Losing SPS, need some advice. PICS

[impur]

Thanks Dan, i agree, and it sucks!! My salifert test kits will be here any day. I'll take some water over to Sean to test and verify as well. Will be doing a large WC tomorrow. And again Friday. Then again Tuesday when i get back into town.

 

[impur]

Well i'm going to try and find someone locally who will hold my remaining SPS for a few months. I don't want to wait it out and risk losing all of them. Unless some of you think i could win this battle........

What kind of time table would you suggest for me to keep them out of the tank?

 

[reefgeek84]

Did you have DSB?

 

[impur]

I do have a sandbed, its about 2-3" deep.

 

[Saltfun2003]

I went through something like this for a while. Blamed it on my redbugs that i yet to treat. Have u tested your Magnesium. I read many treads when this was happned to me and found my Magnesium to be really low.

 

[drock59]

I would definately test as many varibles as you can. I cannot imagine why this is happeing if all your levels are in order. If there is something out of wack, the big WC ought to fix or at least help.

 

[impur]

Thats the reasoning i have had Dan. But some are thinking differently here. So i'm still just as confused as before. LOL

I don't have a mag test kit so i cannot test for that. When i get home tonight i'll calibrate everything and do some more testing. Gotta make up a large amount of water too. I do not think the redbugs have anything to do with it. I've had them for a year or so now, and since the move i have a valida that has gone from brown with brown polyps to a awesome purple tips and yellow polyps. Also, check out this frag. This frag did not even begin encrusting until after the move. In the last few weeks its completely encrusted over the plug, while other corals die. Go figure

Miles

 

[impur]

Well i've got a guy in our local club who will take them in shortly. In the meantime, i'll calibrate everything, test daily and have the tests verified by other tests at my LFS(and with the salifert tests once they arrive), and do 2 large WCs each week, about 10gal each WC. I'll check all WC water to make sure it matches the parameters in the tank.

Thats the plan of action. Thanks for all the input guys. It definately helps to be reassured on these things. I'll keep this thread updated every few days.

 

[PUGroyale]

Are all the water changes you've done with the same batch of salt? I

lost about a dozen frags a few months ago... I was tearing my hair out All parameters were perfect, I'm cutting my lighting period/raising the lights/yanking all the leathers [calfo said I had a toxic soup going... gotta love expert "help"] All the while I'm doing BIG regular water changes... cuz' that's what yer s'posed to do... right? Finally I figure the only variable I haven't checked is the Coralife salt. Did a 50% change with IO... big improvement. Did another 50% a couple days later... better yet. Finally I have things perfect again So... if you haven't already thought of it ~ check your salt.

 

[impur]

Yah all the same salt, even same Jug of Oceanic.

Glad you got yours squared away quickly! Its tough to sit by and watch.

 

[PUGroyale]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7424529#post7424529 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by impur
Yah all the same salt, even same Jug of Oceanic.

I say change it... What have you got to lose? Maybe it got corrupted during your move, who knows. I think mine was just a bad batch. I'll sell you the last half of the last bag of my Coralife bucket real cheap :lol:

 

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7418372#post7418372 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 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.

I agreed with Fliger its a stability issue.

 

[impur]

Well my salifert tests arrived. Did some testing, double testing, and some calibrating.

Temp 80 (3 seperate thermometers)
SG 1.025 (calibrated twice using RO, then Randy's recipe)
pH 8.1-8.2 (hard to tell since the chart goes from 8.0 to 8.3)
alk 9.3dKH
calcium 420ppm
nitrates 0ppm (completely clear liquid after 3 min)

I mixed up 10 gallons of fresh SW, will be doing the large WC tonight. I hope this turns things around.

 

[impur]

Well a week has passed. Have done 15gal worth of WCs in that time and added a phosphate sponge. The recession continues on those corals that were already going, albeit slowely. The other SPS are looking ok, one large colony fell over into a smaller frag over the weekend, but the damage is limited to just one of them and just the tip. I hope it makes it as it was growing really well. When it rains it pours i guess. But there seems to be positive progress. This morning as i checked out the tank in the dark it appeared that my oregon tort frag might have some STN starting. Not sure thoe as the light hadn't kicked on yet. I really hope it isn't going. I'll find out later i suppose. And there are some diatoms growing on the edge of my orange monti cap. I've been basting it daily to try and keep the diatoms at bay. I remember the diatom stage when i setup my tank. Hope this time it passes just as quick and easily.

 

[dreaminmel]

What kind of sand did you use for the bed? Possible silica is leaching from that or coming in w/ your water changes?

I ask because I have a brown bloom going and figured out 1ppm of silica is making it into my tank every time I do a water change... I'm planning on getting an RO/DI ASAP which I believe you said you use so this may not be a factor for you.

 

[dirtyreefer]

That sucks dude, I really feel for ya. There's nothing worse than watching a tank slowly go downhill and not knowing what the hell is the problem.

Check your Mag levels though. I can't say if that's the problem, but I once had a problem with low Mag which caused a tissue recession on the tips of my acros. Make sure the levels are above 1300.

 

[impur]

I used 100% southdown argonite sand. No silica.


Yah it is tough to watch. I don't have a mag test kit, i'll msg some of the local guys to see if anyone does. I would think these frequent large WCs would help if that were the problem though.

 

[mr. pluto]

if you have been using oceanic salt exclusively, i doubt your mag is way off. imo. it is (1) alk. burn. or (2) ammonia poisioning.

 

[gil716]

impur, i know exactly how you feel. i was experiencing something similiar, but it only affected one specific type of acro. i had 3 samoensis frags in different areas of the tank, yet they all started to STN from base up and on some of the tips.

i fragged my frags and used superglue as a quasi bandage at the points of necrosis. they seem to be coming back and one of them is already growing over the superglue. maybe you should give that a shot if you haven't already.

As for the root cause, I've narrowed it down to either the huge waterchanges from redbug treatments or the .3 error on my ph probe as I dripped kalk to push it over the top.

HTH

 

[vapor1]

I would vote for Acro eating flatworms.I had a similar problem and it took about 6-8 colonys and a few frags untill I was able to see the little suckers.It was slow, so I thought STN.But actually it was AEFW's and it took awhile before I ever saw the first one.Some of your pics look exactly the way my colony's and frags looked.I found them when I was inspecting a frag under a magnifying glass. After putting the frag in an Iodine dip for 10 mins, I was able to pick one off of the frag with a toothpick.I'm telling ya , these suckers are VERY hard to see.

It took about 3 months after the first Acro started receding untill I was actually able to see one. So, watch the corals closely and go over them with a magnifying glass around the area that is receding.

Just something else to think about.