SPS Troubles

[Tracey2]

Hope someone can help. Tank has been running 3 years and sps have always looked great. Recently one of my largest pieces suddenly had a patch that turned white then another until I pulled it out and fragged off the white parts to save the coral, the remaining pieces look great now but now my millies and a stags are off colour in parts, not white like the first coral but loss of colour and millies dont' have as much polyp extension in parts, so part of the coral has nice polyp extension and part doesn't.

Alk 8
Calcium 564 high, I turned dosing pump down
Phosphate with Hanna 0
Nitrate 0 with API

I run biopellets and Fauna Marin Ultra phos. I see some red slime starting recently on sand and back wall.

Any suggetions?

 

[led stony]

With calcium that high im sure you have fallout on pumps and heaters and on corals. That causes stn and rtn, how long have you been running bio pellets? How much? What is your phosphate and nitrate? If both at 0 your to clean. Stop bio pellets untill phos is around.05. Just a few things to test. If dosing dose equal amounts in diffrent areas of the sump. Dont change more than 1 point a day of alk.keep a ballanced system. Sps are the hardest to keep with levels unstable. Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Ralph ATL]

yes, do you see any algae at all?

which phosphate meter? is it the low read one?

Calcium is high, but not going to cause damage, so just do a few huge water changes twicw a week.......until things become stable.

I would disconnect bio-pellets, and run Rox Carbon, GFO and change weekly........vodka dosing would be a good step to add........suggest Sechem Matrix in a reactor instead of bio-pellets....

 

[Tracey2]

Thanks for the input.

I use an rkl and my alk stays between 8 & 9, calcium doser should have been turned down a while ago but it just inched up to over 500 not quick. Temp stays steady as its on the rkl and as I said I have had this tank for 3 years and sps have always looked great.

I don't think the tank is too clean, I do have some small spots of algae and some red slime and forgot to mention I do see brown diatom outbreak in my sump and fuge. I have the low read hanna and it reads 0 phosphates and I use an api for nitrate which also reads 0, I'm sure I have phosphates just not detectable. I am running carbon.

 

[Ralph ATL]

SPS do not tolerate phosphates at all! <0.03 max using a low range test kit such as HACH, DD Merck, and the new Elos low range kit......

.............Again, change GFO every other day to every week as needed, huge water changes, and use rox carbon and cgange weekly.....think about Vodka/Vinegar dosing....

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Yea its your calcium all the way. Just dose alk for a couple of weeks and watch it as it drops.

 

[Moser]

Stability is key. If you introduce so many changes as suggested, I reckon you will regret it.
I would slowly reduce your calcium. I doubt that is what made your corals strip, but I would suggest slowly lowering it.... just reduce the volume you dose.

Have you made any new changes?.

Sudden large Carbon change., New lights etc. Sudden rise in flow through your reactors.

If not, look for flatworms!.

Also, how long have you had these corals and do you have corals that have thrived for more than 6 months?. I'm thinking they might be slowly starving as pellets really strip nitrates and you need to feed corals a lot with pellets.

Pictures certainly help.

Mo

 

[Jpellica]

SPS do not tolerate phosphates at all! <0.03 max using a low range test kit such as HACH, DD Merck, and the new Elos low range kit......

.............Again, change GFO every other day to every week as needed, huge water changes, and use rox carbon and cgange weekly.....think about Vodka/Vinegar dosing....

I disagree all corals need phosphate your tank should read between .02-.04 phos for corals to thrive. Def get your calcium down before you have a alk crash. I would try and get the alk up to around 11 which will bring down the calcium. How long ago did you add the bio pellets and did you add them all in 1 shot? Pellets should be added slowly over months till hou reach the needed level fir your system.as far as dosing vodka or vinger with bio pellets this is a good recipe to crash your tank. They do the same thing so you would have a carbon overdose in no time best way to bleach your corals. Which leads me to ask have you changed ur carbon latlely i also use very minmal carbon if nit none most if the time. There has been a trend latley with these carbon reactors people are using way to much and hurting their tanks. Lastley if your getting cyno start using microb lift special blend and add right into pellet reactor pump. You sill want to use that product weekly and then monthly with bio pellets. It keeps your tank in balance when using bio pellets.

 

[Tracey2]

Thanks guys,

I will try and post pics later. Some sps look great, I have a large strawberry shorcake and red planet that look super coloured so I don't think its phosphates, my hanna also says 0. I tried vodka/vinegar awhile back, it didn't work for me.

