bleaching out, then it will slowely bleach to the base. Then a branch on the opposite side and not touching the bleaching area will start to go. With others it started at the base and went up. You can see in the first pic its isolated to 1 or 2 braches currently. But will soon spread throughout the colony. Its tough to sit by and watch this happen.

Miles

 

[impur]

This is how it all started, with my green slimer. This was about 2 weeks after the move

And a tricolor that started to go. I have somehow saved this one and it is now regrowing over the bleached area

 

[Fliger]

I would bet money that its a stability issue. Alkalinity and salinity have to be ROCK SOLID, and its extremely hard in such a small tank. Throw on a protien skimmer and it can even exagerrate the problem by bouncing your salinity around.

Small tanks are very difficult unless you know exactly what you are doing. Tip recession and STN IME are signs of basic stress from unstable conditions.

Make sure you have a good refract. and measure your salinity between topoffs. Also measure your alkalinity daily. And make sure your WC water matches your tank water in terms of salinity and alkalinity.

I could be wrong, but every time I've ever seen those signs - its because I wasn't on top of things. A few times I took those frags to friends houses and they healed up practically over night.

 

[DarkXerox]

Maybe there is something wrong with your salt makeup water or top off water?

This may sound drastic but if it doesn't improve, maybe try moving the injured sps to a separate tank with brand new water (possibly from a friends tank) and do a sort of prop tank setup.

If anyone else had that work, chime in, but if all else fails, I think it could be a good option. I have heard what fliger said about bringing frags to other people's tanks and seeing them heal.

 

[chadfarmer]

i am going through the same thing

my deltec calcium reactor effuient stopped and alk went from 7 to 5 in the last week and i have thesame problem

slowly bumping it up and ordered a schuran jetsteam and dosing pump so i dont have to worry about this again

 

[impur]

All good points. Thanks.

I will be sure to stay on top of alk, SG, and calcium. Alk has been real stable for a month or more. Calcium was running high at about 520ppm, that was around 4 weeks ago and i have fixed that. Could i be seeing the negative effects of the high calcium still? For about a month after the move my husbandry definately declined, WCs were done every 2 weeks instead of weekly, due to the whole process of moving and buying my first house. The system volume is approx 40gal, so SG doesn't swing much. I keep a close eye on that, as its real easy to do a quick test with the refractometer. I'll be sure to check its calibration too, you never know.

i will check all WC water to make it the same as the tank. I do use strictly RO/DI and check it with a TDS meter regularly. Topoff is controlled by a floatswitch in the sump.

There is definately a stability issue, but i'm not sure exactly what is off. Hopefully the Salifert tests get here in a few days and i'll have a better idea of what it is.

Thanks for all the input everyone, keep it coming if you think of anything else. Its never too late to learn from this experience.

 

[Mchava]

just thought about throwing this out but from looking at the last few pictures i've seen. I think it has to do with maybe your p04. If you look at your tricolor its green under that base. I've read some where that this is dew to p04 in the water. Its cant be measured by salifert.

 

[impur]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7420172#post7420172 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mchava
just thought about throwing this out but from looking at the last few pictures i've seen. I think it has to do with maybe your p04. If you look at your tricolor its green under that base. I've read some where that this is dew to p04 in the water. Its cant be measured by salifert.

Interesting. Hopefully more frequent WCs will help this as well.

 

[twon8]

you might try one larger change instead of more smaller ones. i agree po4 is evident from the green skeleton.

 

[kevensquint]

I know whats wrong, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. What you have there is major ecosystem disruption syndrom. It happens when the bacteria or micro-organizms in you water die or are left behind in a big tank change or perhaps long power outage, medication etc.. My friend, I posted the exact same thread as you here last week, and all my SPS are now dead. They sloughed off there tissue exactly like yours until all I have left are softies and a clam. Each day it would start on a different frag until all were gone. Next time I upgrade or move, I think I'll leave my corals in a freinds tank for a few months until the new system can age.

 

[cwegescheide]

Are you SURE your salinity is what your equipment is telling you? Reason I say that is because for a long time my corals were'nt healthy looking and some would not last very long. So one day I tried randy's salinity calibration technique with the 2liter bottle and table salt. I thought I did something wrong because my meter was reading WAY HIGH with Randy's recipie. So luckily I live within walking distance to the Florida aquarium so I took my refractometer over there and asked one of their keepers if they would check it out. YEP!!! My Salinity meter was reading HIGH!! What I thought was 1.026 was actually 1.018

Haven't had hardly any problems like that since. So use Randy's recipie and verify your refractometer is accurate. You'll be glad you did. His recipie was right on the money btw..

Chris

 

[impur]

I'll give that a shot, i calibrate the refractometer regularly. Never hurts to verify though.

Kevinsquirt - that is very disheartening. So one by one they just died huh? I really don't want to see that! Were the others growing the entire time? I see encrusting and good color on the rest of my SPS. Would you suggest moving them to a QT tank or giving them to a friend to hold for a few months? If all of them die i don't know if i'll keep the tank up and running. That might be enough to put me out of the hobby for awhile. Would removing the dieing corals do anything?

 

[drock59]

I would take the time to triple check everything and maybe borrow a freinds test kits to make sure yours are not off. Then I would do several LARGE water changes. This stuff shouldnt be happeing.