Acro bleached overnight. Any hope?

[Formulator]

Last night I did a few bad things inadvertently while all the flow was shut off to catch my newly hatched clownfish larvae…

While the tank flow and return was off, I had the tank covered with blankets to block out light during hatching. Because there was no flow on my heaters and the tank was insulated by the blankets, my temperature spiked from 79 to 82 in about 3 hours. When I started flow back up, the temp was lowered within about an hour to my set point of 78.5.

Also during this time, I took water from the sump to start up my fry tank and replaced it with 3 week old mixed salt water which unbeknownst to me had significantly decreased alkalinity due to aging.

When I started the flow back up and got my first alk result from trident, it was 7.5 dKH! I typically run at 8.8-9.0, so this was a pretty big swing. I made a hasty decision and immediately dosed Alk (using sodium bicarbonate solution) to bring the Alk back up to 8.5. I then programmed my auto dosing to bring it the rest of the way up overnight.

This morning, a relatively new (month old) acro frag was bleached from the base to about halfway up the frag, and by lunch time it was totally white, as shown in the photo. I’m really bummed because the acro was just starting to take off, encrusting the base of the plug.

Is there any chance of this thing recovering? What do you suppose caused it and why is this the only coral that was affected? I have other sps, including 2 other acros that look just fine. I have never experienced such an incredibly fast bleaching event. In the past when I’ve had issues with any coral it has been a pretty slow process of gradual decline.

 

[crazyfishmom]

That looks like RTN and not just bleaching unfortunately and no, there’s no recovering from this. This coral may have already been under duress and the alkalinity swing may have finally done it.

 

[Matt Bravo]

It’s likely that the alk and temp quick swings at the same time was what knocked it over the edge.

IME acros can sometimes survive alk or temp swings. But when you combine them I’m not sure if they can make it out alive.

You can always hope for them to recover but I doubt it will happen in this case unfortunately

 

[GARRIGA]

No experience with this but apparently bleached reefs after a heat event recover if a cooling even happens soon by reacquiring that they expelled. Actually posted a thread on this which didn't seem well received but seems to me that expelled would still be present in the water and perhaps if not removed then wouldn't tank corals behave as wild and require that expelled? Meaning no water change, no skimmer or anything that would be detrimental to that they might now seek. Just food for thought and how I'd approach it but I'm sure others will chime in and just trying to apply logic.

 

[Formulator]

That looks like RTN and not just bleaching unfortunately and no, there’s no recovering from this. This coral may have already been under duress and the alkalinity swing may have finally done it.

Bummer. It was growing well and colored up nicely just yesterday.

 

[Formulator]

No experience with this but apparently bleached reefs after a heat event recover if a cooling even happens soon by reacquiring that they expelled. Actually posted a thread on this which didn't seem well received but seems to me that expelled would still be present in the water and perhaps if not removed then wouldn't tank corals behave as wild and require that expelled? Meaning no water change, no skimmer or anything that would be detrimental to that they might now seek. Just food for thought and how I'd approach it but I'm sure others will chime in and just trying to apply logic.

I guess it won’t hurt anything to leave it in there and see!

 

[GARRIGA]

I guess it won’t hurt anything to leave it in there and see!

Unless that expiring affects others. What damage can it do? Trashcan is final.

 

[Troylee]

Not to be harsh but zero chance of recovery… it will be brown in a couple days then start growing algae on the skeleton.. as for why it peeled? I think a combo of what you did and the time you did it! Temp wasn’t an issue as you said the tank rose over 3 hours and mine goes from 78-82 every day without issues! Depleted alk wouldn’t hurt it but raising that fast and that much would… sucks..

 

[exnisstech]

Hey at least you have a pretty good idea what caused it. I've had single pieces rtn over night while others are fine and have no idea why.

 

[Matt Bravo]

Hey at least you have a pretty good idea what caused it. I've had single pieces rtn over night while others are fine and have no idea why.

This^

There’s always something to learn from every loss

 

[Cell]

Oftentimes rapid change is worse than perceived sub-optimal levels. If you find a parameter out of your target range, get it back to where you want, but do it slowly.

