Help!! All of my SPS dying???

[Cassian]

Zero nitrate and phosphates is not good. You are asking for trouble.
My guess is that you have some sort of bacterial problem which low nutrients can cause.
Your corals will definitely benefit from detectable nitrates and phosphates too.

Yes I know this is a problem. I have trouble keeping nutrients up

 

[Cassian]

I had a similar problem of all my SPS mysteriously dying. My ICP tests showed elevated levels of all sorts of metals. One person I saw said cuprisorb absorbs a few other metals in addition to copper. Affter applying both cuprisorb and polyfilters and water changes my ICP tests came back normal and my SPS started surviving. It wasn't until I added really old live rock from a local reefer that my acros actually started growing.

Thanks!

 

[Cassian]

Looks like Alcaligenes faecalis or chrysophytes to me.

Google those with the word reef and see if either fits.

I would also suggest a kids microscope off Amazon for 15 dollars. It should be able to get you an ID which is important for treatment.

Thanks! I’ll look it up. I actually have a microscope

 

[Cassian]

When a bonded pair of clownfish is ready to mate, it is common knowledge that they clear the sand. They do this in preperation for sticking their eggs onto a smooth surface. Sounds like you’ve not experienced breeding clownfish yet.

Interesting. I know they clean rocks, I’ve never heard that about the sand. And no, I don’t know much about breeding clowns, as I am not trying to breed them.

 

[Cassian]

Assuming you do not have green hair algae (GHA would confirm available nutrients) you have a root problem of insufficient nutrient for your SPS. They are weakened, so the slightest upset by contaminant is leading to rapid tissue loss.

I think @Tamberav is right about the chrysophytes, but I would consider them just a nuisance, a symptom and at worst a contributor to the problem as they are competing for limited nutrient.

I would be dosing sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate. (In fact I do -- every day -- on my frag system).

If you HAVE GHA, then disregard this post. If you don't have GHA and don't start dosing, I will likely see you soon on a dinoflagellate thread. It is a club you don't want to join.

Wishing you well. Hang in there.

Thank you! I do not have GHA and I googled crysophytes. It doesn’t look like this at all. I will say, I’ve had this stuff before on new rock, it went away after a few months.

Would it be a good idea to turn off my protein skimmer??

 

[ScottB]

Roger on the new rock growth stuff. That is a sideshow.

I like the gas exchange the skimmer does so my advice would be to remove the cup to help dirty things up a bit. So long as it does not cause any water escape issue in the sump.

If you are not going to dose (I get it, I do) keep feeding those new large body fish you spoke of until you see fish turds flying around in the flow.

 

[Cassian]

Roger on the new rock growth stuff. That is a sideshow.

I like the gas exchange the skimmer does so my advice would be to remove the cup to help dirty things up a bit. So long as it does not cause any water escape issue in the sump.

If you are not going to dose (I get it, I do) keep feeding those new large body fish you spoke of until you see fish turds flying around in the flow.

I will remove the cup, that’s a good idea. Shouldn’t make an issue.

Lol. I feed heavy. I may end up dosing though. I’m just hesitant because In my first tank I couldn’t keep my nitrates below 60 without chemicals.

 

[ScottB]

I avoid chems until I solidly understand what to expect and have comfort with expected of dose=result with side effect near zero.

Aside from bacteria and GFO, that premise rules out a lot of what is marketed today.

Skimmer aside, and you don't carbon dose or use GFO I know, how are you exporting? Chemipure elite? Refugium? MarinePure block? What tools are you using to export/process nutrient?

Low nutrient is the easiest problem, but it is a problem you must solve. SLOWLY. Don't pull multiple levers at the same time.

Just realizing I don't know what your system volume is. Gallons?

 

[Cassian]

I avoid chems until I solidly understand what to expect and have comfort with expected of dose=result with side effect near zero.

Aside from bacteria and GFO, that premise rules out a lot of what is marketed today.

Skimmer aside, and you don't carbon dose or use GFO I know, how are you exporting? Chemipure elite? Refugium? MarinePure block? What tools are you using to export/process nutrient?

Low nutrient is the easiest problem, but it is a problem you must solve. SLOWLY. Don't pull multiple levers at the same time.

Just realizing I don't know what your system volume is. Gallons?

Thanks for the info!

I don’t use anything other than a skimmer and water changes every two months or so.

My system is 180 gallons with 50 (???) gallon overflow. I don’t know exactly how big the sump is as I bought this tank used

 

[LOVEROCK]

this happened to me earlier this year... my parameters were very similar to yours.
if you are carbon dosing in some way. you should stop right away.
i ended up dosing nitrate from brightwell, and once my nitrates got to where the test got some color my corals started doing a lot better.
i also had a dino outbreak during this time btw.
fixed it dosing bleach.... which might have also helped the corals i believe.
hope i can help!

what kinda dosage and percentge bleach?

