sps corals dying

[gobywonkenobi]

I am fairley new to sps corals although I have been a saltwater/lps/softie enthusiast for 2 years. I have a 5.5gal nano setup with a ac50 modded into a fuge with a 26w finnex fixture over it. The DT has a DIY heatsink from rapidled with 8 cree leds. My red trachtophyllia started to bleach so I took 2 leds out of the wiring so now I only have 6 cree leds over the DT. My params are sg: 1.0265,calc 480-500,alk 10-11,nitrate 0 and temp 78.5. I dont have a magnesiu test kit yet. I have a hydor koralia nano240 for a powerhead so there is plenty of flow.

I have run into an issue the last couple times I have bought hard corals from a fellow reefer that has alot of sps experience. These are my first sps frags. On last sunday I purchased a birds of paradise frag, a strawberry monti cap ***, a purple stylophora frag, a forest fire monti frag and pink palys. 2 days ago I noticed that the purple stylo started to turn white and show skeleton. This morning i noticed that the birds of paradise is turning white. The strawbery monti cap is solid white and totally dead. Now you can se them show more skeleton by the minute almost. Am I missing something? What could I be doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated... Im pulling my hair out. I didnt light acclimate them because they were under a radion and i figured that the lighting was close in PAR values. Could that be the problem?

 

[Nano sapiens]

I am fairley new to sps corals although I have been a saltwater/lps/softie enthusiast for 2 years. I have a 5.5gal nano setup with a ac50 modded into a fuge with a 26w finnex fixture over it. The DT has a DIY heatsink from rapidled with 8 cree leds. My red trachtophyllia started to bleach so I took 2 leds out of the wiring so now I only have 6 cree leds over the DT. My params are sg: 1.0265,calc 480-500,alk 10-11,nitrate 0 and temp 78.5. I dont have a magnesiu test kit yet. I have a hydor koralia nano240 for a powerhead so there is plenty of flow.

I have run into an issue the last couple times I have bought hard corals from a fellow reefer that has alot of sps experience. These are my first sps frags. On last sunday I purchased a birds of paradise frag, a strawberry monti cap ***, a purple stylophora frag, a forest fire monti frag and pink palys. 2 days ago I noticed that the purple stylo started to turn white and show skeleton. This morning i noticed that the birds of paradise is turning white. The strawbery monti cap is solid white and totally dead. Now you can se them show more skeleton by the minute almost. Am I missing something? What could I be doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated... Im pulling my hair out. I didnt light acclimate them because they were under a radion and i figured that the lighting was close in PAR values. Could that be the problem?

I have had SPS in 12g Nano for many years, but a 5.5g is quite a bit smaller. You have quite a challenge, especially with Acropora species.

Considering how fast the die-off occurred, I would be inclined to suspect a lighting issue (likely, light-shock). Next time, try light acclimation, slowly going from lower light to higher over a few weeks time and/or cut your photo period by a few hours and slowly bring it back up.

Another challenge is keeping calcium and alkalinity stable in such a small body of water. Have you checked these params at various times of the day and a few days in a row to see how stable they are? You're calcium and alkalinity is a bit high, but not unreasonably so. How about your Ph? Also, did you place the SPS directly in your tank or did you use some form of drip acclimation? The water that these corals were used to may have been quite different from yours.

Magnesium is important, so you really should have a test kit. However, having this param off a bit wouldn't bleach the corals in two days.

Hope this helps.

 

[gobywonkenobi]

I have not checked the parameters at different times or in a few days in a row. I will do that asap. I did drip acclimate them for an hour and then i did a coral rx dip and then they went right in the tank. I put them in the lowest spot in the tank on the sand bed. How should I go about light acclimating them? Is it okay to give them full blast right away for an hour and slowly increase the photo period? My PH is 8.2. I have been using API test kits and a hydrometer. Should I invest in the salifert kits and a refractometer?

 

[Nano sapiens]

I have not checked the parameters at different times or in a few days in a row. I will do that asap. I did drip acclimate them for an hour and then i did a coral rx dip and then they went right in the tank. I put them in the lowest spot in the tank on the sand bed. How should I go about light acclimating them? Is it okay to give them full blast right away for an hour and slowly increase the photo period? My PH is 8.2. I have been using API test kits and a hydrometer. Should I invest in the salifert kits and a refractometer?

It's really hard to determine the amount of light that is hitting your sand bed without a PAR meter, but the process you followed with the drip and placement is quite standard.

LEDs are deceptively strong, and the light has a short distance to traverse in a 5.5g tank. There are a number of procedures you can use to lessen the light temporarily, but one of the easiest is to just raise the light up a few inches and then slowly lower it back down over a few weeks. Alternately, some people have used a few layers of cheesecloth under their normal light position and then removed a layer every couple days until back at full strength. Some have had success with a reduced photo period and then slowly bringing it back up to 'normal'. Some remove bulbs (or LED pucks, in your case). Some use combinations of these techniques. I think you'll just have to experiment a bit to see what works with one or two frags. If the frags still bleach after trying these tricks, then you may have something else going on that is damaging to stony corals.

 

[gobywonkenobi]

would I save the frags if I cut the dead/dying part off?

 

[Nano sapiens]

would I save the frags if I cut the dead/dying part off?

Possibly. Cut a bit above the dying/dead parts.