Sps keeps dying

whyoming.white · Jul 30, 2019

Ok so I’m having issues with my SPS reef.

Background
120 display(total ~145g)
Additional frag area (~20g volume)
Bashsea sump(~25g volume)
Skimz SM253 Monzter series
7” filter sock(changed every other day)
Carbon reactor(run maybe a week a month)
2 gyre 250 for flow plus 2 jabeo for additional flow across back of tank.
T5 lighting with LED supplements
System has been running for 3years(upgraded year ago)

Dosing BRS 2 part
Acropower
Red Sea Trace colors(minor amounts each Sunday based on calcium, then dose is 1/3 that volume)

Feeding daily. Fresh chopped seafood mix, nori sheet and random coral food

Alk- 10.4(Hanna)
Cal- 450(Red Sea and Hanna)
Mag 1380-1400(Red Sea)
PO4- 0.03(Hanna low range)
No3- 5(forgot the name)
SG 1.025
PH- 8.2
Temp- 78.8

What’s going on.

I keep losing pieces over the course of roughly 3 days. Pieces have been in my system for a while now and have had great growth. This started happening last weekend. When it first happened I shrugged it off as nothing major. But it has kept on going. It’s not as bad now but still lost a piece last night.

I will admit I fell off the testing wagon for a little due to summer being busy and vacations and such. Last week I noticed that my Mag had dropped super low(1150ish) my alk shot up to 11(was running 8.3ish) and my Cal was up around 500(normally around 440). Once I realized this I dosed mag over the course of 2 days to get back up to proper level and stopped dosing until alk and Cal dropped to acceptable levels. This was done on Monday

After these were fixed I still had some losses. I checked my refractometer and noticed that my calibration was off and the reef was running at 1.021-1.022. Soon noticing that I fixed that issue. That was on Wednesday.

I am almost certain that those are the things that caused my issues. I’m just wondering what everyone else thinks.

Should I expect this to stop soon since the system is stable again? Or should I strap in for the long haul and except that more losses are inevitable?

I appreciate any suggestions/thoughts/comments.

Let’s try and use this as a learning opportunity for the reefing community for both new and seasoned hobbiest.

This has been going on for about 2 weeks now off and on.

jaxredsoxfan · Jul 30, 2019

I would think it was the ALK and SG swings specifically. The other parameters look good, just Acros dont react well to swings in SG and ALK. I think it should settle out a bit, be careful chasing numbers as you could induce further swings. Since the levels have been restored to what they were before the swings, just wait a bit and see what happens. Sorry for the loses.

IslandLifeReef · Jul 30, 2019

I agree with @jaxredsoxfan. Also, nice write up @whyoming.white.

kevlow · Jul 30, 2019

I fear low SG more then Alk swings. Had this happen twice. Now I check everyday. You are probably now seeing the effects of your low SG from last week.
All I have done is to right the ship, put good husbandry practices into place so that it does not happen again, and continue on.
Once the coral stopped growing, the alk shot up and the mag went out of balance and pieces start dying.
I was embarrassed that of all problems, something so simple as low SG caused so much damage. Then in the same year it happened again.
I think things will stop dying but it takes awhile for everything to recover their happy place and start growing again.
Good luck.

whyoming.white · Jul 30, 2019

Thanks everyone.

I posted this on a Facebook group last week and most people said the same. But I lost another last night(well most of it) so I wanted to post here(not sure why I didn’t in the first place).

I’m ready for it to be over and I’m ready to not have to be afraid to see what piece is dying when I check the tank.

It’s so frustrating.

To add to that I did have a disease rip through the tank and kill off 6 of my clowns, I only managed to recover a single body. So I’m sure that did not help things at all either.

Ashish Patel · Jul 30, 2019

Definately the ALK swing...When life gets busy you absolutely have to do few things that dont take long- Test ALK bi-weekly, Clean skimmer, Dose whatever you dose by hand every 4 days, feed and observe. I kept my Alk stable for 6 months (Jan to June) only did 1 waterchange in this time and my CA dropped to 1250 and MG to 1200. I never had success until I started testing Alk 2-3 times per week and testing everything else 1-2 months is fine.

bhuyett · Jul 30, 2019

I'm not going to say Salinity or Alk/Cal swing one or the other that caused it.. You unfortunately had the perfect STORM.

Both of these can cause bleaching and potential for STN. As others have stated take it slow, because it can take days to weeks to finally see the true damaged caused to the acros from the swing in stability.
Just stay focused and not get discouraged from this small set back. Learn from it, make small adjustments and those still living will bounce back with time.

DivingTheWorld · Jul 31, 2019

Yeah, I hate to say it, but you could see death for a while. When I had my acro crash a couple years ago (still not 100% sure what caused it), I saw death for months afterwards. Some corals just take longer to react. I didn't bother adding anything new for at least 6 months after everything was stable again.

whyoming.white · Aug 1, 2019

That’s what I’m worried about. Haven’t had anything go in a day or so.

Hoping it slows down soon. It’s very depressing

whyoming.white · Aug 5, 2019

Well just an update. This are starting to settle down. Still having a little issue due to stress but the rate of death has slowed way down so it’s actually manageable and I’m able to cut frags off of the frags that are dying.