Mystery death

[Yanir34]

Hello everyone , it's short story :

1 month ago I pulled out all of the rocks outside of the tank , to catch some fishes.
All sps is encrusted on the rocks.

I also added some No3 and Po4 to raise the levels .

tank is 1 year and 3 months old.

I noticed 3 days ago that 2 of my colonies has started massive RTN and some LPS as well , that simply eat the live tissue of the corals in matter of few hours .

None of the fishes was bitting them.

I'm suspecting it's some kind of virus.

I have Blue Life Coral RX , I understand it's some kind of antibiotic. Anyone have experience with this stuff ?

I also heard that some reefers treated their tank with Cipro antibiotic. where can I buy this ? what is the recommended dosage and what is recommended treatment with it ?

parameters :
Temperature 24.5 C
S.G 1.026
ORP 420
Alk 8.5
Mag 1320
Cal 415
No3 at 2
po4 at 0.02

Please help me with this nightmare

 

[Pod_01]

Maybe definition changed but from your pictures those are not encrusted SPS:

All sps is encrusted on the rocks.

The pictures show glued SPS to rock and the last picture there is some sign of encrusting.

For me encrusted is something like this:

The plug and the rocks the SPS is on is all covered by the coral. There are some that don’t encrust but….

Anyway, I do not believe you have viruses etc….
But, I do believe your acros are starving….

po4 at 0.02

That right there is a red flag, new system and no PO4. My acros used go the same way as yours. They might recover but not from my experience…

Just a suggestion, you might want to feed them Reef Roids, FM Coral Dust or other quality coral food. Also feed the fish more, that can help if you have lot of fish.
The other parameters look good, I personally like Alk in the 7.5 range (especially if you plan to run low PO4).

Also with acros in a new system Alk swings can be very detrimental.

Good luck,

 

[LOVEROCK]

You caught all of the fish out ? Like the guy above says might be starving

 

[Dburr1014]

Hello everyone , it's short story :

1 month ago I pulled out all of the rocks outside of the tank , to catch some fishes.
All sps is encrusted on the rocks.

I also added some No3 and Po4 to raise the levels .

tank is 1 year and 3 months old.

I noticed 3 days ago that 2 of my colonies has started massive RTN and some LPS as well , that simply eat the live tissue of the corals in matter of few hours .

None of the fishes was bitting them.

I'm suspecting it's some kind of virus.

I have Blue Life Coral RX , I understand it's some kind of antibiotic. Anyone have experience with this stuff ?

I also heard that some reefers treated their tank with Cipro antibiotic. where can I buy this ? what is the recommended dosage and what is recommended treatment with it ?

parameters :
Temperature 24.5 C
S.G 1.026
ORP 420
Alk 8.5
Mag 1320
Cal 415
No3 at 2
po4 at 0.02

Please help me with this nightmare

What did you add for no3/po4 and how much were you trying to raise it?
Did you keep the sps wet and in the same placements? Were they kept warm?

 

[DJF]

Agree po4 low; was one of the fish a wrasse? Could have been keeping a bug population under control

 

[Yanir34]

What did you add for no3/po4 and how much were you trying to raise it?
Did you keep the sps wet and in the same placements? Were they kept warm?

I added liquid of po4 and no3 , manufactured by modern reef.
I tried to raise it from 0.00 to 0.03 and from 1 ppm to 5 ppm of not
I simply pulled out the rocks from the water , and putt them on the floor for 2 hours.
the encrusted colonies kept in same position
the house was with AC to 24 c

 

[dadnjesse]

How long was the rock out of the tank?

 

[Dburr1014]

I added liquid of po4 and no3 , manufactured by modern reef.
I tried to raise it from 0.00 to 0.03 and from 1 ppm to 5 ppm of not
I simply pulled out the rocks from the water , and putt them on the floor for 2 hours.
the encrusted colonies kept in same position
the house was with AC to 24 c

2 hours on the floor out of water??
That can't be good.
I've done 15 minutes or so but not 2 hours.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

2 hours on the floor out of water??
That can't be good.
I've done 15 minutes or so but not 2 hours.

