LPS slowly dieing through out the tank.
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Rick.45cal
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All of this continues to make me think it is a bacterial infection. If they were my corals, I would start dipping the affected ones in this.
It's worth a shot at this point! What do you have to lose?
Short of waiting to see what a triton test MAY tell you (I'd still be skeptical that you'd find proof of anything in particular). I'd start treating it like an infection.
All of the things we have covered would also affect SPS, (most likely) it also doesn't look like sunburn in any sense.
Another possibility might be a boring algae living in the skeletons, but I would also expect to see SPS casualties. I'd rate this one extremely low in probability.
Maybe someone with some experience with dipping corals for bacterial infections will chime in. The Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure came highly recommended too me for such occasions (which is why I keep a bottle on hand).
It's worth a shot at this point! What do you have to lose?
Short of waiting to see what a triton test MAY tell you (I'd still be skeptical that you'd find proof of anything in particular). I'd start treating it like an infection.
All of the things we have covered would also affect SPS, (most likely) it also doesn't look like sunburn in any sense.
Another possibility might be a boring algae living in the skeletons, but I would also expect to see SPS casualties. I'd rate this one extremely low in probability.
Maybe someone with some experience with dipping corals for bacterial infections will chime in. The Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure came highly recommended too me for such occasions (which is why I keep a bottle on hand).
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Lowefx
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After 24hrs and a 30g water change, I have 8.0dkh. I understand it was skewed from the water change, so I will measure in another 24hrs
XNavyDiver
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I know there are dosing calculators out there that can tell you exactly how much alk to dose to raise the dKH .5 a day per amount of water volume. The way I tend to do things like this is; test daily for a while to see a trend for daily usage. Once enough data points are gathered, I set my dosser to dispense a low amount daily, say like 20ml/day for my 125 gallon system. I continue to test daily and chart alk consumption daily. If my dKH reading continues to slope downward, I bump up the daily dosage amount by 10ml. Once I see my daily readings start to level off, then I know I have the dosser dialed in pretty close to daily alk consumption. This process usually takes a few weeks if your like me and do everything in small increments. Once I start seeing a "flat" trend (+/- .03 or so) for dKH, then I'll stop testing daily because by this time I'm pretty sick of it and find it a pain in the ***, and go to weekly testing of alk.
There are probably much more efficient ways to arrive at your tanks daily alk consumption amount quicker, but this method works for me. It's a lot of testing on a daily basis. Some folks love it. I don't particularly enjoy it, and I will be the first in line when Neptune comes out with their Trident alk monitor.
sromero287
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With a Ca in 380ppm and the Br,B by the sky high mixed with a low dkh in Alkalinity the reef will never thrive, corals are talking to u!!! They are getting burned. That’s why the are closed, self protection mode SPM.
My suggestion: 20% total water change then test with a reliable kit (salifer,rsm,nyos etc) at least Ca, Alk and Mag take note from those numbers then don’t dose anything in ur tank just food, wait at least 5 days then test again main parameters and any decrease in ur parameters used by ur reef, the difference between the two tests will be ur aquarium consumption so just simply divide by 5 and that’s ur daily dosing either manually or automatically, try dose alk at night after lights off, to keep ph as stable as possible while dark in display but lighted at refugium if u have one, the Ca in the morning and the Mag any time. Normally in my tank my Mag if divided by three gives always my ca value. Good luck thats my .02 don’t give up!!!!! [emoji106][emoji225][emoji886]
My suggestion: 20% total water change then test with a reliable kit (salifer,rsm,nyos etc) at least Ca, Alk and Mag take note from those numbers then don’t dose anything in ur tank just food, wait at least 5 days then test again main parameters and any decrease in ur parameters used by ur reef, the difference between the two tests will be ur aquarium consumption so just simply divide by 5 and that’s ur daily dosing either manually or automatically, try dose alk at night after lights off, to keep ph as stable as possible while dark in display but lighted at refugium if u have one, the Ca in the morning and the Mag any time. Normally in my tank my Mag if divided by three gives always my ca value. Good luck thats my .02 don’t give up!!!!! [emoji106][emoji225][emoji886]
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Lowefx
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What is Br and B? I don't recognize the names, and what does it do. This test took 3 weeks, and since then i have brought up Ca to420 and i normally keep dkh around 8.3 I have also done two 25% water changes within 2 weeks, and i plan on doing another one soon. so most of your recommendations i have already fixed. Im looking to get Triton detox to remove the copper and aluminum. not sure how i got either in my tank...
Davy Jones
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You said it yourself. You are fighting dinos. Depending on the exact species (over 2,000 known) many produce toxins. After time this WILL kill coral and fish. I had dinos for 8 months or so and tried everything under the sun to get rid of them, read the entire 200+ page thread on RC. I noticed 2 things during this time.
