i came home today to all my sps bleached!

kane720 · Dec 18, 2008

as the title says i came home today from work today and looked at my tank and my heart dropped! all my SPS are bleached and my zoos and palys are all closed up. the only thing i did different was add chemi-pure elite to my tank. is this the possible cause? i never ran anything in my tank before but i was having a little Algae growth so figure the chemi-pure would help. what do i do? what can i do man this sux, idk if i can bounce back from this one i have alot of money in SPS in my tank!

dieselab · Dec 18, 2008

Do a 20% or less water change and run some carbon. Then do another 10% water change tomorrow. Good luck.
Did you follow instructions on the chemi-pure?

Tankguy001 · Dec 18, 2008

I run chemi pure elite all the time in my sps tank with no problems at all.

Jessy · Dec 19, 2008

possible that the GFO (phosban material) in the Chemi pure elite caused an alk drop? Have you tested the water? But I too run chemi pure elite all the time

pjr · Dec 24, 2008

Kane, that stinks. If you are in my area I'll donate a few frags to get you started again.

AussieExoticCorals · Dec 24, 2008

ditto do water change asap, I too also ran chemi pure and had no problem what-so-ever. Tell ur water and let us know.

Sorry brother.

Mr.Firemouth · Dec 24, 2008

An additional reason is the rapid increase in water clarity from the use of the product that can cause bleaching.

GFO does cause swings in ALK which can trigger an RTN event.

Alk and CA levels should be checked to determine if water quality was an issue.

Algae problems indicate a higher level of PO4 than would be desired. A rapid depletion of PO4 can also cause SPS to bleach.

As for nutrients causing the algae, check your RO/DI water for TDS. The reading should be 0ppm. Check it with a Pen Probe type TDS meter as the ones that come on the units lose calibration quickly and are not reliable.

Usually when fellow club members here that you have had a tank crash, they will offer small frags very cheap or for free to get you going again. Let your local club know what happened and that you want to start up again.