Dead SPS Colonies Encrusted on Rocks

[Uriken]

I have several large SPS Colonies that died recently and have tried to figure out how to remove the dead skeletons. They are hard as the rock. Literally. I can cut some branching but the majority is encrusted. I have several colonys that are alive and recovering but my tank looks terrible with these big dead white skeletons. Is there any method to removing these without taking everything apart? As for what happened I'm working on that with an ICP test results I'm waiting on. The culprit seems to be my new Instant Ocean bucket freshly opened and performing a standard water change. Everything went down hill after the change. Some trace element has to be off the charts that I can't test for. Everything that I can test for is right on the money. This tank has been running for 2.5 years and I'm a weekly maintenance person so it is routinely maintained. My gut tells me iron is elevated very high in the mix but won't know until the results come. Just a guess and when things happen it's easy to start pointing fingers on the wrong things.

25 gallon Innovative marine tank

Salinity 1.026
Alkalinity 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10.0
Calcium 385
Magnesium 1180
Phosphate 0.02
PH 8.3

A8 pro reef lights that run the same program for months. Same salt from day one. Just new buckets couple times a year

 

[exnisstech]

Had a couple recently myself. I just cut and or break off as much as I can using a pry tool and coral cutters and leave what won't come off.

 

[mcarroll]

I have several large SPS Colonies that died recently and have tried to figure out how to remove the dead skeletons. They are hard as the rock. Literally. I can cut some branching but the majority is encrusted. I have several colonys that are alive and recovering but my tank looks terrible with these big dead white skeletons. Is there any method to removing these without taking everything apart? As for what happened I'm working on that with an ICP test results I'm waiting on. The culprit seems to be my new Instant Ocean bucket freshly opened and performing a standard water change. Everything went down hill after the change. Some trace element has to be off the charts that I can't test for. Everything that I can test for is right on the money. This tank has been running for 2.5 years and I'm a weekly maintenance person so it is routinely maintained. My gut tells me iron is elevated very high in the mix but won't know until the results come. Just a guess and when things happen it's easy to start pointing fingers on the wrong things.

25 gallon Innovative marine tank

Salinity 1.026
Alkalinity 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10.0
Calcium 385
Magnesium 1180
Phosphate 0.02
PH 8.3

A8 pro reef lights that run the same program for months. Same salt from day one. Just new buckets couple times a year

Your nitrates seem to be accumulating while PO4 is essentially zero. I would stop looking at the salt mix and ICP results.....for the moment at least. Something about your set or your approach isn't quite balanced.

Plus, 2+ years tends to be a tough hurdle in general, but especially for hard coral tanks....they can become victims of their own success in at least a few ways. If you post a pic of your tank it might help, but flow is probably the most likely way. Corals generally try to grow out into the flow. As they do they interrupt that flow....the more the grow the bigger the interruption. Eventually the flow in the tank can become so disrupted that it doesn't to a good job anymore....avg. flow velocity gets lower over time, mass water movement in the tank becomes less, etc.

At minimum a review of your flow setup would be wise. Often there's a way to rearrange the existing flow to work better, but if the tank is particularly dense with coral you might find you need more flow sources than you started with.

In the short run, dosing PO4 up to minimum levels (≥0.05 ppm) would be recommended – this should prevent further losses. But putting your finger on the reason for the imbalance and solving it is the real priority if you don't want to dose PO4 "forever". Excessive water changes *might* be a factor.

FYI, the corals are all dependent on strong flow to deliver nutrients.....if flow becomes "less" that means access to nutrients also becomes "less". Nice how things fit together!

 

[exnisstech]

FWIW one if my recent losses was a 3 yo colony and the other about a year old. I removed a leather I had in the tank, did a water change which I had been slacking on added some carbon after the first loss. I too run IO but I use it in 4 tanks and am not seeing any issues in the other tanks so am Just waiting things out. My N and P has always been low since starting it 3 years ago and required dosing but has finally settled in to NO3 2-4 and PO4 0.02 - 0.04 without dosing.

 

[Uriken]

I'll submit on here the ICP results when I get them. I have 9 tanks of various gallons I take of and stopped all water changes for the moment till I can narrow down if its a bad batch of salt or not. One tank is 26 years going on 27 that it's been running non stop with 10 percent water changes once a month. I keep phosphates at 0 to 0.05 and nitrates at 10 to 20 and never had any issues. I've somewhat worked my way up to having good quality but expensive equipment, MP40s, tridents, etc. So this is for sure a chemistry thing. It reminds me of when a friend over dosed kalk and wiped out the tank. The only variable in my case is the new salt bucket. I'll just have to deal with the dead skeletons. I tried chipping at them but just made a mess out of my rocks cape.