Yeah, I think we've found the problem

 

[Pod_01]

2 hours on the floor out of water??
That can't be good.
I've done 15 minutes or so but not 2 hours.

Corals in tide pools can be out of water exposed to sun for same time. They do slime up for protection.

I done hour + at home with no ill effects, to de-weed bubble algae from stones.
I am not going to bet every coral can do that so that can be contributing factor.

But PO4 of zero, I put my money on that being the main cause.

 

[DJF]

Respectfully that’s a gamble I wouldn’t take. I would at minimum keep it wet with a squirt bottle but probably to the point where I couldn’t focus on the algae. That said if air was the culprit idk if it would be from the bottom up unless it is other things dying off on the rock then bothering the coral at the base.

 

[Pod_01]

Respectfully that’s a gamble I wouldn’t take. I would at minimum keep it wet with a squirt bottle but probably to the point where I couldn’t focus on the algae. That said if air was the culprit idk if it would be from the bottom up unless it is other things dying off on the rock then bothering the coral at the base.

I would love to agree with you, especially with Aiptasia and few other pests. I tried and those buggers will sunbathe and come back stronger after.

Would I intentionally push it past 2 hours with ultra sensitive SPS coral I paid $100‘s for. Not likely, but I tried with others less pricey SPS and other corals and no loss so far, for me.

Here is what happens to SPS when PO4 goes to zero (starved SPS):

Once you loose $100‘s in corals one better figure it out, throwing good money out the window is not good option.

Here is the second coral when I fed the coral and PO4 increased:

My opinion, zero PO4 are the cause. Keeping SPS out of the water for 2 hours did not help.
Virus did not cause the issue.


Also to remed the situation one needs to feeding corals with good quality coral food. Adding PO4 is not going to help either.
Regardless the corals in the original picture are quite deteriorated.

 

[DJF]

Ok. I agree on low phosphate. I’ve dealt with all sorts of pests and problems including low nutrients. I have never heard of someone keeping their sps out of water for that long. I mean… can I hold my breath until I almost die? Sure- but why would I?

Here’s a quick shot of my sps tank- none of these colonies have been out of water for more than a couple minutes ever- because it kills them.

 

[Pod_01]

Ok. I agree on low phosphate. I’ve dealt with all sorts of pests and problems including low nutrients. I have never heard of someone keeping their sps out of water for that long. I mean… can I hold my breath until I almost die? Sure- but why would I?

Here’s a quick shot of my sps tank- none of these colonies have been out of water for more than a couple minutes ever- because it kills them.

I didn’t say I recommend it but in a pinch I done it. Slime coat, think of it as scuba gear for corals.
For me in the end algae came back, corals were same, Aiptasia looked better lol.

Also for the record I did not experiment with expensive SPS, I am not intentionally crazy.

That is nice growth!!! Do I see that correct, no fish??? So out of curiosity what do you feed the corals?
I suspect your setup would be definition of low nutrient system. Unless I am missing something
no rocks or sand, is that correct.
Interesting ….

 

[DJF]

I didn’t say I recommend it but in a pinch I done it. Slime coat, think of it as scuba gear for corals.
For me in the end algae came back, corals were same, Aiptasia looked better lol.

Also for the record I did not experiment with expensive SPS, I am not intentionally crazy.

That is nice growth!!! Do I see that correct, no fish??? So out of curiosity what do you feed the corals?
I suspect your setup would be definition of low nutrient system. Unless I am missing something
no rocks or sand, is that correct.
Interesting ….

