SPS Dying - Can You See Why?

[rainmkr07]

Hi all. I have a 9 month old tank. I hope to be heavy SPS. I am running carbon, GFO, vinegar, alk, and cal. I have 2 Ecotech Radions w/ TIR lenses for lighting.

About 4 or 5 months ago I ordered 35 SPS frags from Mr. Coral - to get my SPS collection started - Plus I wanted to test cheap frags before investing in more expensive LE SPS pieces. I lost 5 DOA or within a week, leaving me with about 30. Today, 25 of them are doing great. Great coloration and good growth. They have encrusted their frag plugs and grown on to my live rock. 5 of them, however, are dying, and have been receding or looking crappy for a long time now. Here are 2 high-res photos of them on my frag rack. As you can see, there is living tissue on them still, and you can see the PE. But then there are those bare spaces sporadically on them. Back 4 or 5 months ago, they were all tissue with PE, so they have receded, but in a patchy way, not top to bottom or bottom to top. I don't see flat worms, red bugs, or nudi's on them, nor so I see bite marks, etc. I figure some SPS make it, and some don't, and maybe these just aren't going to make it for some random reason or another. I haven't tossed them yet because they do have the living tissue on them still. Maybe there is a way to save them. Clip off the dead parts, or dip them and keep them on the frag rack and see if they can recover, etc?

Anyway, has anyone seen SPS like this? Does it look like anything you've experienced before? My parameters are all good and have been stable for 6 months now. (Currently: Cal = 400; Alk = 8).

FTS:

Sick SPS 1:

Sick SPS 2:

 

[evh5150]

One you bought way to many frags for a new tank. Tanks need to be mature for SPS, what is your magnesium level? How often you do you change the carbon, and GFO?

 

[rainmkr07]

One you bought way to many frags for a new tank. Tanks need to be mature for SPS, what is your magnesium level? How often you do you change the carbon, and GFO?

I did go overboard on the order. Guilty there.

Carbon and GFO, I use 2 cups of each. I change the carbon monthly and the GFO every 2 months. I run them in Avast MR5 reactors. Someone suggested I try 1 cup of GFO instead of 2. I'd also be willing to remove GFO from the system entirely if the SPS would be happier. (I could remove carbon too if that would help as well?)

MAG - good question. I had bryopsis 3 months ago, so I raised it with Tech-M. I didn't lose any fish or coral or inverts, and I can't remember if these SPS started to decline after the MAG treatment, but that is possible. If that is the cause, why didn't ALL sps show a reaction like this? Maybe some are just more sensitive to higher MAG levels than others? Here are my recent MAG tests:

5/8/12: Mag = 1185 ppm
6/4/12: Mag = 1410 ppm
6/25/12: Mag = 1950 ppm
7/8/12: Mag = 1725 ppm
8/2/12: Mag = 1425 ppm
9/9/12: Mag = 1300 ppm

 

[evh5150]

Gotta try to keep it more stable than that. Also try to keep your Alk very stable. Which color Acro's are dying? It looks like purple

 

[rainmkr07]

Gotta try to keep it more stable than that. Also try to keep your Alk very stable. Which color Acro's are dying? It looks like purple

Well, it is normally stable at 1300. It only fluctuated like that for the treatment period. I honestly don't remember their color. They are all brown now. Could be purple?

 

[evh5150]

most people say purple is the hardest

 

[animalkingdom]

sometimes frags from wild colonies just dont make it. a lot of what comes from mr.coral is wild colonies fragged up. also these corals that have not been extensively aquacultured can be more susceptible to smaller shifts in parameters then some of the more well known, aquacultured counterparts. there is always a little bit of a gamble when taking wild colonies into captivity. also not letting acros heal properly before shipping can cause issues due to shipping stress. were the acros nice and encrusted or fresh cuts? as others have mentioned, the more stable the params are the more likely to succeed, but I have seen many wild colonies not survive in well established sps systems and furthermore have lower frag survival rate.

