I'm curious. I'm having similar issues with good water levels. I have one stylo that's seems to be doing well for now but none of my other sps have made it more than a month. I've been reading about vibrio and wonder if I don't have that in the water causing these losses. Considering adding a uv sterilizer
I also thought, studies show that uv sterilizers are not successful against this parasite, should be treated with an antibiotic.
I've had much much worse GHA than this and not had a single SPS coral perish.
So I disagree with the statement that algae will cause sps death within a two week time period, at the levels it is in this tank. GHA pretty much has to be touching the coral and growing over it to cause death in my experience. Otherwise we wouldn't have huge refugiums and algae scrubbers setup for nutrient removal. When you do go to remove the hair algae keep the lights the same, and use a tooth brush and filter socks, or do it in bucket of water change water. Leaving the lights on and manually removing speeds up the process of the algae depleting the nutrients it's feeding on IMO, your going to be scrubbing regardless, might as well scrub fewer times and remove larger quantities of algae.
I've had much much worse GHA than this and not had a single SPS coral perish.What you can run into is the GHA out competing the SPS for nutrients when you reduce feeding, which in turn causes the coral starve to death.
This is not to say that GHA can't create chemical warfare, I;m not knocking the idea of it at all, just dont think thats what this one is given my experience.
Here are my questions:
1. Are you running ATO?
(sps HATE salinity swings)
2. What is the Tanks Temp and have you checked for swings during the day with your ATI on?
(My 200 Gallon swings 1 degree with less watts per gallon than yours, anything more than 2 degrees is no good especially if the corals aren't used to it)
3. Are you losing these corals following water changes?
(If your using Red Sea Coral Pro the alkalinity spike from adding 12 DKH water to 8.2 DKH water could be causing the issue)
4. Have you left the system for extended periods of time without any sps to rule out bacterial infections, or pests?
How often do you test alk? Regardless, I'd get another kit and double check your results.
Where do you get your sps? When you say sps do you only mean acros or have you tried others? If acros are these wild acros or aquacultured?
IMO it is a swinging parameter or bad test kit, a contaminate, stray voltage, or a pest. Do you have any pictures of your acros when they were dying?
I measure the alkalinity twice a week, usually on Sundays and Wednesdays, the values do not oscillate between 8.1 to 8.4, I have a table where I write down the results, for months kept in those numbers, one of two types of Test, a day measured with hanna and another with network is to avoid errors in the test.
My sps come from other amateurs in my area, I have the same problem in all, montiporas, acropores, seriatopores, sthiloporas, etc ...
An oscillating parameter can guarantee that it is not. I also had suspicion of the measuring equipment and I bought all the new tests, I even bought a digital refractometer.
A polluting element, I have reviewed all the equipment for rust and I have not found anything, all the appliances I use are specific to aquariums and good brand.
How can I tell if I have any electrical stress in the water?
In a few minutes I'll look in my camera, maybe have some photos
Yeah also, how are they dying?
Just wake up one morning. STN, RTN??
Come on man, you know, all this new **** has come to light man.
I have seen several ways to die according to the type of coral, acropora have arrived have started to do well for a few days and then have begun to peel their tips.
Other corals such as montipora, began to bleach until they lost the tissue, others simply release their tissue bit by bit.
x2
How are the corals dying? Getting pale or dark? STN or RTN? Other symptoms?
Calibrated refractometer lately?
I think it's always good to try to simplify when trying to solve problems. Reduce and eventually stop all dosing, GFO, GAC, organic carbon, AA's etc.
Just feed, skimmer, Ca/Alk supplements and water changes. Just take it slow.
One thing I've learned is that sometimes there's simply no magic bullet as to why you have problems (as much as we always hope there will be). So it helps to go back to a simple baseline and work from there.
Some do not have time to change their color, those that have lasted longer have been clarifying, They peel slowly, do not do it in hours, once they start it takes a week at least or even longer.
I bought a new Milwaukee digital refractometer, calibrated it before each use with osmotic water
Yes, I'm going to leave my tank alone for two months, I'll turn off the lights to eliminate the algae and re-stabilize the nutrients, I'll take the zoas and my fish to my quarantine tank.
Please could you share your most recent Triton result?
Yes, I'm going to look for it
