Acropora bleaching!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

XanderPR

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All right so here's my story!!!

I recently purchased a PC Rainbow Acropora from @WWC and after leaving it in my 29 gallon for 24 hours I dipped it in Revive from 2 little fish and moved it to a recently established 10 gallon quarantine tank. I had used water from my old aquarium and some bioballs from the sump so I beleived I would not have any issues. Boy was I wrong!!! First thing I noticed was white filaments growing everywhere (bare-bottom tank with only egg crate and bioballs). I asked someone and they said it was a bacterial bloom and shouldnt hurt anything. I kept the Quarantine tank running and after a couple of weeks I saw my PC Rainbows Acropora was completely bleached out!! My heart sank as this was a coral I had wated since the Coral Maynia sale from WWC!! So I ran a full batery of tests and my ammonia was at 4 ppm!! I immediately rinsed them out with fresh saltwater and moved them to the sand bed of my 29 gallon tank again. Here are the pecs for the 29 gallon tank.

I am a new reefer and have a 29 gallon tank with a 10 gallon wet/dry sump using approx. 100 bioballs and 1 small box of marine pure geodes. I am using butaminous carbon and SeaChem Phosguard media.
My last test were (using API test kit):
Temp. 78°F,
salinity= 1.025 SG,
ammonia= 0.25ppm ALWAYS!,
nitrite=0 ppm,
nitrate= 10 to 20 ppm,
pH= 8.0,
Calcium= 480ppm
DKH= 9
Magnesium=?? (Will get salifert kit 6/15)
Phosphate= 0ppm

I am dosing 2 Part from BRS.

After everything happened I have beed feeding reef roids with targeted feeding using turkey baster. Will be getting Brightwell Coral Amino on Tuesday 6/15 and will start dosing that as well!

How do I bring my PC rainbows back to life after bleaching? Is what I am doing enough? What else can I do?

Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance for any help you can give!!

1623476464164730486753265447623.jpg
 

Hincapiej4

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Ammonia needs to be 0. Nothing in your tank is going to tolerate any level of Ammonia for an extended period of time.

What are you using for the Ammonia test?
 

monkeyCmonkeyDo

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U took an sps. Let it settle. Did a revive h202 dip on it. Put it back in?
Than u changed the sw it was in.
Too much too fast.
What did u test the anmonia with? If api than im gonna say nay on the test results.
Alk and salt and temp stability are gonna be great factors in keeping sps coral.
The ph and nutrients will stabalize and follow. Hths. My .02
D
 

Hincapiej4

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I dont see how it's possible a coral quarantine tank with established media could have thay level off ammonia, I don't believe it unless you where dumping a tablespoon of coral food in everyday lol
Post says recently established.....how recent?
Also says new reefer. I'm gonna assume both tank and keeper are too new for acros.
 
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XanderPR

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Post says recently established.....how recent?
Also says new reefer. I'm gonna assume both tank and keeper are too new for acros.
I agree! I let myself be mesmerized by the beauty and bit off a little more than I can chew. But gotta say this is the most unhelpful reply I receive. I thought I made it clear that I was new and the set up of the quarantine tank was done way too soon!! I am trying to fix the issue and was asking for some help. Thanks for the reminder that I am a new reefer. Almost forgot!
 
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XanderPR

XanderPR

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U took an sps. Let it settle. Did a revive h202 dip on it. Put it back in?
Than u changed the sw it was in.
Too much too fast.
What did u test the anmonia with? If api than im gonna say nay on the test results.
Alk and salt and temp stability are gonna be great factors in keeping sps coral.
The ph and nutrients will stabalize and follow. Hths. My .02
D
I did the test with an API test kit. I know they give false positive, but had not heard that they can be so high as 4 ppm. I had a bubblegum digitatata that was doing well and growing in my main display so I though I would be OK with acros. I kepp solid numbers on my main tank, but watched some videos that recommended dipping and quarantine, so I tried to be "safe" and ended up killing my coral! I am sooo sad. These are the first loss out of 16 frags that I own. I would really like to avoid this continuing happening as I woke up today to my permafrost acro in the same state. I thought it was bleaching, but apparently it is RTN ( don't know
how to tell difference). It hapened overnight. Guess there is really nothing I can do for the ones I lost, but want to prevent from happening to any other frag. Any help in that respect? The levels of my main tank are appropriate and I have zero ammonia (reads .25 on API test kit no matter that the tank has been established for 7 months).
 