 

[rainmkr07]

sometimes frags from wild colonies just dont make it. a lot of what comes from mr.coral is wild colonies fragged up. also these corals that have not been extensively aquacultured can be more susceptible to smaller shifts in parameters then some of the more well known, aquacultured counterparts. there is always a little bit of a gamble when taking wild colonies into captivity. also not letting acros heal properly before shipping can cause issues due to shipping stress. were the acros nice and encrusted or fresh cuts? as others have mentioned, the more stable the params are the more likely to succeed, but I have seen many wild colonies not survive in well established sps systems and furthermore have lower frag survival rate.

They were fresh cuts. Probably glued the day before. I am not upset, since most did survive. I just wanted to make sure they didn't look like something else was wrong.

 

[dan-in-gr]

Check Lighting, example on my 120 I have 30 plus SPS rags all have grown onto the rocks I have them glued on, also I tried to get rid of plugs in most cases before glueing. Back to lights, I ordered last March two XM 20K to replace my Giesemann 20K's, my son broke one and I picked up a Phenix 14k, the corals on the Phonix side are doing great and browning well, the SPS on the XM 20k, leave something to be desired, just got new Phonix 14k bulb so both sides will now look great. Also at same time I replaced the 4 Giesemann True Actinics with 4 ATI Blue Plus, while the Blue Plus looks great, it does not give me the pop I had before in color, 2 of the 4 are being replaced and going back to actinics. So you may want to change your lighting, even if the bulbs are newer.

My nitrates have climbed to 5 to 10 ppm recently, and have done a ton of reading for SPS and nitrate sulfur reactors and will be putting one in to keep nitrates at zero, hopefully I will be able to get rid of the bio-pellet reactor.

 

[tripdad]

I am not an SPS guru, perhaps they will chime in, but don't strip the water "too clean". Corals need a little nitrate and phosphate to do well, very little, but some is necessary IMO. Also looks like you have a large Torch maybe? near the frag rack. Is it close enough to sting the frags maybe?, can't tell from pictures.

 

[rainmkr07]

Well, I am losing zoanthids left and right. My 2 goni's are dying / look horrible. My duncan hasn't been open in months. SPS for the most part are doing great. I think these guys may have been purple, or may have just been wild and fragged and didn't make it - no real cause necessary.

Is it possible the water is too clean for the softies? Should I remove them all, including the torch? What about my rics and acans (they appear to be okay so far).

My friend has 2 tanks, a SPS tank, and a zoa tank. His zoa tank is dirtier, and they thrive in there. It's a 40g breeder crawling with zoas everywhere. I wanted to have SPS and zoas all around them, but maybe that's not an option? Since I only have 1 tank right now - should I make the switch to 100% SPS?

 

[BrianN]

Are you using Ro/Di water? I would check on that also. If you do, check your TDS meter to see if you need your filter change.

 

[rainmkr07]

Yes on RO/DI. I will check the TDS meter tonight. The last time I checked it was okay. Maybe the DI Resin needs to be changed, that's an easy fix.

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

Definetly keep all your parameters stable. As far as those frags with tissue loss, maybe they were too close to another coral & went to war??

 

[phish guy]

what percentage are you running your LEDs on? my frags i bought looked the same way and i figured out i was giving them too much light with my LEDs. i started all my sps frags on the sand and slowly acclimated them up a few inches up the rock work each week until they were at their desired placement. also, i used to have alk fluctuations pretty frequently between 6 and 8. once i started using BRS 2 part dosing, i noticed a wicked fast growth rate when it was stable at 8.

 

[SneekaPeek]

more pictures of the tank can give better symptoms of fluctuations. To me you're system seems too dirty even though your water may be clean. These fluctuations im implying are because of the brown algae, cyanobacteria and hair algae. These are signs of beginning tank symptoms and time will only tell.