Acropora bleaching!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

[SamMule]

Pick a tank and stick with it for awhile.

Hannah ULR phosphate
Hannah alk
Nyos Nitrate
I like salifert mag
And api calc.

Imo, you need to get first things first.
Get reliable test kits and (just as importantly) use them reliably. In other words, get consistent results.
Then, understand how to adjust parameters and and keep them within the ranges you are targeting.
Once you have a handle on those things, you will have much better luck.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Thank you! I will try to get those ASAP. Guess I am going to be returning some stuff so should be able to purchase the new tests.

You need Hanna ulr phosphates, nyos nitrate, Hanna alk, at very least. I would not test my dogs water bowl with api. Fwiw

 

[XanderPR]

Pick a tank and stick with it for awhile.

Hannah ULR phosphate
Hannah alk
Nyos Nitrate
I like salifert mag
And api calc.

Imo, you need to get first things first.
Get reliable test kits and (just as importantly) use them reliably. In other words, get consistent results.
Then, understand how to adjust parameters and and keep them within the ranges you are targeting.
Once you have a handle on those things, you will have much better luck.

I understand. I was really excited to set up a bigger tank. Was planning on DIYing the plumbing (herbie with purple and black pipes), new rock and sand, I won a Radion XR15 Blue. Guess that's all history now. Anyone live in FL and need a 75 gallon tanl and stand. Will sell cheap

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I understand. I was really excited to set up a bigger tank. Was planning on DIYing the plumbing (herbie with purple and black pipes), new rock and sand, I won a Radion XR15 Blue. Guess that's all history now. Anyone live in FL and need a 75 gallon tanl and stand. Will sell cheap

Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. I would keep the larger tank if that is what you really want. More water usually means more stability. I try to keep things simple with my tank. I run a protein skimmer in the sump and a small bag of GAC. That’s it. I test once a week, but sometimes miss a week. I try to make small changes if any are needed.

One other thing that may help you is to run your Alk in the 7.5-8 dKh range. That will help your SPS while your nutrients stabilize. You shouldn’t have to dose 2 part in a new tank with very few corals unless they are very large ones. I like to keep my Alk and calcium at the same level as the salt mix I use, which is the RedSea Blue bucket.

 

[XanderPR]

Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. I would keep the larger tank if that is what you really want. More water usually means more stability. I try to keep things simple with my tank. I run a protein skimmer in the sump and a small bag of GAC. That’s it. I test once a week, but sometimes miss a week. I try to make small changes if any are needed.

One other thing that may help you is to run your Alk in the 7.5-8 dKh range. That will help your SPS while your nutrients stabilize. You shouldn’t have to dose 2 part in a new tank with very few corals unless they are very large ones. I like to keep my Alk and calcium at the same level as the salt mix I use, which is the RedSea Blue bucket.

Thank you for the support. The stability was something that I wanted with the bigger tank. I wad planning to set up seperately and move over my corals (softies around 4 months, LPS around 7 months, and SPS after a year) once the tank had matured, then slowly adding mor coral until I have my reef. I know it will be a ton of work, but this is my passtime and I like playing with my fish and corals!

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. I would keep the larger tank if that is what you really want. More water usually means more stability. I try to keep things simple with my tank. I run a protein skimmer in the sump and a small bag of GAC. That’s it. I test once a week, but sometimes miss a week. I try to make small changes if any are needed.

One other thing that may help you is to run your Alk in the 7.5-8 dKh range. That will help your SPS while your nutrients stabilize. You shouldn’t have to dose 2 part in a new tank with very few corals unless they are very large ones. I like to keep my Alk and calcium at the same level as the salt mix I use, which is the RedSea Blue bucket.

+1 for lowering alk for sps

 

[XanderPR]

+1 for lowering alk for sps

I was using the numbers from the BRS/WWC method. Trying to keep Ca at 480ppm, alk at 9 dKH, Mg at 1495 (but don't have the test so I have not been dosing. Test are in the mail should receive this week) I change about 25% of my water weekly with RODI and RedSea salt I purchase at my LFS so I do not think it is terrible, but will be able to say more soon.

 

[XanderPR]

Tank update:

I have not had any more corals RTN on me. I thank everyone for their opinion about leaving the bubblegum digitata alone and praying it would be OK, but I could not just let it go like the other two! It was showing the exact same symptoms and I knew it would go if I did nothing so I took a chance. I followed the suggestions of some YouTube videos (including Marine Depot video) and fragged the coral about 1 cm above the dying part. What was left on the plug died almost immediately, but the healthy portion is doing well for the moment. Time will tell if it will survive. Here's a pic:

 

[T-J]

@XanderPR I've read your thread and I'd like to tell you something:

You sound a bit on the younger side (If you're not, I apologize), and I commend you for picking a hobby that's not only very involved (especially first starting out), but can be very costly, even more so with someone with perhaps a limited income (many teens, college kids, etc.). I know you want to see that tank flourish, I can hear it in your posts. WE want your tank to flourish. We want you to learn from our mistakes so you don't have to suffer like we did. The people here want to help you so much!

