SPS Receeding From Base to Tips

PlumCrazy · Jan 30, 2014

Imo looks like bugs. something has to be picking at it. also keep an eye on the fish possibly? Friend of mine had an african cleaner wrasse (yellow tail species) and he was an sps muncher... every night he noticed a frag or colony getting disfigured or polyps looking "eaten" then that branch would die. stayed up one night to find the wrasse going to town picking at the sps at night... might be a stretch but more so saying look at night and see if anyones snacking invert/fish wise... otherwise I run my tank with sps as the dominant coral at 77-78 degrees, no higher. Maybe its the temp, doubt its the flow with that setup and everything else looks rather healthy and growing, but hopefully you find out whats going wrong and can fix it and salvage those corals before they finish themselves off!

mcarroll · Jan 31, 2014

Stray voltage would be worth checking.

Also, am I wrong or is that a large coral eating fish in pic #2? Looks like an Angel. He deserves serious scrutiny - at least one 24-hour watch. There's a strong chance he's "gone off the ranch." It happens sometimes as they get bigger...appetites change. Also if he's been even slightly starved for any reason.

The tank does look pretty packed, btw, which does have a detrimental effect on flow. Those pumps really depend on being able to build up momentum in the water and there may not be enough room to do that effectively enough now that corals are grown out. Keep this in mind if we can't figure something else out...like a fish to blame.

FWIW, this isn't that uncommon - I've heard of others using Vortechs on this size tank who run a third pump ($$$) on the back wall because of this.

-Matt

LegitFish · Jan 31, 2014

The regal is the least likely problem. I still occasionally watch him for hours and he has never seemed interested. Even with polyps! I'll maybe try throwing in a 4th power head in the back to see if this works.

acko1990 · Jan 31, 2014

Im going with acro red bugs or acro eating flatworms.

mcarroll · Jan 31, 2014

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/r2r-spotlight-series/84926-reef2reef-spotlight-regal-angelfish.html

That's a little bit dense to read, but worth getting through it if you haven't already!

Unfortunately it's left to a small comment in the closing, but even the R2R spotlight warns against polyp-eating. If you haven't done a 24/7 watch on him lately (watch at the times of day when you normally don't or can't) it would be worth it.

Post us up with an update if you do add the 3rd powerhead!

-Matt

LPSGUY · Jan 31, 2014

Is that an Angel? Didnt read entire thread but that could be the problem.....

mcaroll, props for giving such thorough advice!!!!

bct15 · Jan 31, 2014

It's either stray voltage or remnants from your swinging parameters. I had some acros do the same thing and discovered I had a stray voltage, when i fixed the voltage issue the corals all stopped receeding and quickly healed. However, problems from swinging parameters can show up months down the road.