SPS dying

[dieselkeeper]

I need some help on why would my SPS colonies is dying. Seems to be that one colony at a time seems to be affected. They turn a purplish color. Started about 2 months ago. Lost a montipora undata also. I broke off pieces of the undata and put them in my frag tank. They are showing some color again. Did the same with a blue matrix colony, it is just brown now with no growth. Lost 6 large colonies to date. My system is a 210 gal with 75 gallon sump, with refugium. 4 years old. Nextreef XL skimmer, GEO calcium reactor, ATI 8 bulb T5 sunpower lighting, 3 tunze 6105 for flow. Starting using ESV salt right before Christmas, changed back to RSCP. Two 30 gallon and one 20 gallon water change in the past 2 weeks. I was running GFO to try and get a couple of colonies that was brown to color. Remove that when the borealis started to pale. Negative test for flatworms. Running carbon for the past 3 days for possible contamination. Feeding heavy for possible lack of nutrients, but hasn't done anything to turn things around.

Salinity 1.026
Phosphate 0.02 Hanna low range photometer
Nitrate 1 Red Sea
Alk 10.9 Salifert
Calcium 470 Salifert
Mg 1350 Salifert

Pics of my strawberry shortcake which start its downward turn this past week.




[URL='https://flic.kr/p/VBjDc1']


This acro usually has neon green polyps, it has been dying slowly. Like this for awhile.

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[Scott.h]

Could be a lot of things but I wouldn't be able to keep my alk that high with nutrients that low. No3 2, po4 .01 alk 6.7-7.0. 200-250 par. Slowly dose nitrate. 16:1 ratio, let alk fall on its own slowly. Gfo could be a problem. I may temporarily back off on that as well as Carbon.

 

[BoomCorals]

11 alk is too high for such low nitrate and phosphate. You need to be closer to 8 or so with those nutrient levels.

 

[N4sty T4te]

11 alk is too high for such low nitrate and phosphate. You need to be closer to 8 or so with those nutrient levels.

Yes I had better success at 7.5 with low nutrients.
Dose stump remover and NeoPhos from brightwell if you want to raise the nutrients quickly. Sometimes more food just isn't enough. Even though you've doubled or tripled it.

 

[hybridazn]

Like others have said, too high of alk for your nutrient load. I'd lower the alk down to 8

 

[reefwiser]

Would have stayed with ESV salt. Not a fan of high Alk salt. Man it was a pretty piece too. I hope you can save some of it.

 

[dieselkeeper]

Alk is usually between 8-9. It is high because demand went down and frequent water changes.

I thought they would have STN or RTN. I have never seen a coral turn this color and die. Been keeping SPS for over 10 years. I always lost a colony to RTN. And not very often. Turned the skimmer off and removed all filtration last weekend.

 

[Scott.h]

That's why I start with a low alk salt. Current bucket 7.8, still too high. If I go over 7.0 in my display I see negative results. If I don't kill some alk on the bigger water changes with hcl acid I see negative results. Be careful when adding potassium nitrate also. Adding that too fast will burn tips or cause tissue loss also. Like raising no3 more then .5 at a time for me. And that will lower po4 also so keep an eye out.

 

[BoomCorals]

Alk is usually between 8-9. It is high because demand went down and frequent water changes.

I thought they would have STN or RTN. I have never seen a coral turn this color and die. Been keeping SPS for over 10 years. I always lost a colony to RTN. And not very often. Turned the skimmer off and removed all filtration last weekend.

I've had sps do everything from bleach, to dull colors, to stn rtn because of too high alk in low nutrient systems.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

I am having the same issue (turned purplish to brownish, acro skin seem rough, no growth). I was fooling around with light spectrum and more intense light (more on warmer spectrum), that was the only changes I made. Could be your light as well?. I am reverting to previous settings and I am seeing some improvement.

