SPS all suffering at once??

[JoshO]

Hi all,
I've just got back from 10 days away from the tank (horrific I know, I've actually now been back a week). In the meantime someone has been feeding the fish and dosing ab+ for me and nothing else (doser taking care of the other elements!)
I've been back a week now and my SPS have been looking horrific, virtually no PE and a few STN losses.
I've had numerous opinions as to what it could be and here they are:
- CORAL WARFARE TOXINS > I noticed a day after I was back that my 3 heads of candy cane had fallen onto my acan and subsequently died.
- CONTAMINANTS > The person feeding the fish had something on their hands and they managed to get it into the tank (they were told no hands in water!)
- KH or TEMP SWING > Possible but I'll post numbers below to show it's unlikely!

Any ideas as to what this could be and could I have some ideas on how to help aid recovery??
Thanks in advance!

BEFORE

AFTER

PARAMETERS

 

[JoshO]

REMEDIES SO FAR:
- Two 25% water changes
- New carbon added
- Sandbed vacuumed and rocks blasted
- Filter sponge and floss changed

 

[DivingTheWorld]

How old is the tank and when did you add the corals? It looks like they have little to no encrustment.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Hmm weird, even your rocks look darker in the second picture...

 

[JoshO]

How old is the tank and when did you add the corals? It looks like they have little to no encrustment.

7 months old now and the corals have been in there nearly 3 months.
Here are before and after pictures of growth to show they've been very happy up until now

 

[JoshO]

Hmm weird, even your rocks look darker in the second picture...

Picture was taken within a few minutes of arriving home, it was a thin layer of algae

 

[JoshO]

#reefsquad #reefsquadleader

 

[GoVols]

#reefsquad #reefsquadleader

When it comes to coral toxins, things like plays, zoas, or an angry toadstool comes to mind.

Who knows what could have been on his hands?

Is there a chance that your dKH took a dive?

 

[GoVols]

So sorry... ;Sorry

 

[GoVols]

Picture was taken within a few minutes of arriving home, it was a thin layer of algae

If your alk has remained stable, then you may want to toss some Poly Filter in there.

I'd keep dosing AB+ while making water changes to help keep your nutrients up.

Have you tested your phosphates and nitrates?

 

[jda]

The first two are not likely at all. If you have a chart to take away temp or carbonate swing, then you need to look elsewhere.

Are you feeding your fish enough to feed the coral? Any lighting changes? No shocks if you stick your hand in the tank or sump from leaking electricity?

Go back to basics and make sure that your refractometer is calibrated, check temp with something with mercury in it... and all of the basics.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Unfortunately, with a tank that young keeping sps is precarious at best. Was the tank started with live rock or dry rock? That can play into it as well. With a young tank the biome is not yet stable so you could have had a nutrient or Alk spike up or down which caused your issue. It’s really hard to say.

You can order an ICP test or run some carbon or polyfilter in case there is some type of contaminant. But I suspect whatever happened is over and the best thing you can do at this point is maintain stability.

Other than low Mag, the rest of your parameters all look fine.

 

[GoVols]

The first two are not likely at all. If you have a chart to take away temp or carbonate swing, then you need to look elsewhere.

Are you feeding your fish enough to feed the coral? Any lighting changes? No shocks if you stick your hand in the tank or sump from leaking electricity?

Go back to basics and make sure that your refractometer is calibrated, check temp with something with mercury in it... and all of the basics.

Unfortunately, with a tank that young keeping sps is precarious at best. Was the tank started with live rock or dry rock? That can play into it as well. With a young tank the biome is not yet stable so you could have had a nutrient or Alk spike up or down which caused your issue. It’s really hard to say.

You can order an ICP test or run some carbon or polyfilter in case there is some type of contaminant. But I suspect whatever happened is over and the best thing you can do at this point is maintain stability.

Other than low Mag, the rest of your parameters all look fine.

Thanks for taking the time with some solid points.

 

[JoshO]

If your alk has remained stable, then you may want to toss some Poly Filter in there.

I'd keep dosing AB+ while making water changes to help keep your nutrients up.

Have you tested your phosphates and nitrates?

