Rapid Coral Bleaching (SPS), LPS receeding

[evrydayzawrkday]

Alright, I was debating marking this as "Emergency", but it is Friday night and at this point I am not sure if there is anything else I can do other than wait and pray.

Here is the tank specs:

- 40G AIO Breeder (see build thread)
- Nitrate: 3.6 ppm
- Phos: .09ppm
- Nitrite: 0 ppm
- Ammonia: 0 ppm (assumed as the API test showed .025 or whatever the second lowest is)

- Alk: 9.8 (it has risen roughly 1 dkh over one week)
- Ca: 452 (stable)
- Mag: 1388 (dropped over the last two weeks from 1450)

Currently dosing 2ml of All for Reef, and 12ml of Red Sea AB+

About a week ago I lost a very nice torch coral, it had RTN and died. Fast forward to 24 hours ago, all of my SPS (3 monti caps, two acro, two digi) are now solid white. No changes I can see within the tank, as the lighting and other things (such as dosing) has stayed the same.

Finally, I did see my bubble tip go from having all the bubbles to none as you can see below. You can also see some very small bits of "red" in the tank, also shown below.

I thought it was a voltage issue, but all I am reading is .2V (~200 mV) so I know its not that. The inverts are all also acting fine (two clowns, a bunch of crabs / snails, coral bandit shrimp).

Plan of action is...

- Change the filters, and dump the protein skimmer
- Add in 100ml of Brightwell Purit
- Pray

Ideas? Welp..

 

[davidcalgary29]

How old is the tank? When was the last water change? It sounds like the nutrients may have been exhausted.

 

[evrydayzawrkday]

How old is the tank? When was the last water change? It sounds like the nutrients may have been exhausted.

Water change was today, and the last one before that was two weeks ago (I normally to every Friday, but I got extremely busy last week).

The tank is a move, but the rock / coral is ~1 year old, maybe more. The nem is 2 weeks old.

 

[davidcalgary29]

What were your parameters like before the water change? What lighting do you have? and can you give us a full tank shot with white lights?

 

[Spare time]

What test kits are you using?

 

[design.maddie]

I wouldn't expect temp to cause all this but you didn't mention anything about where your temps were currently at.

 

[Spare time]

Do the SPS still have polpys? I am trying to see if they are bleached or rtn'd. Massive or pure bleaching is pretty rare in the hobby from my experience.

 

[evrydayzawrkday]

Howdy all, Sorry. Fell asleep.

Parameters were pretty much the same. I used the Hanna test kits, with the exception of Mag which I used Red Sea.

Lighting is a Radeon XR15 G5. Using AB+ at 80%, max par is ~300-350.

Temp is 79. Controlled by Apex.

I can take a picture shortly.

 

[William Mumford]

How long has it been since you changed your rodi filters? How long did it take for the caps to bleech? I'm assuming it did not happen over night.

 

[evrydayzawrkday]

Do the SPS still have polpys? I am trying to see if they are bleached or rtn'd. Massive or pure bleaching is pretty rare in the hobby from my experience.

Pics are below. After looking up RTN, I am thinking this is what would be occurring. Maybe a bacterial or viral infection?

Good news is my RBTA is going back to normal, maybe it was just ticked off I didn't feed it enough last night (forgot to hand feed it, just did broadcast, as I was in shock with what I saw).

And for reference, the moonlight was just on and I turned the lights on 100%. Normally speaking the Zoa are OK with the exception of one (which look like they are melting, or just ticked).

 

[William Mumford]

The tanks seems very new how old is it?

 

[William Mumford]

How much flow is in the tank the tiny sps frags need alot of flow to get rid of waste and also to have a chance at grabbing what they need out of the water.

 

[ekandler]

Lighting is a Radeon XR15 G5. Using AB+ at 80%, max par is ~300-350.

That’s a ton of light. I don’t know what your acclimation is like but nothing you have requires that high of light. I have XR30s and only run them at 45% peak on my tank and get maybe 300 PAR near the surface but mostly 150ish. Unless you have acros you have way too much light.

I’ll caveat this by saying you can have lighting this high, just causes some other complexities. Higher light intensity will result in higher photosynthetic rates (faster growth), higher absorption of nutrients and tank parameters requiring more frequent/aggressive dosing. Unless you’re adequately keeping up with the other demands that result from higher light, I’d just turn the light down.

 

[William Mumford]

That’s a ton of light. I don’t know what your acclimation is like but nothing you have requires that high of light. I have XR30s and only run them at 45% peak on my tank and get maybe 300 PAR near the surface but mostly 150ish. Unless you have acros you have way too much light.

I’ll caveat this by saying you can have lighting this high, just causes some other complexities. Higher light intensity will result in higher photosynthetic rates (faster growth), higher absorption of nutrients and tank parameters requiring more frequent/aggressive dosing. Unless you’re adequately keeping up with the other demands that result from higher light, I’d just turn the light down.

2nd that also allow the lights to turn off and the tank to go black. Everything needs to sleep the moon light cannot be replicated in a home environment.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Water change was today, and the last one before that was two weeks ago (I normally to every Friday, but I got extremely busy last week).

The tank is a move, but the rock / coral is ~1 year old, maybe more. The nem is 2 weeks old.

What do you mean the tank is a move, did you just move or upgrade tanks....

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

The rocks and tank look either way to new or something else is going on it has a green haze look to it, and possibly to much light at this stage of life. Even the patch of gsp looks like it's in trouble and that's a tough one to trouble. I think it needs to have more time and maturity, let some coraline algae build up on those rocks, and make sure dosing and nutrients are in check so you can get a healthy layer of coraline growth, my rule of thumb is to watch coraline growth it will tell you whats going on.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

2nd that also allow the lights to turn off and the tank to go black. Everything needs to sleep the moon light cannot be replicated in a home environment.

That's true my tanks that get absolute darkness for 12 hrs seem to do better, not sure if it's related but it could be

 

[Pkunk35]

Sorry to hear about the problems,
It’s tough to make a judgement but very simply I think the tank is prob a little too new for sps especially, and tougher for some LPs as well because of this,
I’d also stop dosing 12ml of ab+ into 40g that’s too much imo especially if daily and I wonder if it has anything to do with your current bleaching problem, just a guess

 

[evrydayzawrkday]

What do you mean the tank is a move, did you just move or upgrade tanks....

I had an established 20G AIO over the course of a year, recently (~2-4 months ago) moved into this tank. The greenish rock is new rock I added (~10lb worth).

Also good to know about the moonlight stuff. I am turning that off now.

 

[evrydayzawrkday]

Sorry to hear about the problems,
It’s tough to make a judgement but very simply I think the tank is prob a little too new for sps especially, and tougher for some LPs as well because of this,
I’d also stop dosing 12ml of ab+ into 40g that’s too much imo especially if daily and I wonder if it has anything to do with your current bleaching problem, just a guess

Noted. I am going to edit the lights now, and stop dosing AB+. Ultimately most of the rock (the one covered in Zoa) was from my older, 1 year old 20g AIO. I did move tanks recently (~2-4 months ago), and with positive growth then I thought I would see the same now.