SPS troubles

[dcforhealth]

I have been having a slow but sure degradation of most of my sps corals. I initially lost a nice acropora over a three to four week period, then a birdsnest slowly degraded and then another birdsnest, now another little acropora frag is going. Three other acropora frags and montiporas (3) as well as all of my lps and softies are doing seemingly fine. All of my mushrooms and favias and acans are thriving and growing rapidly.

All of my levels are wnl's.

the only other question is that i am getting tons of these little spider-looking things everywhere on the glass. Maybe they're the cause? I'll have to upload some pics to help in the diagnosis.

I am at a bit of a loss. HELP!

 

[Craig Borowski]

How long has the tank been set up? And what's the temperature?

Post a FTS if you can.

 

[dcforhealth]

I've been up and running for 2.5 months now. My temp is 79-80 degrees. Not sure what a FTS is. Can you enlighten me?

 

[Craig Borowski]

FTS is a Full Tank Shot. Sometimes just seeing a picture of the tank is a good clue.

You WILL hear different opinions on this, but my thinking is that the tank is still quite young to expect across-the-board success with all your SPS. Even though your parameters may all be in line, remember that what we test for are just very broad benchmarks and do not give us the whole picture. There is a lot more going on biologically in the first 6 months of a new tank. Some corals are just more vulnerable to these 'goings on' of a new tank, and at 2.5 months old, yours is still very new. My advice would be not to stress out about your losses, hold off on buying new SPS for a while, then sit back and take credit when everything starts thriving a few months down the road.

Probably not the smoking gun answer you were hoping for, but I hope it helps a little.

 

[Bugger]

Its only been running two and a half months and you already added corals to it a month ago. It was to early to start keeping them imo. Your water is can't be perfect. They dont like hot temputures like that they grow best in water that is 76 or even 75. 79 80 is hot and wont bennifet anything. if the retailer kept them in water colder its possble there was signifacant shock

 

[dcforhealth]

I believe that I may in fact have found the culprit...
Tonight I took out an acropora frag that was degrading and dipped it. I thought that possibly it might have flatworms attacking it. As it turned out, I was right. Those tiny little buggers must have been destroying it. Now I guess I'll have to treat the tank for them. Super!

It's not like I don't dip everything. I wonder if it could have come from the macroalgae or the ground crew I have as I couldn't "treat" them.

As far as my tank being "ready" for corals, the tank had been cycling for 6 weeks before putting anything in it 2.5 month ago. So, I guess technically it's more like 4 month old. Sorry for the confusion... my fault.

I am hoping that treating for flatworms can help minimize any other losses. All of the other corals I have are flourishing. And, BTW... they are all frags, no large colonies, yet.

 

[divewsharks]

Its only been running two and a half months and you already added corals to it a month ago. It was to early to start keeping them imo. Your water is can't be perfect. They dont like hot temputures like that they grow best in water that is 76 or even 75. 79 80 is hot and wont bennifet anything. if the retailer kept them in water colder its possble there was signifacant shock

Where did get this info? 79-80 is perfectly fine for SPS. I have dove on heathly reefs much warmer than that.

 

[rogerwilco357]

was going to say you have aefw. that is how i first encountered them all was fine then one by one ..by the time i blew them off and checked the corals out they were infested with eggs all my sps had eggs and so i was done for 2010 and 2011 just got back in on jan.1st.hope that isn't the case for you . do you have a qt tank setup? you will need one unless all is lost.

 

[rogerwilco357]

check the frag plugs for eggs , that is how i got them i dipped and the eggs where on a rock with the coral and didn't catch it they hatched and spread like wild fire..i had to frag my colonies off and qt them but still lost the fight waited too long..hope you have better results.

 

[jjoos99]

ready to give up, help with stn

ready to give up, help with stn

I have been fighting stn from the base up on alot of my sps corals, Most of the corals were huge colonies and are pretty much dead but the top couple of inches of the coral. The following is the list of the test results I just took.
ph 8.02
mg 1200
cal 400
alk 8.2
phos 0
nitrate .01
temp 78.6
sal 1.024
I so have some red slime algae in my sump and have been getting some hair algae in the main tank. I have no coraline algae growth at all.
What might be killing off my corals? I just checked one of my tricolors with a jewelers glass and see now pest what so ever. The tank is a 180 gallon tank with 3 mp40 pumps and lighting is with led. My colors have faded or browned out. The test kits are fairly new also. Polyp extension is not too bad. I am at a total loss and am getting very frustrated almost mad.
Any help would be very appreciated before I loose them all.
thanks
Jeff

 

[jjoos99]

Sorry I meant to post in new thread, could you please move my above post to it own thread.
thanks
Jeff