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XanderPR

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I dont see how it's possible a coral quarantine tank with established media could have thay level off ammonia, I don't believe it unless you where dumping a tablespoon of coral food in everyday lol
I was not feeding the coral quarantine tank. I had the in a 10 gallon tank. I used the media from my 29 gallon tank and the water from that tank so I thought I was safe. I've been using the BRS 160 videos on YouTube as a guideline for myain tank, but did not research the quarantine tank set up as I thought that I was using establoshed media and watet and ahould not need to cycle. The quaratine tank was set up minutes before moving the frags over. I KNOW that it was a mistake now!! I am already in the process of setting up a 75 gallon ( which I will allow to go through 4 month cycle without using lights and after it is established I will move the corals and rock to the new tank and leave my 29 gallon for a quarantine tank in the future. I just want to avoid loosing any more coral in the meantime.
 

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I agree! I let myself be mesmerized by the beauty and bit off a little more than I can chew. But gotta say this is the most unhelpful reply I receive. I thought I made it clear that I was new and the set up of the quarantine tank was done way too soon!! I am trying to fix the issue and was asking for some help. Thanks for the reminder that I am a new reefer. Almost forgot!

Well let’s get some more details, for one pull the phosguard- 0 phosphates it never good, I target .05-.10 personally.

What is the system details? Lighting, flow, filtration, age of tank, water change schedule, RODI? For both your display and quarantine

Sps take a stable established tank. Invest in to some proper test kits, I think you are finding people harsh when they are giving you the honest truth. So many times we see post from folks saying what’s wrong with my sps when the tank has been up for 3 months.
 
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XanderPR

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U took an sps. Let it settle. Did a revive h202 dip on it. Put it back in?
Than u changed the sw it was in.
Too much too fast.
What did u test the anmonia with? If api than im gonna say nay on the test results.
Alk and salt and temp stability are gonna be great factors in keeping sps coral.
The ph and nutrients will stabalize and follow. Hths. My .02
D
I agree as well. I caused too much stress to these corals and will never do that again. I will remove the dead corals and pray that it will not happen again.
 
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XanderPR

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Well let’s get some more details, for one pull the phosguard- 0 phosphates it never good, I target .05-.10 personally.

What is the system details? Lighting, flow, filtration, age of tank, water change schedule, RODI?

Sps take a stable established tank. Invest in to some proper test kits, I think you are finding people harsh when they are giving you the honest truth. So many times we see post from folks saying what’s wrong with my sps when the tank has been up for 3 months.
I really do understand and appreciate the comments. Just felt a bit harsh to say I'm new and done, but I did notice that he did respond before so I am sorry.

Here are my 29 gallon tank parameters ( this is their home for the next 4 months minimum).

My tank is a 29 gallon regular tank that I bought at walmart as a kit. It's demnsions are 30" l x 18"h x 12" w.
I am using and AI Prime HD 16 and have all the blues and violets at 100%, green and red at 5%, and white/moonlight at 30% (to see the fish better).
I have an Echotech DC pump that I keep on speen 1 and 2 as I can see my softies and grren stars waving preety fast in the current with these lower settings.
I have a 10 gallon sump (bioballs, marine pure geodes, carbon and SeaChem Phosguard which will be removed today).

Before the debacle I started with some green star polyps which were doing awesome (as they are a super easy coral to take care of). I them purchased some clove polys, a "tree" softie (always forget the name sorry), and a bubblegum digitata which did well in the tank for about a month. After this I got hooked on the WWC Coral Maynia sale and bought 11 frags (softies, 1 LPS, 3 of birdsnests and 2 acros: permafrost and blueberry). 2 weeks later I was in Orlando and wanted to see the store so I went in and purchased a yellow tip acro and the PC rainbows (the farm manager cut the frag while I was waiting so it was a freah cut).

Anything I forgot to mention please let me know!
 
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XanderPR

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Removed the affected corals. Read up online and seems RTN due to a bacteria. Info on Marine Depot site recommends dipping and quarantine, but I was under impression that doing this was the beginning of my issues. Anybody have any suggestions? Thank you for the comments everyone!!
 
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XanderPR

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Had this one die on me last night. Saw a white spot at 12 am and wake up to this at 9 am! My Permafrost Acropora!! Heartbroken!!
 

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Now a see a spot on my bubblegum digitata!! Thinking of cutting, dipping amd reglueing to reef. Suggestions, comments or hints welcome!!
 

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XanderPR

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Here are some pics for my set up. Rock in sump so it can start creating filter. All frags are in sand bed as I qm still acclimating and now dont want to move for fear of causing more stress!
 

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sawdonkey

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Yeah, these corals are dead, not bleached. Some tanks just aren’t ready and need time to mature. Why are you running Phosgaurd and carbon? Your PO4 is at zero, which is too low. I know a lot of people run carbon, but every time I try to run it to clear up my water, my SPS seem to get angry. Maybe pull those two things?

but as others said, the presence of ammonia is telling you something.
 
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