How to know if sps coral is dead?

[blazedmasta]

Went on vacation and came back to a stinky apartment. Breaker was tripped and tank pumps and lights was off for a few days. All fish, shrimps, star fish, and most of my snails died. After pulling all of the dead. Did like a 50% water change and add bacteria. Most of the corals is coming back but my sps corals are completely white and have recently started to turn brown. How to know when bleached coral is dead. And how long to wait before pulling them out?

 

[cloak]

If the whole coral turned completely white then it's most likely dead IME. The brown your seeing could just be a dusting of algae. Just to be sure though you might want to give them a few weeks and see if anything changes before you pull them.. GL.

 

[ecam]

you can pull the coral and smell it.... no smell means death....... any odor would indicate live coral..... a trick a few people mentioned

 

[blazedmasta]

Just added some pictures to help.

 

[tj w]

The top one and the very bottom looks like they can be salvaged. The others look like they're goners.

 

[ecam]

Im sorry but based on the pics... they are all goners... The top one looks dead and its just algae taking over.... and to bottom one looks like alge starting to set in

 

[bif24701]

I was gifted several frags the owner said they where possibly dead, and looked pretty much dead. However I treated them like any other frag and all but one is recovering.

My theory is if algae hasn't grown all over the skeleton then there is a chance for recovery. That's assuming whatever caused its decline has been fixed

 

[blazedmasta]

Yeah the water parameters it's much better and stable since the incident. Nitrite, nitrates, or phosphate. Ammonia is also zero

 

[bif24701]

Yeah the water parameters it's much better and stable since the incident. Nitrite, nitrates, or phosphate. Ammonia is also zero

You can keep the bare skeleton clean so that it can recolonizes it by blasting it with a turkey baster once a day. Not to hard though, don't rip flesh off lol.

 

[cloak]

You can keep the bare skeleton clean so that it can recolonizes it by blasting it with a turkey baster once a day. Not to hard though, don't rip flesh off lol.

Bare skeleton & flesh?

 

[bif24701]

Bare skeleton & flesh?

Assuming there is any left....

 

[blindlo076]

I am having a similar issue I forget the name of mine and have an sps it like like a small branch with pointy tips and it’s a pink color has very little color as of today and is almost fully bleached should I hit with reef roofs or what should I use

 

[blindlo076]

New to sps

 

[Softhammer]

Those are very very dead. The top one, if that isn’t green algae or cyano may be alive but the rest have moved on to sump bio media land.

 

[blindlo076]

I’ll send a pic going to be going to the house in couple hours it’s on it’s own plug it’s a birds nest small and was pink and now is white

 

[mitch91175]

I am having a similar issue I forget the name of mine and have an sps it like like a small branch with pointy tips and it’s a pink color has very little color as of today and is almost fully bleached should I hit with reef roofs or what should I use

You can also smell the coral. If you have every smelled a live SPS you will know if the one you have is dead. The skeleton won't have that tissue smell.