SPS browning / losing tissue and then bleaching....why?

[MARK M. DAVIS]

I agree that he should use a PAR meter to give adequate lighting. That's very important, too.

 

[chuckfu5]

I am with @Diesel on this one. I have never been a fan of NoPox, carbon doing or Biopellets. As other have mentioned, stability is key. Reading through this thread, I agree with a few others that your parameters are bouncing around more than I personally would like to see. An ICP test will help rule out, or confirm several potential problems.
A good rule of thumb in situations like this is to take a step back .Take several deep breaths, and tackle things one at a time. Oftentimes we tend to make things worse by trying to do much to fast. Meaning, adding this, deleting that, without time takes to see if the results are positive or negative before moving on to something else. Doing small incremental changes, noting their effects and then making an informed decision will go a long way to solve the problem.
Based on your posts, 1st thing I would do is get the ALK stable. Bouncing from high 7's to low 10's isn't going to work.

So I understand but the bouncing around on the ALK is over several months. Recently the ALK has been staying in the high 9's low 10's.

I 100% agree with the long deep breathes.

 

[chuckfu5]

where do you buy the kit from.

Bulk Reef Supply

 

[chuckfu5]

Where do you get your water from?

Its run through my RODI system. CoralVue Icecap model. 2PPM coming out of the RO and 0 out of the DI.

 

[chuckfu5]

ICP TEST RESULTS

 

[chuckfu5]

ICP TEST RESULTS

 

[chuckfu5]

Let’s try this again....

 

[Ashish Patel]

I don't see anything specific that would cause acros to bleach but would look at your elevated Aluminum.. are you using any ceramic media? Iam against marinepure after having elevated AL so slowly just got rid of it,, I suppose its fine if you do alot of waterchanges but anything in the tank that leeches metal of any forms for me had to go.

 

[Joe Batt]

I had high Al with marine pure. BRSTV has shown it too in the past. I swapped it out for BioTech blocks and balls and it has gone back to 0.
Do you have a view of your Kh over say a month and a week? The one you showed was a long time period and hard to see the swings properly. I think your right bringing down the Kh, but its a slow process, I had similar problems but they seem to be stabilising with better Kh stability.

 

[Dugless]

What kind of rock do you have, did you say?

 

[chuckfu5]

I don't see anything specific that would cause acros to bleach but would look at your elevated Aluminum.. are you using any ceramic media? Iam against marinepure after having elevated AL so slowly just got rid of it,, I suppose its fine if you do alot of waterchanges but anything in the tank that leeches metal of any forms for me had to go.

Funny you should mention that. My refugium is full of marine pure blocks.

What’s a ok aluminum level?

 

[chuckfu5]

What kind of rock do you have, did you say?

 

[chuckfu5]

I had high Al with marine pure. BRSTV has shown it too in the past. I swapped it out for BioTech blocks and balls and it has gone back to 0.
Do you have a view of your Kh over say a month and a week? The one you showed was a long time period and hard to see the swings properly. I think your right bringing down the Kh, but its a slow process, I had similar problems but they seem to be stabilising with better Kh stability.

 

[chuckfu5]

I really appreciate all the help with this guys.

This is my first “big” tank and it’s been quite the learning experience.

 

[biophilia]

Did the browning/tissue loss/bleaching issue precede NoPox dosing? Some people believe that carbon dosing can possibly cause problematic blooms of bacterial pathogens if they already exist in the system in smaller numbers.

I've been having similar issues in my own tank (acropora and some branching montis looking good for a week or two, then becoming "dry" looking with no PE (and brown) over the course of a few days before tissue promptly begins sloughing off followed by rapid bleaching). I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out the cause so have been watching this thread like a hawk. In my case, the problem seems to have amplified significantly after I briefly experimented with carbon dosing.

 

[Tklb]

If I had to guess, I would say Alkalinity Stability is a potential issue. Mainly the area circled in Yellow.

As best as I could I marked off 1 week increments across the bottom. That is a LOT of fluctuation over the course of 2 weeks. Hope that helps.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I'm gonna say instability of parameters. Your alk is all over the place. You'll want that line to be pretty much flat. I had a dip in alk recently and my two acros I have were ticked off. One started to lose color and the other that is normally fuzzy pulled all its polyps in. Got it back to what they were used to and they are starting to recover. My tank is still extremely new for SPS. It's just a week off from 3 months.

The low beginning is from a poorly mixed bucket of salt. That has been corrected.

 

[Tklb]

My Alk target is (8.4) During all of 2018 my high alk has been (9.0), and my low (7.6). I feel like even that is too much. I try to keep it always between (8.0 - 8.8) for my tank. This year I have only been above (8.8) 3 times and below (8.0) 3 times. Alk Stability is extremely important for Acros/SPS.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Funny you should mention that. My refugium is full of marine pure blocks.

What’s a ok aluminum level?

close to 0 as possible. IDK others say nothing happens but I am sure they are doing bi-weekly waterchanges. I removed most of it and still have low nitrates and less AL so don't see a benefit to using it. I much rather use a sponge, cheato, and LR rubble. I feel these things buildup overtime and come back to bite you in few years so definately consider removing slowly. I cutt my marinepure in 4 cubes and removed 3. I still have 1 but saving for perhaps a QT tank or something

 

[jduong916]

I've never had luck with carbon dosing. Success for me started when i stopped carbon dosing