Bleached my corals, now what?

[rutz81]

I had been ignoring my tank for a while, no water changes, all I had been doing was adding Cal, Alk, and water to my top-off reservoir.

Well, I finally got some free time and decided to, stupidly, make up for 3 weeks of nothing and change 30% water. Vacuum a bunchof sand, scrub all my rock, removing all the accumlated hair algae, and cyano. It looked real good when I went to sleep.

I woke up to bleached corals, definitely not dead, I can still see some vague coloration, and retracted polyps. They definitely did not RTN, I know the difference. I am assuming removng all the NO3/Nutrients at once did this, just not sure what is the best way to get everything stable again. Run a normal, stable schedule again and let everything fall back into place over time, add some Amino's considering I went to ULNS very quickly?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.
Dave

 

[Dave3112]

Well first off I would say that you did not remove a the NO3 a d nutrients at one time. What you probably did was release a bunch of nutrients that had been trapped in the sand and in the hair algae when you cleaned the tank out. And a 30% water change made the clarity of the water better so the lights penetrated the water column better and your corals may have reacted some to that but I would say that all the activity in the tank stirred up a lot of normally trapped nutrients and released them into the water column and that's causing the stress to the corals. Just maintain a good normal 5-10% weekly waterchange routine and I think it will start improving. Remember only bad things happen fast in this hobby.


Sent Via the R2R Forum APP on my iPhone while I am hiding from work!

 

[Der ABT]

if they bleached over night with the lights out i would think that you need to check your water parameters and or what was in the bucket you used to mix

i HIGHLY doubt they would bleach overnight from a reduction in phosphates etc.....

did you add carbon, GFO, check for stray voltage etc

something happeneing that fast makes me thing that either something dropped in the tank, water change water had something in it etc.

did you turn off a heater? add cold/too hot, salinity?
soo many questions that will help anwser

pics always help

 

[rutz81]

It wasn't neccesarily overnight, didn't look too close when I left yesterday morning, I notice it when the lights were on later. So, not 100% sure if they were bleached when I woke up or if it happened throughout the light cycle.

-No carbon, GFO, etc.
-Water was different, had no RO ready, so I went to Home Depot and got their water. Masured at .015 TDS, not great, but, had no other options at the time. (I guess in hind sight, it would have been better to wait!)
-Temp, alk, cal, all the same

Not home, so no pic possible right now, but, in terms of what the corals look like; they look like someone ran an ULNS and haven't fed for a week.

 

[cdness]

Water was different, had no RO ready, so I went to Home Depot and got their water. Masured at .015 TDS, not great, but, had no other options at the time.

Copper plumbing in their RO system?

I would say its a case of too much change at one time and shocked the corals a bit. Keep parameters steady and it could recover.

 

[kuansreef]

To trouble shoot things unknown, always do frequent water change in small amount. I change 1/10 of my tank water every 3rd day while my corals were bleaching. I am happy they are coming back to life.

 

[rutz81]

Copper plumbing in their RO system?

I would say its a case of too much change at one time and shocked the corals a bit. Keep parameters steady and it could recover.

I am assuming that as well. The only thing I noticed after the change was that the bottles said "Spring Water", not filtered. I questioned the Customer service dept. and you can imagine the response I got:squigglemouth::blah:

Thank You everyone for the input, I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Der ABT]

id still check salinity and other base params (with a refractometer that is calibrated).

next time try to go to a local fish store for RODI, if i were you id order a filter now, worth their weight in gold in this hobby (well maybe with the price of gold lately)

not sure i agree with the too much at once......i know several reefers with very nice sps systems that do bi-monthly 50-60% waterchanges and have no ill effects. Technically youll get more out of doing larger changes (nutrient export wise)...if you do lots of little ones your taking a smaller percentage out each time......many people have great success with this method so not nocking it but.

i just did a 40g change on a 130-140g system no issues what so ever cept the water was alot cleaner haha.

i hope things pull thru for ya, but the water you put into your system is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.......find a consisten RO/DI source or get your own...or wait till you can get water rather than doing a change.

 

[rutz81]

-Salinity is measured with a Tropic Marin Hydrometer

-Home Depot seemed closer, than my LFS, should have spent the extra gas $$, I have a 4 stage Air-Water-Ice RO/DI-just redid my Laundry/Fish Room and have yet to hook it up.

-I changed 15 gallons on a 41G total system(not counting live rock or sand)

Thanks for the help

id still check salinity and other base params (with a refractometer that is calibrated).

next time try to go to a local fish store for RODI, if i were you id order a filter now, worth their weight in gold in this hobby (well maybe with the price of gold lately)

not sure i agree with the too much at once......i know several reefers with very nice sps systems that do bi-monthly 50-60% waterchanges and have no ill effects. Technically youll get more out of doing larger changes (nutrient export wise)...if you do lots of little ones your taking a smaller percentage out each time......many people have great success with this method so not nocking it but.

i just did a 40g change on a 130-140g system no issues what so ever cept the water was alot cleaner haha.

i hope things pull thru for ya, but the water you put into your system is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.......find a consisten RO/DI source or get your own...or wait till you can get water rather than doing a change.

 

[rutz81]

I think the fact my Elos Midi is much smaller than most larger, more stable systems,so a major change is really what did it? I will check numbers and post when I get home, but, I'd be surprised if they weren't spot on.

 

[Zack]

How long has it been since you vac/stirred the sand bed. How deep is it?

 

[Der ABT]

Get a refractometer and some calibration fluid....hydrometers can work fine but also can go wrong quick (one little buble, some dried salt etc)...granted if yuo dont calibrate your refractometer same thing but....
i went about 3 years with a hydrometer, changed to a refractometer and man testing with different people refractometers all came out the same (with the 3 hydrometers i have laying around all 3 were different by more than a point.

I hope things turn around....slow and steady wins this race.

 

[rutz81]

I vacuum my sandbed every few weeks, different sections. It keeps it white. Difference with this time, I vacuumed 3x the amount that I usually do to make up for missing those weeks.

Refractometers are less reliable and accurate than a Tropic Marin HydrometerTropic Marin Hydrometer Hydrometers, I even find it easier to use. It isnt temperature sensitive, and doesn't ever need to be calibrated

 

[Der ABT]

HA not sure ive seen that one, learn something new in the hobby every hour.
oh ps it is temperature sensitive
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rhf/index.php

 

[Chameleon]

yeah was the makeup water the same temperature as the old water. I find temperature shock to be a common cause of bleaching. I really dont think its low nutrient shock. You cant make a tank ULNS overnight...the corals wont know the difference until some time goes by. You can however high nutrient shock corals, but I dont think that is your problem either. Im still leaning towards temp. Normally occurring with a high temp spike but can also be due to a low one.