If dkh did take a dive it recovered by the time I was back so I've no way of knowing!
I've added fresh carbon (I always run it) to try and absorb anything.
The nitrates and phosphates barely rose, I think in large part due to the amount of algae that grew!
The fight was between 3 heads of candy cane and an acan...which the candy lost and died.

 

[JoshO]

The first two are not likely at all. If you have a chart to take away temp or carbonate swing, then you need to look elsewhere.

Are you feeding your fish enough to feed the coral? Any lighting changes? No shocks if you stick your hand in the tank or sump from leaking electricity?

Go back to basics and make sure that your refractometer is calibrated, check temp with something with mercury in it... and all of the basics.

It's a 50l system and gets 6ml of ab+ a day for the corals and about 1/4 cube of frozen mysis for the 3 fish

Lighting has been at a constant since before the sps were added.

Sending an ICP away on Monday.

I've checked the temp with a mercury thermometer and it's bang on where the controller is showing, no shocks from the water from stray voltage.
Salinity was checked today with NSW as the calibration for the refractometer

 

[GoVols]

If dkh did take a dive it recovered by the time I was back so I've no way of knowing!
I've added fresh carbon (I always run it) to try and absorb anything.
The nitrates and phosphates barely rose, I think in large part due to the amount of algae that grew!
The fight was between 3 heads of candy cane and an acan...which the candy lost and died.

I'm leaning towards @DivingTheWorld thoughts (young reef) and @jda is an acro growing machine.

 

[JoshO]

Unfortunately, with a tank that young keeping sps is precarious at best. Was the tank started with live rock or dry rock? That can play into it as well. With a young tank the biome is not yet stable so you could have had a nutrient or Alk spike up or down which caused your issue. It’s really hard to say.

You can order an ICP test or run some carbon or polyfilter in case there is some type of contaminant. But I suspect whatever happened is over and the best thing you can do at this point is maintain stability.

Other than low Mag, the rest of your parameters all look fine.

Dry rock. If there was any spike or drop it hasn't shown on the tests unfortunately so I'll never fully know!
Carbon is in, ICP ready to go, and thanks I'm hoping it's going to recover from here!

 

[dieselkeeper]

I've experienced light shock. What lighting did they come from? What lighting do you have. They look higher up on the rock. SPS going from low par to higher par will cause this. Yes, 2-3 months later. I have a bleached riterri anemone right now because I let my T5's bulb replacement go over 18 months. Stupid me replaced all the bulbs at one time. Replaced bulbs on July 2nd and 2 months later, it started to bleach. I did the same thing on my display tank. All the SPS in the tank did the same as yours after forgetting to replace bulbs. I figured it can't be the water because I hadconverted my refugium to a frag area. All the SPS in the frag area are still growing. This is what I experienced.

Sorry, I hate to hear anyone go thru this. Hope they all pull thru.

 

[JoshO]

I've experienced light shock. What lighting did they come from? What lighting do you have. They look higher up on the rock. SPS going from low par to higher par will cause this. Yes, 2-3 months later. I have a bleached riterri anemone right now because I let my T5's bulb replacement go over 18 months. Stupid me replaced all the bulbs at one time. Replaced bulbs on July 2nd and 2 months later, it started to bleach. I did the same thing on my display tank. All the SPS in the tank did the same as yours after forgetting to replace bulbs. I figured it can't be the water because I hadconverted my refugium to a frag area. All the SPS in the frag area are still growing. This is what I experienced.

Sorry, I hate to hear anyone go thru this. Hope they all pull thru.

That's super interesting to hear (terrible that you're suffering too) but to hear someone having issues of light shock after a few months is new to me!
The thing that's leading me away from it is that all the pieces have suffered at the exact same time despite being added a few weeks apart.
However both the middle pieces came from virtually identical par, if anything just slightly higher.

 

[GoVols]

That's super interesting to hear (terrible that you're suffering too) but to hear someone having issues of light shock after a few months is new to me!
The thing that's leading me away from it is that all the pieces have suffered at the exact same time despite being added a few weeks apart.
However both the middle pieces came from virtually identical par, if anything just slightly higher.

Josh,
It looks like you're pushing an AI Prime.

And your reef is not old enough to have overrun t5s (par drop) and replace with brand new t5 bulbs that could cause light shock.