 

[reefwiser]

Always watch Alk I check mine the same time everyday. Generally after dinner when I am cleaning up the kitchen I take a syringe into the tank and get 10 ml for the Hanna checker. As soon as I see it move above 8.5 and start slowly decreasing the dosing amount by 5 ml

 

[dieselkeeper]

I am having the same issue (turned purplish to brownish, acro skin seem rough, no growth). I was fooling around with light spectrum and more intense light (more on warmer spectrum), that was the only changes I made. Could be your light as well?. I am reverting to previous settings and I am seeing some improvement.

Bulbs are a year old. Let them go for 17 months already, with no ill effects. Gonna go ahead and change them.

 

[hart24601]

Ime flow is the downfall of really large acro colonies. Or flow is so pitiful compared to the ocean. Sure it works for frags, which I like 100x of good flow for frags, but colonies that size - whew. If you put in small food can you try and see if the colonies have any spots where flow is under 1" per second?

 

[markalot]

>>>changed back to RSCP. Two 30 gallon and one 20 gallon water change in the past 2 weeks. I was running GFO to try and get a couple of colonies that was brown to color​

This is your issue. RSCP caused an Alk spike, maybe not large but it's not a salt to use if you are serious about SPS. Using GFO to try and un-brown corals most likely resulted in tip burn due to elevated Alk and may have added to the collapse due to rapid PO4 drop. Because corals were harmed Alk usage dropped, spiked some more, did more damage.

It's a lesson most of us have to go through with SPS and why many of us test Alk almost daily. The damage is done and will continue to show up over the next few weeks or months. The best you can do is get Alk rock solid stable and don't stress over slightly elevated nutrients. I have been there, and done that. It's not fun.

STOP CHANGING THINGS. Bulbs is probably a good idea but raise the lights and make doubly sure you don't add to the stress.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Bulbs are a year old. Let them go for 17 months already, with no ill effects. Gonna go ahead and change them.

I thought T5 should be changed every 8 months?. In my case, only 3 small colonies involved (start keeping SPS last October). What I did was adding a 90 degree lenses for more light penetrations. Silly me !

 

[dieselkeeper]

Joe the coral tips turned from blue to that purple color. Corals that are affected eventually starts turning after several weeks. Nitrates are at 2 ppm and alk is at 8.6 dkh. @markalot how long will this go on? I would think after parameters are corrected, this would have stopped.

 

[markalot]

Joe the coral tips turned from blue to that purple color. Corals that are affected eventually starts turning after several weeks. Nitrates are at 2 ppm and alk is at 8.6 dkh. @markalot how long will this go on? I would think after parameters are corrected, this would have stopped.

Weeks or months, unfortunately. It all depends on the acro. One of the biggest lessons I learned was just how long it takes acros to show damage and then recover from damage. I would see acros continue to go downhill and continue to 'fix' things which would cause more issues. Being stable for months is the only fix and you may still lose some acros. Lock in the KH you are going to run at and try to have a very consistent maintenance schedule. You'll get there, it just takes a while.

Unfortunately I did not document my horrible downturn and recovery here but I did on another forum, if interested PM me.

 

[dieselkeeper]

Update. 99 percent of acros lost. The new acros I put in does ok. If alk creeps to 9, I see white tips again. I'm going to try to keep alk al close as I can to 8. Most new acro frags die within a couple of weeks. I'm going to try again when I know alk is stable around 8. Got my fingers crossed. Hate to give up on acros. Been a stick guy most of my feeding days.

 

[jda]

Get some Muratic Acid and learn how to use it to lower the alk in your fresh salt mix. You need to let it aerate for a day or two after adding to drive off the CO2 and raise the pH back up, but otherwise, it is safe.

Gallons x dKh drop x .123 is the amount of MLs to use.

Here is my recipe... 44 gallon brute with cold RO. Full 40G bag of IO. 2 Tbsp of dowflake. Mix. Heat and add 20mls of Muratic Acid. Mix for 2 more days. Perfect SPS water for me.

Do not be afraid of alk at 7.0. That is where I like to be.

 

[dieselkeeper]

@jda Thanks for the help. I picked up a blue bucket of red sea salt. The bucket states 7.7 alk. I will definitely be testing it before a water change. Your post will help me lower alk if it is too high. I always used a calcium reactor, it's going to fun trying to adjust it to a tank with low demand.