SPS Dying

[Masgatigata]

I just recently did a 24 hour black out and did not, stupidly, re-aclimate the corals to the light. I honestly didn't think I had to. In any case, some of my sps is showing signs of unhappiness. The polyps retract and then the coral looks horrible. It's strange bc the other spa look great. Full polyp extension and they look happy. My parameters are all good and have been stable. Alk at 9, CA 480, Mag 1380. I haven't had any swings. I do weekly 10% water changes and check salinity with a refractometer that I calibrate each time I make new water. I can't for the life of me figure out if this is being caused by the lighting issue. My nitrates are all 0 and phosphates are good too. I've attached some pics bc it definitely isn't like typical bleaching. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Genesis Corals]

It definitely isn't the lighting, assuming these corals aren't new to your tank. Many possibilities...I would check for AEFW or Red Bugs, I would also run some carbon in case something got into your water.

 

[Masgatigata]

Nope. Not new. They were doing absolutely fine. I haven't added any new sps in a while but I will check for red bugs a AEFW. I'll go get some carbon as well. Do I need a reactor for carbon or can I just put it in the sump?

 

[JMSKI333]

It is for sure not your lighting. The only thing I can think of is when you had your lights off for 24hours your PH may have dropped too low and too quick for your SPS to handle.

As a good measure I would do a water change and get things back to the way they were.

Why did you turn your lights off for a day? Algae?

 

[Masgatigata]

Yes…I read that a 24 hour black out was a good practice to help combat nuisance algae. I don't have a lot but there were areas in the sanded where I couldn't siphon that were getting brown. Well, those are gone now but the sps is still dying. :neutral: I also added a light and added some chaeto in the sump recently. Maybe this could be the culprit?

 

[Acroholics]

How long are you running the light in the sump? Running lights change ph, and a good rule is when the main display lights are off the sump lights are on, and vice versa

 

[Masgatigata]

I just recently added the light. I have it on the opposite schedule of the display lights. I'm going to turn them off and leave them off to see if there is a change with the sps.

 

[ifarmer]

did you recently add the new light (LED)?

 

[Masgatigata]

No…the Led lights I've had for almost a year.

 

[evolved]

Run some carbon; I'm guessing whatever died off in that blackout release toxins.

 

[jservedio]

Whenever I do a blackout (I deald with dinos last year) I always make sure I keep my pH monitor turned on their entire time and check it every 3 or 4 hours - keeping some fully saturated and settled Kalk-water on hand. If the pH drops more than 0.1 or 0.2 units, I dose some kalk water to bring it back where it needs to be.

When I did a 3-day blackout with all the dinos dying I had to dose a pretty hefty amount of Kalk to keep the pH in check.

 

[Alabamareef]

Usually in an established tank the two things come to mind. Alk swing or temp swing. I've done a blackout before and did not have to re acclimate the coral to light. It happens in the wild also when you have a few days of bad weather. Do you have a controller hooked up, ie. apex, where you can check your temp. Maybe when you did the black out the temp spiked in the tank......

 

[Masgatigata]

I don't have a controller but I do have a digital and manual thermometer that I check religiously. They both have been stable; however, maybe while i was at work the temp did spike. I can't be sure. What I do know is that its been a few says since the blackout and new corals are showing signs of distress daily. i added carbon today. Hopefully it helps. I'll also be doing another water change today as well. I'm just really bummed and stumped.

 

[boehm742]

With the lights being off I'm guessing your ph dropped causing this. Do you monitor ph?

 

[Masgatigata]

Apparently if you run gfo too long without changing it, the gfo leaches metals into the water column. A friend of mine told me to take it offline about an hour ago and the sps polyps are coming back out! Hopefully they continue to rebound in the next few days. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[evolved]

^ Not true with GFO; true with PhosGuard-style media however.

Running GFO too aggressively and stripping the water column entirely of phosphates, or reducing their concentrations very quickly, could cause this.

 

[Alabamareef]

If your Alk is 9 I would go out on a limb and say your pH is good.

With the lights being off I'm guessing your ph dropped causing this. Do you monitor ph?

 

[Alabamareef]

+1
Have you always ran GFO?

^ Not true with GFO; true with PhosGuard-style media however.

Running GFO too aggressively and stripping the water column entirely of phosphates, or reducing their concentrations very quickly, could cause this.

 

[Masgatigata]

Yes. I've always had it running. The last time I changed this current batch was 6 weeks ago. Since I've taken the gfo reactor out if the sump, the polyps in the dying sps have started to come back out. I did hang a filter though and started running carbon so maybe it's that that is helping.

 

[Alabamareef]

Was your GFO in a reactor? Also is your carbon in a reactor? Not a necessity I'm just curious. Also what's your tank size and how much GFO were you using?
Myself and a good friend run carbon and GFO 24/7 with thriving SPS tanks. I change the GFO if I see more than normal algae on the glass and change carbon once a month, both in a reactor, the same reactor. I use about 1 cup of HC GFO on a 180 gallon system.

FYI, I feed my tank a lot.

Yes. I've always had it running. The last time I changed this current batch was 6 weeks ago. Since I've taken the gfo reactor out if the sump, the polyps in the dying sps have started to come back out. I did hang a filter though and started running carbon so maybe it's that that is helping.