Problems with SPS death

[rydr119]

I have a 65 gallon reef tank that is fairly new only about 4 months set up. With in the past month my SPS and LPS have literally been dying overnight. I go to sleep and the nest morning half of a coral is white. I don't know what to do or what could be causing this problem. I have a pH of 8.0, The temp stays between 78.2 and 79.1. Calcium is at 450, alkalinity is 9.0. Any suggestions I need some advice.
Thank you
-Gina
E-mail me please with suggestions by clicking here!

 

[papagimp]

Nitrates? Phosphates? Livestock in the tank? Types of SPS we are talking about? Flow in the tank? Gunna need a bit more info to help narrow this down. Leaving it open like that and you'll get more different answers than you'll know what to do with.

fwiw, I've been getting a similar problem with just my SPS, there in a mixed reef 55g and during the past 3 weeks I've had colonies up and die overnight, while others slowly RTN away to nothing. Only the SPS though, my LPS have been doing just fine. I've narrowed my problems down to low PH, low ALK, and high Nitrates and Phosphates. (over trimmed my cheato and the whole tank went to heck quickly)

 

[rydr119]

More info on the tank

More info on the tank

I have 1 Blue hippo tang, I have 1 Spotted Mandarin Goby, 1 Yellow watchman Goby, 1Green bird wrase, 1 Tomato Clown, 2 red-headed gobies, and 1 Bi-color blenny as far as fish go. For corals I have 1 leather, a few different types of mushrooms, Some Ricordias, Frog Spawn and Hammers, 1 Green Bubble, 2 colt corals, 1 Red Cynarina, 2 Acan colonies, 1 fox tail, small and large polyp blastomusas, sun polyps, 1 Flower Pot, 1 Moon favia, a few different types of zoo's, 1 pagoda cup and I have 2 Acro's left out of the 5 I had, and both of my LPS that I had have died and been removed they were a Cinnamon montoporia and a Green Montoprria. I think thats it as far as corals go. I also have 8 clams, and 1 oyster.
At first I thought the flow was the problem but I have 1-1200 maxi jet, 2-600 maxi jets, and 2-400 maxi jets all with indirect flow as well as the return from the refugium. the 2 acrons I have left so far are ok but I am worried the I will find 1 of them half white one morning.
Thanks for any help
-Gina

 

[krazekajin]

I would lean towards an acclimation problem. How do you acclimate them. Also what are your nitrates at?

You might just be moving a bit too fast if your tank is only four months old, yet has all of that livestock in it. I think that bird wrasse will get way too big for your tank.

 

[d4a2n0k]

What are your Nitrates and Phosphates?

 

[rydr119]

No Nitrates and No phosphates. I tested the water and I had the local Marine aquarium store that I go to test it.

 

[krazekajin]

How do you acclimate the corals? Do you have any fish that would harm the corals. i have a maroon clown that would always knock my sps frags over. that dumb fish would kill all of my frags by being rough with them. They would then either go through RTN (rapid tissue Necrous) or they would bleach. I also lost a lot because I did not have enough flow. I have fixed the flow and made sure that I glue my frags good. just a thought.

i am still a little concerned about the bird wrasse. My brain tells me that they are not suitable for your aquarium size and are not reefsafe. I might be wrong though.

 

[Tennsquire]

I agree that it's probably too much too fast. A system takes a while to mature before attempting to support some of the more persnickity corals, and you're also running a pretty high bioload to tackle SPS so soon.

 

[Pistonkev]

SPS should not be in a 4 month old tank. You need to slow down a bit my friend. Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank only bad things.

 

[jaw969]

I agree that is a lot of corals but my I transferred my contents of one tank into a new tank with no cycling time. I have triple the corals she has. LPS and SPS. I have not had one die.

I would lean towards something eating them or another coral stinging them. Are any of the corals close to each other....... I have to leave my bubble and frogspawn sooooo far away from my hard corals.

 

[nctommy]

Ok, I would say that your LPS in the tank may be extending sweeper tentacles at night that are getting the SPS. You have quite a few LPS in there, if your common names are what they truely are. The hammer, frogspawn, favia, bubble, blasto's are all LPS coral. The Acro's and Monti's are SPS. The SPS would not stand a chance against LPS Sweepers. Also, if the leather is large it could be putting out toxins that could harm the SPS. If all the damage occurs overnight then I would lean towards the LPS sweepers.

 

[rydr119]

Well my 20 gal was my first reef tank and I transfered everything from there into the 65gal, and then added more corals. I was doing some acro's in the 20gal with t-5 lights. I figured it was ok, and everything has been fine up until now. I had a freind who suggested the sweepers but I have all the corals so far away from one another I don't think they would be long enough to touch one another. When I get anything new I let the bag sit for at least 1 hour to adjust temp and then I do that drip thing using the air line hose with a knot. I will try to set a pic up of the tank.