Trust the members here. There are thousands of years of experience on this site. We all have the same goal.

As far as specifics to the issues you're having...it's already been said. The goal now is prevention of further losses and making sure your tank is stable for a couple of months. Get some good test kits. Do you have an ATO? Maybe join a local club and get a par meter and map your tank. Join you local club Facebook page. Take everything S L O W. No sudden changes to anything. Calibrate your tools.

And then, in a few months, get some Zoas. See if anyone local is selling them for cheap. See how they do for a month. Start from there. I don't want to see any losses, but if I'm going to lose a coral, I'd rather it be a $10 Zoa than a $126 WD acro.

Best of luck!

 

[XanderPR]

@XanderPR I've read your thread and I'd like to tell you something:

You sound a bit on the younger side (If you're not, I apologize), and I commend you for picking a hobby that's not only very involved (especially first starting out), but can be very costly, even more so with someone with perhaps a limited income (many teens, college kids, etc.). I know you want to see that tank flourish, I can hear it in your posts. WE want your tank to flourish. We want you to learn from our mistakes so you don't have to suffer like we did. The people here want to help you so much!

Trust the members here. There are thousands of years of experience on this site. We all have the same goal.

As far as specifics to the issues you're having...it's already been said. The goal now is prevention of further losses and making sure your tank is stable for a couple of months. Get some good test kits. Do you have an ATO? Maybe join a local club and get a par meter and map your tank. Join you local club Facebook page. Take everything S L O W. No sudden changes to anything. Calibrate your tools.

And then, in a few months, get some Zoas. See if anyone local is selling them for cheap. See how they do for a month. Start from there. I don't want to see any losses, but if I'm going to lose a coral, I'd rather it be a $10 Zoa than a $126 WD acro.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry, vut I am actually 41 years old, I am a teaxher (this is the reason for the low income, not age). I am definitely adamant on keeping my animals alive as I have been studying corals for years, but have not had a chance to maintain a reef aquarium at home. I made a mistake in setting up a quarantine tank too quickly and not well thought out. I had some ammonia issues and that stressed a couple of my acros to the point of RTN. I understand that my tank is young, but according to my very cheap and very untrustworthy API tests my tank has been very stable from the beginning. The only numbers that have changed have been nitrate amd we all know this is the normal nitrogen cycle occuring in our tanks. Salinity, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, alkalinity have all been the same week after week ( I do weekly water changes with LFS RedSea water, scrub my glass every 2-3 days, and clean my overflow and powethead every 1-2 months). I also use Brightwel's Microbacter CLEAN to avoid some of the algea issues that can plague a tank (BRS recommended). I am very OCD with the look of the tank showing clean and that might make the tank look a bit more young than it is. I just got my Mg test (Salifert) and my Mg is a little high at 1560, but not worried as it will go down naturaly. I am dosing Ca and alkalinity (only when needed) with BRS 2-Part and keep those numbers at 460ppm and 9 dKH. I understand that ReefRoids can elevate the phosphate of the tank and plan to test that at my LFS at least weekly to monitor any change there as well as xontinue to test with my API kit at home. For a 29 gallon tank I feel I have a solid amount of flow as I can't turn my wavemaker above 2 as my softies look like they will be ripped off their frag plug (and I don't want pulsing Xenia flying everywhere when I have them isolated).

I guess you could say I'm kind of like the college grad that just hot out of school. I have a lot of theoretical knowledge, but lack the field experience. I am always open to learning and to discussing the hobby, but will use the advice received from trusted sources in the industry (BRS/WWC/Marine Depot/etc.) as well to guide my decision making.

I really do not mean to offend or act out. I just could not follow a suggestion of cut your losses when the frag could be saved with cutting off the RTN portion and keeping the healthy section. I know it is not 100% certain it will live (I give it a 50/50 at best), but for the time being the frag is looking healthy, polyps are extending when light turn on and no signs of the RTN continuing (again crossing my fingers that I don't get a nasty surprise in a week or two). If I can go from 0% to 50% survival possibility, I'll take it! Just my opinion and don't mean to step on any toes, TJ! Thanks for the help again!!

 

[T-J]

Best of luck! Frags can recover from tissue loss if you have good params that are stable. You can even do it without cutting off the dead areas. Here's 3 frags that I've recently brought back. Two Slimers and a Purple Bonzai.

From this:

To this:

From this:

To this:


From this:

To This:

 

[BiggestE222]

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!!

Wetdry. Is that a mechanical filter. No skimmer? Do you have healthy SPS corals with this setup.

 

[BiggestE222]

See a lot of algae on the base. Regardless of setup or parameters I would remove the corals from those plugs. Just asking for an algae bloom

 

[Manny’s Reef]

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.