I am slowly lowering calcium if thats the problem. Most of the sps in my tank have been there a couple of years all doing great, I was really surprised to see this problem, it seems to be patches of the coral that start to look unhealthy, one of my millies just slowly withered away, polyps stopped extending and the branches looked spindly then turned white, another acro suddenly had a white patch then another until I fragged, now the remaining parts of that acro look great.

Mo, I agree, I have learned slow is the way to go. I have not made any changes lately other than adding a chalice so I will have a good look for flatworms today. If I take my pellets offline would I then have to throw them away, I assume there would be a die off of bacteria in the reactor? They are excellent to lower nitrates, my other tank had nitrates of 80 now 0.

 

[dvanacker]

Alk 8
Calcium 564 high, I turned dosing pump down
Phosphate with Hanna 0
Nitrate 0 with API

Hey Tracey. You really havent said anything to me that sets off an alarm. The only thing that is a little concerning that you mentioned is the calcium being high. Although I don't think it would be the cause of what you are describing. Either way you should get that in check.

I know you have some nice SPS growing for quite some time so think about what you did our used to do to get there.....don't listen to people who are telling you stop doing things that have worked for you in the past such as stop bio-pellets (and start vodka??).

Has it been a really long time since you put more pellets in the reactor? Have you noticed the overall colours on your SPS change to more pale or more brown? Have you made any other changes that you can think of such as change you lighting?

Right now I suggest some water changes and carbon. It may be a contaminant of some sort as well....

 

[Tracey2]

Thank you,

Jpellica, I will look into microb lift, never heard of it. Pellets have been running for more about a year, they were increased slowly until my nitrates read 0 and I haven't touched them since. I did change the carbon but that was after I started to see my sps suffering.

dvanacker, yes I do know not to make large sudden changes, thankyou. It has been a very long time since addding any pellets. The only change in lighting is that one of my led strips plug got wet and I am waiting for the replacement to come but this is only 1 small strip of light, the tank still runs 4 80w T5's and 2 vhos, I wouldn't think it would be enough to cause these probs? The overall colour of most coral looks great (no change) but I had one sps that just started to die in spots and millies that look unhappy(1 died) and 1 acro that is receding from the bottom.

Another observation today is that the tank seems smellier than usual. I am going to do some testing today and see if I can read any nitrate/phosphate etc of any other changes.

 

[Allmost]

I would double check for Red bugs or Flatworms. specially from what you described the millies and stag lightening in parts, typical RB problem for me.

 

[Tracey2]

Today's test

Alk 8 Hanna
Calcium 506 Hanna 480 API
Phosphate 0 Hanna
Nitrate 0
Mag 1200 Sailfert

I am surprised the mag is low, I thought mag had to be good for the calcium to be high??

I am concerned about flatworms also but I don't see them, how can I know? I did add a chalice recently.

 

[Allmost]

blow the SPS with a small MJ power head, if anything flies off, you might have flatowrms.

or you can dip it and see if has anything.

same for Red bugs, although a magnifying glasses would show RBs easily.

 

[led stony]

How many watts of light per gallon do you have?sps like at least 5watts per gallon and leds are another story. My tank did not like them. Do you have any calcium build up on pumps and heaters? If it is sticking on everything it is also trying to stick on corals also . That causes stn. And with calcium that high i would check it out.

 

[Tracey2]

I have now looked with magnifying glass and blown off corals and I see nothing. Here are photo's, sorry for my poor photography skills.

Bad colour in this photo but you can see parts of this stag are losing colour.

some happier corals

 

[Tracey2]

Lots of light and no calcium deposits on pump, thanks.

 

[Allmost]

let me see if I get this right
first 2 pics are the same corals ? before and after ?

any crabs ? they usually do that to my millies.

3rd is a stag, do you mean the whitenin towards the tip in between polyps ?
the stag looks like its in low nutrition, I dont think its loosing tissue.

 

[DNA]

Before your lower the Calcium level get a second measure on it with a different test kit.
I think a user error or a faulty test kit to be the most likely cause for the high values.

 

[Tracey2]

The first two pic are of different millies, the first is just starting to go downhill the 2nd is almost dead. The stag pic is hard to see but most of it is the dark(normal) colour it has always been and then you see areas of white or less colour. Most of my sps have white tips which is normal but can you see areas thru the stag that are less colourful?

I do have crabs but always have for the last 3 years, would they suddenly start this behaviour?

I also just noticed the SS is starting to recede from the bottom.

What does red slime feed on? Could my system be too low nutrient and still have red slime and macro algae growth?