SPS dying?!?

[Lowlandreef]

I've been reefing for 1.5 years now and I tried my first SPS frag (Seriatopora Hystrix) around 6 months ago when coralline algae started to show up. This frag bleached within a few weeks so I initially thought I put it to high up and my light caused it to bleach. I'm not too familiar with SPS, but I suppose my light would need to be very bright to bleach a coral so I guess that's not to likely. My water parameters were all fine btw, so I still don't know what happened to that frag.

Nevertheless I figured to try SPS again last may. This time I bought a Montipora Digitata frag.

It grew really well and the next photo is 2 months after adding it to the tank.

Unfortunately a part of the left side broke af due to my magnet cleaner falling on it... I guessed this wouldn't be too big of a deal since it's just like fragging it. I went on holiday for 2 weeks, and when I got back the frag looked like this.

There was also a bit of algae on it, what is a bad sign I believe. I removed it before I took the picture btw.
Normally I do a waterchange every week, but since I was away I wasn't able to and the alkalinity dropped from 10 dkh to 7.3.
I guess that's the reason it looks like this now. Anyone know if the frag can recover from this?
And I guess I should start dosing to prevent something like this again right?
All my other LPS and softies look fine btw, so I don't know if something else could have caused this...
All the help & advice is welcome!

 

[ThePurple12]

If it dropped over a week, I highly doubt it's the alkalinity. 7 is a perfectly fine level anyway.

Maybe you don't have enough nutrients in there. What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

The polyps are out, so that's a good sign.

As for the birdsnest frag, it sounds like it died from no light acclimation.

 

[Lowlandreef]

If it dropped over a week, I highly doubt it's the alkalinity. 7 is a perfectly fine level anyway.

Maybe you don't have enough nutrients in there. What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

The polyps are out, so that's a good sign.

As for the birdsnest frag, it sounds like it died from no light acclimation.

It dropped to 7 in 2 weeks, but I thought it might be a problem since "stability is key". I know 7 is around the same as NSW so I agree that the specific number shouldn't be too much of an issue.

I hadn't thought of nutrients yet. I have undetectable nitrates and phosphates for a long time. I do have a little algae growing on the back wall of the tank, so I feel like the nitrates and phosphates should be there right?

 

[Lowlandreef]

BTW I forgot to mention there was a heatwave which started when I still was on holiday. When I got home the tank was 84 degrees F. Everything else is fine but I don't know how sensitive SPS is regarding temperature.

 

[DSEKULA]

Ah, I'd think it was the heat then. Yes that can recover, if you normally want to keep the tank at a higher alk then slowly bring it back up but this is likey not an issue. otherwise I'd just do your best to keep everything stable espically the temp not at 84 and you should be fine 84 is pushing it with sps ime but not necessarily deadly for a short period.

 

[Lowlandreef]

Ah, I'd think it was the heat then. Yes that can recover, if you normally want to keep the tank at a higher alk then slowly bring it back up but this is likey not an issue. otherwise I'd just do your best to keep everything stable espically the temp not at 84 and you should be fine 84 is pushing it with sps ime but not necessarily deadly for a short period.

I think was around 84 for around 4 days. When I got home I bought a cooling fan, which brought it down to 80. Luckily the heatwave is pretty much over now, so the tank is back to 77 now.

I did notice a few branches being a lot lighter than normal, and the polyps aren't out like they used to be.
Will it still be able to recover?

 

[ThePurple12]

It should recover.

 

[Lowlandreef]

Update:

 

[ThePurple12]

Can’t really tell from the picture, has it gotten better? It looks good except for the white parts, obviously

 

[Lowlandreef]

Can’t really tell from the picture, has it gotten better? It looks good except for the white parts, obviously

Sorry was the best pic I could get, need to buy myself one of those orange filters soon.
I feel like there is a little bit of growth on some parts, but the bottom right extension is turning whiter I think. It does still have some flesh however, I guess that's good right?
Almost every day some stringy algae grows on the skeleton as well. I try to blow it off with a turkey baster when I can, but sometimes my bicolor blenny is ahead of me and nips at it...

 

[Engrene4]

I have heard that bleaching can not only occur because of strong light but because of underfeeding. But I only heard that about anemones so I don't know if it still applies though.... just a thought

 

[ThePurple12]

The stringy stuff sounds like dinoflagellates, I’m also having a problem with those. If you let them stay on the coral for too long, they’ll kill the whole thing... I just had that happen to my 7” miyagi tort colony.

 

[jk_s124]

The combination of the Alk swing and temp with a relatively new frag might have been too much stress. I feel it’s usually a frag that’s not well established, with a few factors working together to trigger RTN events. Of course its impossible to say for sure. Keep trying with the goal stability, and it will work for you eventually. I had two RTN events in the first few years with my tank. Fingers crossed, but I think things have now finally stabilized enough to have some success. Good luck Adriaen!

 

[Lowlandreef]

The stringy stuff sounds like dinoflagellates, I’m also having a problem with those. If you let them stay on the coral for too long, they’ll kill the whole thing... I just had that happen to my 7” miyagi tort colony.

I'm not to sure it's dino's. I've had trouble with them before but defeated them fortunately. That was months ago and I don't see the stringy stuff anywhere else in the tank. Will keep an eye on it, thanks for the thought!

The combination of the Alk swing and temp with a relatively new frag might have been too much stress. I feel it’s usually a frag that’s not well established, with a few factors working together to trigger RTN events. Of course its impossible to say for sure. Keep trying with the goal stability, and it will work for you eventually. I had two RTN events in the first few years with my tank. Fingers crossed, but I think things have now finally stabilized enough to have some success. Good luck Adriaen!

Thanks for the input! I started dosing manually to keep the tank more stable, so hopefully that will tackle the stability problem. I also got a cooling fan for the next heatwave (which luckily doesn't occur to often over here) so hopefully I can prevent another temp swing as well.

For now I will just wait and see if the frag still recovers, if not I will wait a while before trying again. At least it's another learning experience which can help me prevent this from happening again.