This is probably the most valuable comment in this thread. The fact that you realize you caused too much stress too fast to an already delicate species, will take you a long way in the hobby. This is a hobby with many losses. What matters is that you continue learning from your mistakes. Let things settle down a little bit more then try again. You got this.

 

[Hincapiej4]

I'm going to try really hard to explain this as well as I can. I'm explaining it because you aren't the first and I never took the time to fully explain it this way..I'm usually too harsh for people to listen. I will try to be nice, ready? Ok!

The reason your tank LOOKS stable IS because IT IS TOO YOUNG.

The minute your coraline starts to take hold in your tank, and I mean REAAAAAALLY take hold. Your Parameters are gonna nose dive until the coraline calms down. At that point, you'll be scrambling trying to figure out how much to dose.

Then, at the same time, probably, your cuc is using cal etc too. algae is using it too (nutrients, etc).

So, in other words, the "stability" you see..not for long. Ontop of that, how bad are the swings throughout the day.

Does it go from, for example, 8.2 to 9.1 then down to 8.1 by 7pm? Who knows, but while it might not kill Acros, it will stress them and possibly kill them over time.

So please. Don't answer the too young with BUT BUT BUT STABILITY. I'll just roll my eyes.

 

[T-J]

So please. Don't answer the too young with BUT BUT BUT STABILITY. I'll just roll my eyes.

This and when people say "BuT mY pArAmEtErS aRe PeRfEcT", and then they don't post the actual numbers.

 

[XanderPR]

Wetdry. Is that a mechanical filter. No skimmer? Do you have healthy SPS corals with this setup.

Wet/dry sump keeps some areas of the sump outside of the water and otger areas underwater all the time. I don't have a skimmer, I am changing the filter padd on my sump every 2-3 days religiously to remove the vif waste and doing larger 29% water changes weekly to keep the nitrates in check. I am just starting out acros and had an issue with a quarantine tank I set up for a big purchase that made 2 of my acros RTN. I have 2 more acros, 3 monties and a Jason Fox porites still in the tank and they are looking good growing and aparently happy. I can update later on amd let evrryone know how they are doing!!

 

[XanderPR]

I'm going to try really hard to explain this as well as I can. I'm explaining it because you aren't the first and I never took the time to fully explain it this way..I'm usually too harsh for people to listen. I will try to be nice, ready? Ok!

The reason your tank LOOKS stable IS because IT IS TOO YOUNG.

The minute your coraline starts to take hold in your tank, and I mean REAAAAAALLY take hold. Your Parameters are gonna nose dive until the coraline calms down. At that point, you'll be scrambling trying to figure out how much to dose.

Then, at the same time, probably, your cuc is using cal etc too. algae is using it too (nutrients, etc).

So, in other words, the "stability" you see..not for long. Ontop of that, how bad are the swings throughout the day.

Does it go from, for example, 8.2 to 9.1 then down to 8.1 by 7pm? Who knows, but while it might not kill Acros, it will stress them and possibly kill them over time.

So please. Don't answer the too young with BUT BUT BUT STABILITY. I'll just roll my eyes.

Thank you for the feedback. Watch out for those eye rolls they might make you loose your vision in the long run! And yes, your comments are too harsh and most definitely not friendly! Have a great one!!

 

[Hincapiej4]

Thank you for the feedback. Watch out for those eye rolls they might make you loose your vision in the long run! And yes, your comments are too harsh and most definitely not friendly! Have a great one!!

I prefer my vision to be loose for sure. But I don't think I'll lose my vision.

They are harsh because I get to the point. I don't do the whole "if you want" "if you feel like". I'm more here is what it is. Do what you want. I type very dryly, I want to help, but I'm not usually going to spend alot of time explaining, I move on fast.

 

[XanderPR]

This is probably the most valuable comment in this thread. The fact that you realize you caused too much stress too fast to an already delicate species, will take you a long way in the hobby. This is a hobby with many losses. What matters is that you continue learning from your mistakes. Let things settle down a little bit more then try again. You got this.

LOVE YOUR POST!!! Thank you so much for this message!! I appreciate that you took the time and read that I did listen to everyone when they said that my tank was too young, but the coral is already in the tank, my LFS will not take any coral from me and I am not a part of a club or organization that can house my tank until the coral matures. I created this thread to try to do whatever I can to give my living organisms the best chance of survival with the understanding that I was on a rocky road with how I startex. It is upsetting that some people just want to keep telling me that my tank is too you ( I already kbow this, that is why I created the thread to get HELP from other more seasoned reefers. Some can only focus on the problem and forget that the problem can't disappear now, it happened days ago and I can't turn back time. I will definitely learn from the experience and make sure my tanks are mature in the future, but I needed help to save what I can in this tank!! Thank you again for understanding and I PROMISE, tgis mistake will not happen in future tanks, lesson learned!!