 

[scubasteve020]

Please help! I don’t understand what’s going on with my sps. Yesterday, my strawberry shortcake had this white stringy stuff coming out of the polyps, almost like it was spitting it’s guts out. It isn’t touching any other coral, so I know that’s not the cause of it. My birdsnest I think went RTN and my Tyree pinky the bear is washed out and looks like it’s dying now. The thing that concerns me is that there is this fuzzy algae that coats the coral slightly before or after it dies. Could it be killing it?? I really really don’t want to lose these corals. Please suggest what you think could be killing them and the cause. I will say, my bc rainbows in Spain and Walt Disney are doing amazing. Why isn’t this affecting them???

Params as of last week (checking again today):
Salinity: 1.025
Ph : 8
Cal 450
Mag: 1500
Alk: 9
Nitrate: 2-3??
Phosphate: need to test

I haven’t changed anything with the flow or lighting. I run BC’s light schedule. I recently added a pair of blue throat triggers and a black tang, I can’t imagine they would harm these corals but idk.

1500 mg seems quite high. Main question i have. Did your temperature happen to fluctuate more than 2-3 degrees. I’m sure you know that acros are made out of a bunch of polyps. Each polyp has a bunch of cells that contain symbiodium it is a type of algae there’s multiple terms for it. This actually is what gives the color. Anyways the symbiodium allows photosynthesis which is how the food is produced for the coral. When temperatures fluctuate too much it impacts the ability for the symbiodium to carry out the process of photosynthesis. Therefore the polyp things it’s an invader and thus expelled the symbiodium from its cells which leads to the coral starving then ultimately totally bleaching. So always be sure that you do not have large temperature swings. Not saying that this could be the case for this die off but always keep this info in mind

 

[scubasteve020]

Also try checking for levels of ammonia

 

[youngreef]

what kinda dosage and percentge bleach?

i would blow off the dino of the rock first or suck out as much as i could and then dose.
i was dosing1ml/30gallon every twelve hours.
i used clorox but the bottle has to literatilly say "regular bleach" none of the ones with aditives or anything. honstly it was kind of hard to find one that didnt sayc oncentrate or other stuff. i think the potency is 6.0%
btw i got all the info about doing this from another post here on r2r.
oh.. i still dose every week just because i think it keeps the aquarium clean in some way also corals fluff up. i believe someone on that thread said its basically like using an ozone machine.

 

[Cassian]

1500 mg seems quite high. Main question i have. Did your temperature happen to fluctuate more than 2-3 degrees. I’m sure you know that acros are made out of a bunch of polyps. Each polyp has a bunch of cells that contain symbiodium it is a type of algae there’s multiple terms for it. This actually is what gives the color. Anyways the symbiodium allows photosynthesis which is how the food is produced for the coral. When temperatures fluctuate too much it impacts the ability for the symbiodium to carry out the process of photosynthesis. Therefore the polyp things it’s an invader and thus expelled the symbiodium from its cells which leads to the coral starving then ultimately totally bleaching. So always be sure that you do not have large temperature swings. Not saying that this could be the case for this die off but always keep this info in mind

Thanks for all the great info! I can’t get my mag any lower than that. I don’t dose at all. I guess my well water is naturally that high in mag. No, the temp has not fluctuated at all.

 

[ScottB]

this happened to me earlier this year... my parameters were very similar to yours.
if you are carbon dosing in some way. you should stop right away.
i ended up dosing nitrate from brightwell, and once my nitrates got to where the test got some color my corals started doing a lot better.
i also had a dino outbreak during this time btw.
fixed it dosing bleach.... which might have also helped the corals i believe.
hope i can help!

Bleach certainly has it's uses.

Dinos is one use. Got close there myself once

Probably not everyone's cup of tea tho.

 

[SeaDweller]

its Probably 1) what your relative did 2) your no nutrient system.

 

[Cassian]

its Probably 1) what your relative did 2) your no nutrient system.

I’m leaning toward what my realative did. Lol

 

[Cassian]

So another update, corals are looking better and they have stopped rtn ing. I think the GAC fixed the problem

 

[C. Eymann]

I’m leaning toward what my realative did. Lol

So another update, corals are looking better and they have stopped rtn ing. I think the GAC fixed the problem

Yap, detergent residue on the socks is a good way to tick off some corals!

I glad things are turning up for your tank, hopefully this incident is just a little speed bump on your reefs progress.

 

[Cassian]

Yap, detergent residue on the socks is a good way to tick off some corals!

I glad things are turning up for your tank, hopefully this incident is just a little speed bump on your reefs progress.

Lol, indeed it is!

Thank you! Your help and advice had been much appreciated