Need some help - puzzling sps tissue recession

[slavetonet]

Looks to me like heavy metal contamination. I had similar issue with rusting hose clamps.
Who knew right, marine grade Stainless 316 my arse !
Same with GFO or All in One bio pellets, if you let it break up and flow into your tank, again - heavy metal eventually will cause STN or RTN. Always weaken your corals from internally. Any small mistake or out of wack parameters will cause it to disintegrate.
You will slowly loose corals bit by bit...
I have learn it the hard way, hopefully you don't have to do it.
Vacuum your sand blow the rocks hard, hopefully you can stop it.
Buy a Secheam product - heavy metal resin, I can't say it will work, but it is better than losing it all and you will be pulling your hair out all the time and can't figure it out.

Keep us posted of your results.

 

[Andrew D]

The alcohol look intact, only steel balls must have leaked
You can run polyfilter pad to be safe
Did you double check your Alk test kit?

I hadn't thought to check the alkalinity test kit as it was new. Did that today with one from a friend and unfortunately it read the same. Not the solution I'm afraid. Hadn't thought about polyfilter, have one somewhere will try that tonight. thanks for the suggestion. Andrew

 

[Andrew D]

Looks to me like heavy metal contamination. I had similar issue with rusting hose clamps.
Who knew right, marine grade Stainless 316 my arse !
Same with GFO or All in One bio pellets, if you let it break up and flow into your tank, again - heavy metal eventually will cause STN or RTN. Always weaken your corals from internally. Any small mistake or out of wack parameters will cause it to disintegrate.
You will slowly loose corals bit by bit...
I have learn it the hard way, hopefully you don't have to do it.
Vacuum your sand blow the rocks hard, hopefully you can stop it.
Buy a Secheam product - heavy metal resin, I can't say it will work, but it is better than losing it all and you will be pulling your hair out all the time and can't figure it out.

Keep us posted of your results.

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you mean Seachem CupriSorb? That's the only thing that came up for me on a google search as I've not heard of it before. Also, wouldn't metal poisoning affect inverts like snails, crabs and shrimp more as I thought they were more sensitive? I have many of those in the tank adn they seem fine. At this point though, I'm willing to try anything.

 

[Andrew D]

Should also have mentioned that another straw I'm grasping at is my 3 dwarf angels - potters, flame and coral beauty. Although they've been model citizens for well over a year, I saw my coral beauty picking at another coral and wondered if maybe he helped push stressed corals over the edge. I've borrowed a friends fish trap and will try to remove and quarantine him to see if things settle down. I don't mind losing the Coral Beauty but I'd hate to get rid of the potters, he's such a beautiful fish.

 

[Icefire]

I would watch all 3 extensively from a distance, many are shy nipper

 

[slavetonet]

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you mean Seachem CupriSorb? That's the only thing that came up for me on a google search as I've not heard of it before. Also, wouldn't metal poisoning affect inverts like snails, crabs and shrimp more as I thought they were more sensitive? I have many of those in the tank adn they seem fine. At this point though, I'm willing to try anything.

Hello Andrew,
Yes it is the cupriSorb product.
What have you got to lose by trying it? Only up from here I can see.

Q: Will CupriSorb effectively remove metals other than Cu? I'm looking for a medium (preferably renewable) that will remove or at least significantly reduce all metals in my tap water.

A: It will also remove, nickel, zinc, cobalt, cadmium, manganese. it may remove other heavy metals but we have no data for any others.

 

[Andrew D]

well, couldn't find cuprisorb locally so I am using polyfilter in my overflow. It's been there for 24 hours already, and so far still white. I've also been able to remove 2 of my 3 mini angels, with the flame being the most elusive. I'm still seeing some tissue loss, having had to remove a large green slimer just this evening which had great polyp extension not 2 days ago. I'm at the point where I'm resigned to losing them all, it's so depressing.

In reading some of the other threads I came across this one, recently resurrected. The symptoms aren't exactly the same but as I've said before I'm grasping at straws here. I can't see anything under the magnifying glass and don't have access to a microscope, but I'm debating treating my tank with interceptor. Anyone know where I can get some in Ontario Canada?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1978250

 

[biggles]

Hi Andrew, the symptoms your seeing can also result from a pH drop at night. Continual stress every night will eventually begin to take a toll, been there and done that.
When i turn the lights on in the morning i see a glittering polyp jungle, when i closed the house up over winter and left the heater running all night the acros had nearly no PE when the lights came on, which is what first alerted me to check the one thing that swings every night. I saw what you are seeing but i caught it as soon as i noticed some small patches of stn on a couple of pieces.
Worth checking mate, good luck

 

[Andrew D]

Thanks for the suggestion Andrew, never thought of that. It's been a while since I've checked my pH, don't even know if I have the means to do that. I have a reverse lit ATS though in my sump, which I woudl have thought regulated my pH at night somewhat. At this point though, I won't discount any theory. Andrew

 

[tmz]

Sorry your troubles are persistent, It's almost impossible to establish a sense of causation ,since, as is almost always the case, a number of things were going on at once( salt change, lighting change, new tank and move, new ats, alk variation )

A few thoughts FWIW:

Pests: micro parasitic infestations are hard to diagnose without microscopic examination. I suspect they are more common than we realize and may take off when corals are otherwise stressed. There are many types ;there is a tendency to to lump all of them into red bugs and aefw categories which are the most visible .
There are a number of threads which may give you some insights on prevention and treatment, dips/ at etc.. The week long recovery you noted might have been coincident with a particular parasite's life cycle.

I would cut back ailing specimens, dip the surviving frags and isolate them in a separate tank and /or attempt an in tank treatment like interceptor or perhaps invermectin, though there isn't much anecdotal experience with invermectin as a "reef safe" treatment,

ATS: on reverse photo period it should use some CO2 helping pH and add some oxygen as a product of photosynthesis which may help nigh time hypoxia. Whether or not it makes a significant change depends on the size of it,the type of algae growing and the rate of growth.
Aeration via a bubbly skimmer will also help aeration,btw.
An ATS may also add organic carbon via exudates some of which are refractory( don't degrade readily)to the water in forms and /or allellopathic compounds and toxins.

Detritus: if it builds up as seems to be the case given the green growth the degradation can create low pH localized conditions making it hard for the coral to squeeze out H+ as it converts bicarbonate to carbonate in producing skeletal mass. The ecf( external fluid ) used by the coral in calcification is usually maintained by the coral around pH 9 in nsw where the pH is around 8.2 .

Flow: can obviously effect hypoxia and /or localized pH levels related to detritus build ups. Redirecting power heads to eliminate dead spots or adding more flow may help. Thnning out the forest from time to time can also be benefical. Corals that are experiencing stn /rtn may also be upsetting things via less photsynthesis and more degrading organics from sloughed tissue which may also effect other corals

Free heavy metals: Free is the key word ; most metals are bound to organics and less toxic in that state. However, they may break those bonds in locally acidic areas or as organisms degrade or as argonite dissolves. Cuprisorb and/or poly filter should help if free metal contamination is occurring.

Salt: some slats contain organics /ligands which bind heavy metals; some don't.It's possible some salts could contain toxic substances introduced during the manufacturing process.

Anyway, some things to consider. Good luck in restoring that lovely tank.

 

[ERIC85854]

Whatever happened with your SPS tissue recession problem?