Technically what you’re seeing is 1 of 3 70g tanks plumbed together. That particular tank is bare bottom but the other 2 (lps) have sand. These tanks were set up while I prep their previous area for my new 400g tank. There is a foxface and scopas in there (and paired clowns) but they are so lazy it might as well be fishless :) some of those colonies have been with me for 7yrs. I struggle with low nitrate and dose to keep them around 10ppm. I need to remove phosphate and run gfo. I have seen .02 phosphate from icp without any problems- low nitrate has been a disaster for me in the past I had basketball size colonies that are now a couple frags. The fish get TDO (reef nutrition) and I occasionally feed reefroids however I mostly I rely on dosing nitrates. For me, nitrates are tested as frequently as alk. I would argue it’s more important :)

 

[MoshJosh]

I will agree with others that 2 hours seems a bit long, but if that was a month ago and they were doing fine for that month, I doubt that was the issue. Has your phosphate been stable at that 0.02? What is the timeline for adding N and P to seeing tissue recession.?

 

[Pod_01]

Technically what you’re seeing is 1 of 3 70g tanks plumbed together. That particular tank is bare bottom but the other 2 (lps) have sand. These tanks were set up while I prep their previous area for my new 400g tank. There is a foxface and scopas in there (and paired clowns) but they are so lazy it might as well be fishless :) some of those colonies have been with me for 7yrs. I struggle with low nitrate and dose to keep them around 10ppm. I need to remove phosphate and run gfo. I have seen .02 phosphate from icp without any problems- low nitrate has been a disaster for me in the past I had basketball size colonies that are now a couple frags. The fish get TDO (reef nutrition) and I occasionally feed reefroids however I mostly I rely on dosing nitrates. For me, nitrates are tested as frequently as alk. I would argue it’s more important :)

Fascinating, with the NO3 vs. PO4.
These are my usual numbers:

I suspect because I have fish and snails the NO3 numbers is ok, been like that for almost 2 years.

But if my PO4 drops below 0.05 I end up with dead acros, tried few times always the same result. Just threw two small frags out because I had swing while back and they didn’t make it. They usually end up looking just like what the original poster showed.
Overall my tank is on the up but I do have to watch PO4 and also on my system I cannot let Alk above 8.

Thanks for the info.

 

[DJF]

one difference is you’re measuring phosphorus while I measure phosphate. Not sure on the math to convert but I believe phosphorus measures higher than its phosphate equivalent. I use the same hanna HR nitrate (from their all in one). My opinion now, based on my experience, is your issue is with nitrate. Anything under 2ppm has caused my sps problems- they are their happiest around 10.0ppm

Btw- I probably ran low nitrates for a long time before it became obvious- seems almost like the coral gets stressed then low nitrates bother it. Also- this all just happened recently- I flew blind for years… corals looked fine but compared to what they look like today- I was not recognizing their full potential.

 

[Pod_01]

one difference is you’re measuring phosphorus while I measure phosphate. Not sure on the math to convert but I believe phosphorus measures higher than its phosphate equivalent. I use the same hanna HR nitrate (from their all in one). My opinion now, based on my experience, is your issue is with nitrate. Anything under 2ppm has caused my sps problems- they are their happiest around 10.0ppm

Btw- I probably ran low nitrates for a long time before it became obvious- seems almost like the coral gets stressed then low nitrates bother it. Also- this all just happened recently- I flew blind for years… corals looked fine but compared to what they look like today- I was not recognizing their full potential.

You might be correct, I am working on my NO3, I am just not adding it in direct. Here are my numbers from couple days back:

Looks promising…

The whole NO3 to PO4 ratio….

 

[Dburr1014]

Corals in tide pools can be out of water exposed to sun for same time. They do slime up for protection.

I done hour + at home with no ill effects, to de-weed bubble algae from stones.
I am not going to bet every coral can do that so that can be contributing factor.

But PO4 of zero, I put my money on that being the main cause.

Yes, I know.
This happens regularly, everyday at low tide. But, if it doesn't happen everyday for months on end and then one day it does for 2 hours do you think it will respond the same way?