Merry Christmas - Your SPS is dead

[luke33]

From the looks of the coral it doesn't look like RB's. I would agree with water issue's. How have you been testing your phosphates? Only other thing could be something that accidentally fell in your tank or some electric component leaching metals. Have you taken apart all your equipment? Sorry about the losses, been there done that, was phosphates for me.

 

[Chameleon]

Another thing it could be is nitrogen starvation. You mentioned extreme turf algae bloom. This will often strip your tank of nutrients. Then corals will come in looking healthy to your tank but as they deplete their stored nutrient reserves (from their own tissue) from growth they will have to start pulling nutrients from their environment. If the nutrients arent there they die. Usually starting at places of quickest growth, or the tips and encrusting base. This is why so many have issues in newer tanks...lack of stable biosystem leading to lack of available nutrients for coral.

BTW this is all based on anecdotal observation by me of my own experiences, and those of other reefers I know...its not science

 

[v10king]

This may sound extreme, but I had a similarissue to you in my 120g tank when I first setup a year ago. I gotbrookynella, ich and all my fish dies within 3 months of setting up, Ifound out LFS gave me AEFW and I wasn’t aware and they also gave me the good oldred planaria flatworms as well. In my battle to kill the regular planariain my opinion I ended up dosing too much Levimsole into my tank to killflatworms I think. Because before I did that, my acros were growing fineeven despite AEFW, once I did that, Acros all RTN'd within days of being in thetank. Fish would die within days of being introduced. It was amajor mess in my dream tank.

So I basicallyleft tank to sit for 6 months with nothing but rock and water, left skimmergoing, etc. Once I got motivated in October timeframe last year, Idecided I would mix 100% new water and drain tank. So I mixed up 120G offresh saltwater, drained tank down completely into toilet with MJ1200 of allpumps over a 30 foot run. Took at least 4-6 hours to do. Then Ifilled it with 120G of water and that was another 25 foot run with a MJ1200, ittook a long **** time but eventually that night it was swapped out. I hada mini ammonia spike and within 3 days after swap, I introduced 3 SPS frags andthey are still growing and fully encrusted to this day. All acros havebounced back since I swapped water out. My tank is actually growing SPSlike weeds this past month it seems.

I highlyrecommend swapping entire water out. Let me know if you have anyquestions

 

[bneufelder]

From the looks of the coral it doesn't look like RB's. I would agree with water issue's. How have you been testing your phosphates? Only other thing could be something that accidentally fell in your tank or some electric component leaching metals. Have you taken apart all your equipment? Sorry about the losses, been there done that, was phosphates for me.

Hey Luke, a fellow INDMASer. The May monthly meeting will be at my house so you can come check it out first hand.

I test phosphates via a UL Hanna Checker and Red Sea test kit. The Hanna has never ready anything but 0 to the point I think it (or my reagent) may be defective. I measured 0.03 with my Red Sea recently and by the look of the algae on my glass (have to scrape 1x to 2x a week) I would say it's accurate.

I cleaned everything 3-4 weeks after this started. (Skimmer, Return Pump, Vortechs)

I am on well water and do have high Iron. I ran carbon for a few weeks about a month after this started to lower help cover any unknowns.

 

[bneufelder]

Another thing it could be is nitrogen starvation. You mentioned extreme turf algae bloom. This will often strip your tank of nutrients. Then corals will come in looking healthy to your tank but as they deplete their stored nutrient reserves (from their own tissue) from growth they will have to start pulling nutrients from their environment. If the nutrients arent there they die. Usually starting at places of quickest growth, or the tips and encrusting base. This is why so many have issues in newer tanks...lack of stable biosystem leading to lack of available nutrients for coral.

BTW this is all based on anecdotal observation by me of my own experiences, and those of other reefers I know...its not science

When my algae problem was in full bloom, i still had SPS growth, it was just really slow. I thought it was normal until I read other people's post about how much more growth they were getting and reading some of the grow out threads. When the algae bloom was going, I would 100% agree that everything was starved of nutrients. I could never measure phosphates/nitrates. Now that it's over, I can measure both and feel a lot better about it.

 

[luke33]

Ha, yea, I'm bad about those meetings : ) Have you tested the hanna checker on anyone else's tank?

 

[bneufelder]

This may sound extreme, but I had a similarissue to you in my 120g tank when I first setup a year ago. I gotbrookynella, ich and all my fish dies within 3 months of setting up, Ifound out LFS gave me AEFW and I wasn’t aware and they also gave me the good oldred planaria flatworms as well. In my battle to kill the regular planariain my opinion I ended up dosing too much Levimsole into my tank to killflatworms I think. Because before I did that, my acros were growing fineeven despite AEFW, once I did that, Acros all RTN'd within days of being in thetank. Fish would die within days of being introduced. It was amajor mess in my dream tank.

