SPS Corals Losing Color and Dying

[aquaticlog]

So, been at it for a while. And as many of us know - it never is stable in this hobby.

My aquarium is going through some strange phase in the last couple of weeks - I've lost a few colonies and am seeing about 70% of my acros are a lot less vibrant than before. Their color is dull grey and they do not look saturated.

Was hoping that SPS folks here can pitch in with some advice. The only thing I can think of is higher phosphates, but that never used to be an issue before.

You can see my aquarium parameters on this page:

AquaticLog

www.aquaticlog.com

and here is the corals themselves

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

You mentioned you started using rowaphos to bring your po4 down. Did the color issues start before or after you ran rowaphos?

 

[aquaticlog]

Good question and I did think a little more about it since I posted this post.

I did start using rowaphos about 2 months ago when my phosphates started to read 0.48.

Treasure Lagoon's Parameters

aquaticlog.com

I think that since then corals started on a downward spiral. That's when phosphates dropped from 0.48 to 0.18 and hovered around 0.18 for a bit. Water changes did not help.

Now my orange passion never exhibited the vibrancy that other corals had.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

So everything looked good at 0.48 po4

 

[aquaticlog]

Correct. Here's the video of the tank right when my phosphates were that high.

 

[Pistondog]

Have you done an icp test since this started?

 

[aquaticlog]

Not yet, plan to do one soon. But for now I am starting to suspect Phosphates as the culprit.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Correct. Here's the video of the tank right when my phosphates were that high.

Sounds to me like the rowaphos is causing it.

 

[aquaticlog]

Sounds to me like the rowaphos is causing it.

I tend to agree with you - this big drop may have bugged the sps.
I had high phosphates all year and my colours were always great.

 

[Pistondog]

Some believe gfo is detrimental to sps due to effects other than po4 reduction.
If the po4 is still high, I think using lanthanum chloride is pretty defined as to what specifically it does.

 

[Crustaceon]

It’s not a high phosphate problem because your numbers are far from that. 1ppm (not .1) is still fine and I’ve never see adverse results at that level. My system sits at .08ppm and that’s probably riding too low. Personally, I see issues when my system creeps past 8.5 dkh with nitrates under 10ppm. This usually causes corals to go “pastel”.

 

[Reefahholic]

Sounds to me like the rowaphos is causing it.

That is my guess too. The steep drop in phosphate likely ticked them off. Could be a leaching magnet?

 

[Reefahholic]

Either way, that tank was looking very nice. It’s such a bummer. Now you’ll have to get in there and frag all the dead branches or remove some of those colonies.

The way that tank was growing it shouldn’t take too long to grow some new frags out. Maybe you can add some things you’ve been wanting to add. Stay positive and enjoy some new space.

 

[Tamberav]

I tend to agree with you - this big drop may have bugged the sps.
I had high phosphates all year and my colours were always great.

As they say... don't chase numbers. If it's not broken, don't fix it!

Good luck in the recovery, your tank was beautiful!

 

[Reefahholic]

Any updates @aquaticlog ?

 

[Perry]

GFO strkies again, in my humble opinion. I hope things are recovering for you, because that is one outstanding aquarium, and those colonies are amazing!

 

[aquaticlog]

Thank you all! Yes, they are recovering quite nicely. Some have taken a bigger hit than others.

What puzzles me the most is that my phosphates are now hovering at 0.26 all the time - does not matter whether I feed more or less, I've been feeding half the amount in the last 3 weeks and I don't see the number dropping at all.

 

[Capitol Reef Corals]

My SPS started to lose colors and die when I had heavy metals in my tank. Highly recommend an ICP test. There's just so many elements that hobby test kits can't test for or aren't accurate enough.

 

[ScottB]

I just posted a thread in the Reef Chemistry forum about measuring PO4. My Hanna ULR measures about .1 higher than any of my 8 ICP results.

My Hanna consistently comes in around .13 to .15 while ICP always shows .03 to .04.

So while I believe I am running a dirty system, in fact, I am not. Have you run an ICP?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I just posted a thread in the Reef Chemistry forum about measuring PO4. My Hanna ULR measures about .1 higher than any of my 8 ICP results.

My Hanna consistently comes in around .13 to .15 while ICP always shows .03 to .04.

So while I believe I am running a dirty system, in fact, I am not. Have you run an ICP?

Which Icp testing brand do you use?