What the H#%* Happened

[nuclearheli]

Went to bed last night after my usual stop to admire my tank. All was well with the little reef. Woke up this morning and found this:



Not even a single sign last night of this problem. Spent a couple of hours testing water.

Temp 78.8
pH 7.9
Alk 10
SG 1.026
Ca 460
Mg 1300
Nitrites 0
Nitrates Around 10 or so
Phosphates 0
Ammonia 0

Pretty much rock solid steady for at least a month or so. This coral is new to the tank about 1.5 months ago. It has been beautiful from the day it entered the tank. All other corals look great, fish are fine, LPS are great, nobody ****ed off or touching each other.

I do carbon, Phosphate reactor, Purigen Reactor. Makeup water Kalk, protein skimmer looks fine, same as every other day.

 

[smtank]

Was this a aquacultured piece or a wild pieces?

I would also look at flow.

I have had this happen with pieces that were collected. And problems with flow related to the wild collected pieces. Usually the STN was not as quick as yours but the pieces started to show it about a month after I purchased them.

 

[dvanacker]

Sometimes this just happens, almost always with wild or maricultured. I have had the same thing happen a few times.....take a frag while you can and the chances are good that you can grow it back and it will be more hardy the second time around.

 

[nuclearheli]

I was told it was a wild piece. I have no reason to believe I was lied to, I have purchased many corals from this local supplier.

The coral is very high in the tank and in direct line with my wave maker. I have a ton of flow in the tank.

Did your coral ever come back? I had an experience once with a coral that is one of the healthiest in my tank now. It started to bleach out, stopped about mid way through then came back to almost full color.

 

[nuclearheli]

By the way, I vodka dose.

 

[smtank]

I was told it was a wild piece. I have no reason to believe I was lied to, I have purchased many corals from this local supplier.

The coral is very high in the tank and in direct line with my wave maker. I have a ton of flow in the tank.

Did your coral ever come back? I had an experience once with a coral that is one of the healthiest in my tank now. It started to bleach out, stopped about mid way through then came back to almost full color.

I have a wild piece that I was able to stop the progression. I changed the flow, increased it but also kept it out of any direct flow, if that makes any sense. So far so good for me.
That looks like a decent size colony ,I would frag a couple pieces just incase.

 

[nuclearheli]

As soon as I get home tonight that is exactly what I am going to do. I will probably frag 3 or 4 pieces. I am going to try changing the flow also. It would be nice to save this piece.

 

[edandsandy]

Did you try dipping in Coral Rx????
I purchased a wild colony and it did the same thing... unfortunately mine had AEFW

 

[nuclearheli]

I did not think of that and probably cannot get it in time to make a difference.

 

[mike_cmu04]

I would frag off what is dead then dip it to try and save it.

 

[nuclearheli]

Good ideas, thanks. I just got back from my local supplier and got a bottle of Coral Rx. Going to dip all my corals. Cant find a reason why I shouldn't.

 

[tnyr5]

by any chance did you do a water change in the past couple days?

 

[nuclearheli]

Yes, did a water change Sunday. 15 gallons. I have a 90 with a 30 sump. I change about once a week with 5 - 10 gallons or once every two weeks with 15 gallons.

 

[madcowz]

GFO did you replace it recently? Add more than usual?

 

[oscar.millan]

Frag it and dip it, that's your best bet. Looks like you can still save several pieces.

 

[nuclearheli]

I don't use GFO, I use PhosGuard. Two reactors, reactor 1 1/2 Phosguard, 1/2 Carbon. Reactor 2 100 g of Purigen.

 

[twelvejewelz]

you vodka dose and your alk is 10. Might want to recheck the alk and make sure its not alittle higher. Did you test the water change water you used? How high was the alk in that? I recently changed my salt because i was using reef crystals and the alk was mixing up around 13 which was starting to burn my sps. This can happen with a high alk and carbon dosing. Since changing salts my sps have all recovered and are more healthy and better looking that ever.either way i would definitely listen to all the good advice and save a few frags and dip the coral. I dont know if you want to dip all of your corals though?why put stress on all of them if there fine?

 

[nuclearheli]

Wow, don't know what is happening now. I checked Alk twice since your post with two different test kits. It's now at 8. It must be the Alk swing that causing the problem. It was 10 around 6AM.

Too late on the other corals, I dipped everything. Have just re-assembled the tank. Noticed that some of my big healthy corals are spinning webs now big time. So is the one that is having the problem.

I also got several frags. Some from good parts and two from some of the bad parts that still has some color. Try to get them back.

 

[smtank]

What changed between 6 am and the last alk level? Why the swing?

And yes corals will slime after you dip them, some more than others, but it will resolve.

I only dip if I know I have a pathogen be it bacterial, or parasitic.

 

[nuclearheli]

Not sure what is happening with the Alk. Doing repeat tests now. Just did Ca twice and got 460 to 470.

The pH is 8.22 right now. Confirmed close to that with titration and hand held Hanna meter. Three confirmed readings so I think it's good.

Going on to Mg now.