1. If a coral lost tissue at all, whether it was alk burn or a sting from another coral.. It was a goner. There was no dip or stability that would save it (atleast for the species i had.) But corals that did not have any damage would survive mostly fine and even grow. Hell, some of my sps had the best coloration ive seen when i had dinos. (others rtn'd away, so it is what it is.)
2. My lps and soft coral were hugely more succeptable to bacterial infections. BJD even showed its face.
I am not advocating doing this, as i did it out of necessity when i moved but i managed to get rid of them when i removed my sandbed and changed 100% of the water. When i moved from my apartment to my house i moved everything over but the sand and filled the tank 100% before making the transition. Didnt see them again after that.
1. If a coral lost tissue at all, whether it was alk burn or a sting from another coral.. It was a goner. There was no dip or stability that would save it (atleast for the species i had.) But corals that did not have any damage would survive mostly fine and even grow. Hell, some of my sps had the best coloration ive seen when i had dinos. (others rtn'd away, so it is what it is.)
2. My lps and soft coral were hugely more succeptable to bacterial infections. BJD even showed its face.
I am not advocating doing this, as i did it out of necessity when i moved but i managed to get rid of them when i removed my sandbed and changed 100% of the water. When i moved from my apartment to my house i moved everything over but the sand and filled the tank 100% before making the transition. Didnt see them again after that.
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Lowefx
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So what is Br, B, Al, and Zn? They are high in my tank. How can I lower or remove these elements? I can't find too much on a typical Google search. I ordered Triton detox to help in some instances.
Please fill me in on what's going on here. I'm not a chemist so you may have to break it down into layman's terms.
Please fill me in on what's going on here. I'm not a chemist so you may have to break it down into layman's terms.
I had the same thing happen to me a few months ago and lost about half of my SPS. My culprit was my Sump! My tank has ben up going on 8ish years and I have done nothing except the regular maintenance: Water chances, filter changes, GFO changes...ect. But the one thing that I never did was "Sump maintenance". Long story short, I had over 2 1/2 " of Detritus in a Five-gallon Bucket! That was from just one chamber (DIY 75 gal.) Now Over the years, I have had algae covering parts of my glass that I have left there for my tangs to graze on. Now because of the algae I had undetectable traces of Phosphate of Nitrate. Since then after cleaning my sump I have scraped virtually all of the algae and have done a few water changes. Now my corals are coloring up better than before and growing faster than before. Now, 0.0 Nitrate/.015 Phosphate. Good Luck and Happy reefing!
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Lowefx
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I know I have some small debris in my sump that I need to remove soon, but not that bad. Yesterday I scrubbed my heater and skimmer to clean them up. But it still didn't answer the questions to my last post.
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B is Boron, Br is bromine. These will be counted in your alkalinity test, if it's high you may have lower alk available to your corals. Some salt mixes and alk additives are high in it.
On Boron:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/12/chemistry#section-11
Randy article on his triton test, he talk a little about each measurement and what is important and not so much:
http://www.reefedition.com/my-triton-testing-results-by-randy-holmes-farley/
Al is aluminum, Zn is zinc both are metals, if be more concerned about the Zinc bring elevated myself, many report high Al from marinepure blocks, or using an aluminum based po4 remover (iirc that is what triton uses for po4 removal)
On Boron:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/12/chemistry#section-11
Randy article on his triton test, he talk a little about each measurement and what is important and not so much:
http://www.reefedition.com/my-triton-testing-results-by-randy-holmes-farley/
Al is aluminum, Zn is zinc both are metals, if be more concerned about the Zinc bring elevated myself, many report high Al from marinepure blocks, or using an aluminum based po4 remover (iirc that is what triton uses for po4 removal)
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Lowefx
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Still having STN. My educated guess is that it could be toxins from my dino die off, but I'm not 100%. My water parameters from a few weeks ago do not show anything too abnormal. I'm baffled! No3-8 Pi4-.06 as of 2 days ago. I will do another water test as soon as I get my doser hooked up and stable. Anyone have any other ideas? (And it's not lighting or flow!)
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Just curious, I haven't read every single post, and don't remember if you have checked for any magnets corroding or anything like that? Including the wetside of your Vortechs?
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Lowefx
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Actually,no I haven't checked my magnets. What should I be looking for when I tear the wet side apart???
Good thought!
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Have seen these type threads :https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/please-look-here-wetside-defects.288579/ pop up over the years, so figure it wouldn't hurt to check. They had tin in their ICP test though, but some pics of damaged wetside are in that thread.
I'd try to see where your elevated zinc is coming from, check if you have any hose clamps or other metal bits that could be corroding into the water.
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Lowefx
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Okay, thanks, I'll check!
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Lowefx
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My bubblegum chalice colony is now completely dead. That hits hard to my wallet. I'm extremely frustrated now. I don't see many dinos on my sand bed anymore, but I'm still fighting that fight.
