What is killing all my acroporas?

[luke33]

I would do some water changes and run carbon. Alot of times when you start loosing acro's they send out a chemical signal to there neighbor acro's to die and it causes a die off chain reaction. Its not a fun thing to deal with.

 

[TulsaTye]

If you bumped up ur alk from 6 to 9 all of a sudden then the sudden spike may have caused it!

 

[Zombie]

Just started running carbon now.

 

[Zombie]

My refractometer was off and my hydrometer was way off. The salinity was low at 1.021-1.022... I calibrated my refractometer at my old location to test the salinity of the old system and it was off when I set up the new system.

 

[Rob.D]

Are your SPS still loosing tissue?

 

[Zombie]

It is slowing down but sill happening, I lost almost all the acroporas. I don't see PE on any of the acros with tissue and most are discolored, bleached or brown. It don't look good.

 

[StReNuOuS BiOmArKeR]

samething happened to me as i upgraded my system. last and worse part was the 100 gal fuge on a then 250gal system. i lost 98% of a sps dominated system the same way you are describing. i stopped dosing everything except for necessary stuff like alk cal and mag and just did water changes. i think its from sterile shock tank doesnt have enough life yet to sustain sps. my best advice is dont look at it or it takes longer

 

[Zombie]

Yea I know it will just take another 10 years or so and the tank will look better then ever.

 

[CUNAReefer]

Hi Zombie,

Sorry to hear about your tissue recession. I had a similar problem when I moved to a ULNS and did not feed my corals. My water was way too clean. I used carbon, ran an oversized skimmer, and fed my fish very little. The corals became very pale over time and tissue recession started at the base. The polyps would expand durring the day, but the recession would continue. It wasn't until I began feeding my tank that the corals stopped the recession and resumed their growth. I know your tank being to clean has been mentioned a couple times in this thread. Have your thought about target feeding or maybe broadcast feeding your tank? Turning your skimmer off at night may also be of some benefit.

Warmest Regards,
James

 

[Zombie]

I have been feeding the tank and target feeding sps Roti Feast. It looks like the surviving sps corals are starting to lay down some calcium. I hope the worst is over with.

 

[CJO]

That's terrible. I'm glad you figured out your salinity issue. I hope you're on your road to recovery.

CJ

 

[Madreef]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, sps can be very difficult sometimes. One day you've got a beautiful tank; next day you wake up to disaster! On the plus side they do grow back and for me that's the fun, watching the reef grow.

On a side note I have two sets of test kits and two refractos for instances such as this. A local just lost 50% of his stock to a bad test kit. He thought his alk was 8 and calcium 400; but they were 5 and 200! You can never be too careful.