SPS not looking good

battlelurker

New member
I have a few SPS that appear to be bleaching. They were doing great until...
My refractometer somehow got uncalibrated :angryfire: , and I did a water change without checking it first. The water in the display tank was roughly 1.030 after i changed the water. I did nothing for about 12 hours then started to lower it. took about 12 hours to lower it back to normal. So my salinity was high for about 24 hours.
Almost immediately I saw my Rainbow birdsnest start to discolor and the polyops were retracted. Then my Birds of paradise started to turn white from the bottom up. It is nearly at the tips now, with most of it being bleached with no visible polyps.
Then my favorite ora birdsnest started to bleach from the tips in. Today it is also bleaching from the bottom up.
As of now:
34 gallon solana. skimmer, kalk ato, leds on for about 9 hours at 50% or so.

1.026
mag 1400
Calc 400
Dkh 7.8
temp 80

perc clown, tailspot blenny, purple firefish. 3 hermits, snails, 1 pepermint shrimp, 1 skunk cleaner shrimp.
Lots of mushrooms (doing great), blue and red montis (doing great), and the above birdsnests.

Now im guessing that the damage was caused by the rapid change in params. since upping the salt level would also up the other params as well. But I am worried that the damage wont stop. It has been about a week with everything stable and the corals are still getting worse every day. they were growing great before this incident. Also I noticed a ton of pods on the bleached parts of my corals if that matters.

Should I wait it out? cut off the dead parts?
 
It alsomt sounds like Alk swing caused that. Keep monitoring your alkalinity and keep it as stable as possable. Also did the temature fluctuate to the high end? In addition did you use tap water or ro water? What is your tds at? And lastly high salintay creates lower oxygen levels so if the temp was high it could be that as well.

Post a picture see we can get a better visualation of what's going on.
 
I use rodi. No meter to measure it. Its the brs value one. Less than a year old filters. I didn't notice a temp swing. Usually my tank is pretty solid on 79-80.
 
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