SPS dying...oh no!

Cabo31 · Nov 10, 2016

So here's the story. I have had problems the last 2 months with sps dying from the base up(stn). It start on one coral and has now spread to several. We do not see any visible pests, but I did remove 3 gorilla crabs in the past. Here are our current parameters:
Stock-4 clowns and 1 wrasse
Salinity 1.027
Alk (red sea) 9 and (Hanna) 10.1
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1440
Phosphate 0(never had any reading)
Nitrate 1-2

We do water change of 15 gallons once a week.we have a RedSea reefer 250(60 gallon).
The light is an ATI hybrid. The tank is a year old. We have a mixed coral tank. I have notices some bubble alge in the tank,but not tremendous amount. I am not currently running any carbon or GFO. We have lost 5 pieces already!
Any suggestions? What should I do? Look for? Change?

themcnertney · Nov 10, 2016

Bummer, lets see what we can do. Do you use RO/DI? We need pictures (FTS and some close ups).

Cabo31 · Nov 10, 2016

We use RO water and for the water changes we go out to the Gulf Stream and get the good blue water. The corals go crazy every time we put that water in...they love it.
I'll try and get pictures up tonight.

themcnertney · Nov 10, 2016

Could be a love/hate relationship. Your coral like that blue ocean water but that same water could bring in who knows what.

G8trBait16 · Nov 10, 2016

Do y'all add the same amount of GFO every time? I had the same issue and lost almost $800 in acros bc I let my fiancée do maintenance on my tank (change gfo) when I was out of town for 2 weeks and she added way too much. I came home to 15 acros that had STN or RTN. I wasn't a happy camper, but we live and learn.

kendavjac · Nov 10, 2016

Doubt it's the water. I used to be stationed on Miami beach. 2-3 times a week, on incoming tides, small tanker trucks would pull up next to our docks and fill their tanks. They would then deliver to the local fish stores or used the water to service tanks that they maintained. I also collected water there and for 6 years never had a problem.

Pictures are worth a thousand words.
The #1 thing to look at is stability. I would look at Alk first.
Once this starts, it can be hard to reverse. Go ahead and take some frags of the effected corals just in case. Just make sure you take your frags from healthy tissue. Do a water change and dip the corals you can. As long as 1-2 polyps survive the piece can recover.

Sometimes it just happens. I have some encrusting motipora that yesterday afternoon took a turn for the worst. All of my other SPS's are looking great and growing like a weed. Just in case, I will be fragging a couple of pieces off it today at lunch.