What could cause bleaching and browning overnite?

[reefer916]

Yesterday I came home and noticed that my Tyree Green Monti cap browned out, Idaho Grape bleached, and Tyree Flower pedal cap browned out overnite. All of my other SPS are fine, but these three were doing great than bam!!

The day before I rescaped my tank by adding a 2 lbs of LR to my 24 gallon AP to prepare for a dozen sps frags I should be receiving this week. I used about a tube of IC Gel that I've used for the last year. The caps weren't moved at all.

I checked my alk and temp after I noticed the problem and both of them were stable. Temp was at 79 and alk was at 10. I did a 50% water change just in case, but I still can't figure out why these pieces would bleach or brown out suddenly. My Red planet, Leng Sy Cap, ORA Blue Iris, Miami Orchid, Pearlberry, Bottlebrush, Green Birdsnest, etc. all seem to be fine. I'm also worried about my new shipment of 12 frags that are coming in.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Chris

 

[Speg]

I know that stinging can cause sps to bleach almost immediately. Ammonia spikes can quickly cause death too. RTN as well.

 

[gilmour01]

where did the new live rock come from? could be a mini cycle.

 

[reefer916]

The live rock came from my LFS and I had it in the fuge of my 95 gallon for about a week. However, I did move some rocks around, which could have stirred up some of the sand. I haven't checked ammonia yet because I haven't had a problem for over a year and a half. I will do daily water changes and monitor the water for the next few weeks.

Also, there aren't any nems or any lps with stinging tentacles in my 24 gallon. It's all sps and zoas.hmm

I'm thinking it could be a mini cycle, but it's weird that only a few of my monti's were effected. All of my other SPS are doing fine and have good polyp extension. Thanks guys for the help and ideas.

 

[Troylee]

Could have introduced some monti eating nudis with that new rock... Keep your eyes peeled bro...
I hope not but it was the first thing popped in head when I read your post.....
Acros seem to bleach or brown way before montis if it's a parameter problem... That les me to believe it's a pest....

 

[reefer916]

I've been looking for pests, but haven't seen any. I did get a large Leng Sy cap last week, but I dipped it and everything seems fine. I thought the same thing that acros are much more sensitive than monti's. It's weird because my lights just turned on and everything else looks great. The green monti is starting to color back up a little, but is still mostly browned out and the Flower Pedal hasn't gotten worse. I believe the Idaho Grape is a gonner, which sucks because it was intertwining with my purple rim monti. My purple rim monti looks great.. There are very few things in reefing that stump me, but this is definitely a weird experience. If all I lose is the Idaho Grape than I'm ok with that because I have other frags in my 95 gallon. I just don't want to experience my first tank crash...

I'll check my params and look for pests. Thanks guys for all of the help..

 

[m and m]

Even if you dipped the cap there could of been eggs on it that where unaffected and a week later they hatch. Idk my monti's where always a good indicator of alk for me, they showed signs before acros.

 

[reefer916]

It could have been an alk swing from the week before. My all was down to 8.5 and I bumped it back up to 10 within a day.

 

[condor]

temp spike or heater is creeping up maybe

 

[Acrokeeper3729]

Do a 20% water change for good measure and if no improvement in a few days look harder for pests........Google monti eating nudis so you have a better idea what to look for. If any params are out of wack a little then a good water change should help.
Good luck

 

[dan10342]

+1 on nudis.

Ive seen a healthy monti frag go from looking awesome, to dismal in a matter of hours due to nudis. they are not good at all.

 

[Dan Rigle]

It could have been an alk swing from the week before. My all was down to 8.5 and I bumped it back up to 10 within a day.

Absolutely,a swing like that will hurt some monti species and others can survive without a problem.I would blame it on the swing if they improve.Low Mg will also hurt caps before acros in some instances but with the more then 1 DKH swing,I would think you found the cause.

 

[reefer916]

Temp is stable at 79-80.

I'll keep my eyes open for nudi's. I can't see any bugs yet.

I'll just stick with some nice water changes over the next week to see if I could save the green monti.

Thx again for all of the help.

 

[reefer916]

Could an OD in iodine cause instant browning and bleaching?

I just remembered that the day before I rescaped I was putting some Kent Iodine in the tank and it rushed out accidently putting too much in there. I immediately turned my pump off and did a 30% water change. Could that have caused the browning and bleaching of the monti's, but had no effect on most of the other corals?

 

[Troylee]

Hard to say but honestly with all the water changes you are doing you shouldn't need to supplement iodine.....
I use lugols but only a drop a day... I also have a test kit for it which you should have if your dosing it...

 

[Gazog]

Monti Nudis although can do allot of damage I really don't think that they would do it that fast.
I have had them, twice in my frag tank and they have never killed stuff that fast.

Did you move you substrate around when reaquascaping? could have released something from
under the sand which did it. With a smaller system it doesn't take much to cause problems like
this. As it has been said I think the water changes are definitely in order and vigilance for a little
while.

Are you testing for Iodine? if not you should not be dosing it, I agree with troylee, with a 24 Gal.
you should not have to dose it if your doing water changes consistently. IMO you should not dose
anything unless your testing for it especially in a smaller tank. Mostly becasue it is so easy to
overdose a smaller system and becasue thing can happen really fast in a smaller system.

Really hope you figure it out, sounds like you have some really nice stuff in there and don't
want to read another post from you about losing anything else. Good luck!

 

[reefer916]

Thanks guys,

I usually only dose 2 parts,ca, and mg. I rarely dose iodine, but I'll definitely buy a test kit. Ever since I got addicted to the fuzzy sticks my trace elements get sucked up

I looked for bugs with a flashlight last nite,but I couldn't find any.

My tank seems stable and I'm planning on doing another small water change in a few min. All of the corals are open with good polyp extension. Looks like the green monti and the flower pedal are getting some color, but I lost my sunset monti.

Fortunately, the only one I don't have a backup for is the sunset,so at least I can grow them again.

I appreciate the help.

 

[jordan3548]

Iodine could do it if overdosed. I dont test it on my 125 but I only do a water change every 4 months so I add 1 drop Lugols per week