 

[merkmerk73]

As others have said, that is RTN and anyone who's tried keeping acros has had it happen

There is nothing alive, it's just a skeleton now and won't recover.

 

[Northern Flicker]

OP, if it makes you feel better, earlier this week someone in our local fbook group posted the same thing: RTN on their acro overnight. Theirs was a frag they paid $450 CAD for...

They didn't have any big swings or anything, but they made eye contact with it which is a big no-no with expensive acros. You just need to appreciate them from your peripherals.

 

[Formulator]

Thanks for all the replies. Lesson learned. And hey, maybe if I am successful in raising any of these clownfish fry, I can trade them for a new frag…or 5

 

[KrisReef]

No experience with this but apparently bleached reefs after a heat event recover if a cooling even happens soon by reacquiring that they expelled. Actually posted a thread on this which didn't seem well received but seems to me that expelled would still be present in the water and perhaps if not removed then wouldn't tank corals behave as wild and require that expelled? Meaning no water change, no skimmer or anything that would be detrimental to that they might now seek. Just food for thought and how I'd approach it but I'm sure others will chime in and just trying to apply logic.

Yes, but not in this case.

Bleached coral that is still ok in the flesh can recover. The patchy skin (loss) in the picture provided looks like the flesh has degraded and is sloughing off. When this happens the areas with out flesh are dead.

It is common for the rest of the flesh to fall off shortly and when that happens the skeleton is going to get grown over by algae.

If there is a tiny piece of living coral flesh, in time it may grow and lay down new skeleton over or beside the old, but in reef tanks this tends to be a rare event, compared to wild reefs which can recover faster when the bleaching reverses.

 

[GARRIGA]

Yes, but not in this case.

Bleached coral that is still ok in the flesh can recover. The patchy skin (loss) in the picture provided looks like the flesh has degraded and is sloughing off. When this happens the areas with out flesh are dead.

It is common for the rest of the flesh to fall off shortly and when that happens the skeleton is going to get grown over by algae.

If there is a tiny piece of living coral flesh, in time it may grow and lay down new skeleton over or beside the old, but in reef tanks this tends to be a rare event, compared to wild reefs which can recover faster when the bleaching reverses.

Just replying to assumed bleaching. When it comes to sticks. I have no experience or knowledge other than that read. First need to fix my pH before I go down that rabbit hole

 

[Troylee]

Just replying to assumed bleaching. When it comes to sticks. I have no experience or knowledge other than that read. First need to fix my pH before I go down that rabbit hole

I really think you’re trying to hard man…. I see all your posts and you’re trying to know it all and I can appreciate that but I’d go insane also! Keep it simple and just enjoy your tank! This is only as hard as you make it!

 

[GARRIGA]

I really think you’re trying to hard man…. I see all your posts and you’re trying to know it all and I can appreciate that but I’d go insane also! Keep it simple and just enjoy your tank! This is only as hard as you make it!

Get to simple by grasping all the nuance plus I have an inquisitive mind. How I've always solved problems. Works for me and just turned 60 meaning I'm not changing anytime soon

 

[Formulator]

Oftentimes rapid change is worse than perceived sub-optimal levels. If you find a parameter out of your target range, get it back to where you want, but do it slowly.

I’ve always practiced this, but wondered if the same held true when the change to sub-optimal was instantaneous. In this case my sump was full of very low Alk water which immediately lowered the system Alk when I restarted the return pump. So I was thinking, maybe/probably erroneously, that with an immediate correction maybe things wouldn’t notice…

 

[crazyfishmom]

It’s easy for us to think of this hobby as keeping water and to some extent it is but it goes well beyond the chemistry of the system to the commensal relationships between microorganisms and macroorganisms and what you can’t see on the macro scale is the die off of bacteria or bursting of the osmotic pressure affecting a cell’s shape or oxidoreduction halting in response to a large ph or alkalinity swing. So instead of a single bad event they then have to deal with going back and forth and negative side effects from both. In the micro scale this is quite monumental.