So I basicallyleft tank to sit for 6 months with nothing but rock and water, left skimmergoing, etc. Once I got motivated in October timeframe last year, Idecided I would mix 100% new water and drain tank. So I mixed up 120G offresh saltwater, drained tank down completely into toilet with MJ1200 of allpumps over a 30 foot run. Took at least 4-6 hours to do. Then Ifilled it with 120G of water and that was another 25 foot run with a MJ1200, ittook a long **** time but eventually that night it was swapped out. I hada mini ammonia spike and within 3 days after swap, I introduced 3 SPS frags andthey are still growing and fully encrusted to this day. All acros havebounced back since I swapped water out. My tank is actually growing SPSlike weeds this past month it seems.

I highlyrecommend swapping entire water out. Let me know if you have anyquestions

I wish you lived closer because I would of gladly let you borrow a bigger pump. That is impressive to run a MJ1200 to drain 120 gallons of water. You have a lot more patience than me.

I haven't swapped out 100% of my water but the idea of a acro fallow period and a massive water change is something I'm leaning towards.

 

[bneufelder]

Ha, yea, I'm bad about those meetings : ) Have you tested the hanna checker on anyone else's tank?

The meetings are the best part about the club imo. I plan on taking my hanna checker to Modern Aquatix, but usually stop otw home from work so never remember to bring it with me.

 

[jcrza]

Have you thought about doing a Triton water test to make sure you don't have some imbalance/contamination? I just found out I have a lot of tin and a bit of copper in my tank thanks to Triton.

 

[ssdawood]

Do you use UV light or ozone. I had a similar problem where stn/rtn won't stop. Now we all know it could be contaniminents or bacteria in water.

I started to run uv the first time it happened and ozoNE the second time it happened.

Both time it stopped stn and rtn on my sps.

Think about it. We all know it is a water quality issue. Either bacterial or contaminants. Uv and ozoNE will both help you break them.

Try it.

 

[ssdawood]

Your other best bet is to drain all the water and start with fresh water 100 percent. It will lead to a small ammonia spike but your live rock will take care of it in a couple days.

Someone said this worked earlier.

 

[Stoneyman]

I feel your pain Stoneyman. Have you gotten to the point of 0 across? That's where I'm stuck at, do I remove what is left and hope for a reboot after a month or two or let it run it's course praying for something good to happen? I've lost 90% already, but it's difficult to destroy something that is alive no matter how bad it looks.

I have a few montis, digis, and a couple acros left. I treated the tank for red bugs last night. Gonna keep water and my husbandry as stable and uninvasive as possible over the next month and see what happens. If i lose, i breakdown tank and startover down the road.

 

[Stoneyman]

Have you thought about doing a Triton water test to make sure you don't have some imbalance/contamination? I just found out I have a lot of tin and a bit of copper in my tank thanks to Triton.

Same here with the Tin. I also have elevated bromide. Have no idea what to do a out it. I wish Triton would send back some education on such elevated levels and how to fix

 

[jcrza]

Same here with the Tin. I also have elevated bromide. Have no idea what to do a out it. I wish Triton would send back some education on such elevated levels and how to fix

I have both cuprisorb and metasorb coming. I emailed two little fishies and they said that metasorb will in fact bind tin.

I have a theory about the Tin and Br. Have you at any point used PVC glue on anything in your tank?

 

[mic209]

Salinity - 24-25 with refractometer and Milwaukee refractometer

Your salinity is real low, it should be around 33-35PPT. Or is that S.G. and you meant 1.024-1.025?

 

[bneufelder]

Yes, 1.024-1.025. Had me worried for a sec.

 

[Jdmonealp]

Man. That sucks Brent. Sorry to hear that

I'd try running poly filter and see if it soaks anything up. I buy the poly filter packs from MA, cut about 2" off and toss it in the back of my overflow box, then switch it out when it changes color. My theory is, it will maybe remove harmful stuff before it builds up and becomes a problem

 

[Jdmonealp]

(This is pato btw)

 

[bneufelder]

I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I may be seeing signs of recovery. I added halides 3 weeks ago and started running carbon through a media reactor religiously thinking I may have a foreign contaminant. The stn appears to of stopped and the color and growth since adding the halides is better than it has been in 4 months. I also added a poly filter to help absorb any contaminants. I was going yo do the triton test, but figured the treatment would be the same.

Crossing fingers and knocking on wood.

 

[Rattooth]

I think Calcium or Alkilinity may have gotten off? If SPS were healthy and growing for a few months , they may have been sucking more calcium out of water as they grew. You were in a groove by luck or skill and were not ready for chemistry changes as coralline algae and corals grew? Just a guess.??