Persistent SPS dying off - no known cause.

[Fisherman Joe]

Hi all.

I wonder if he can help me. I’m at my wits end. About three months ago, I switched from the TMC salt to the Nyos salt because of the price.

Coincidentally, around this time, I started to notice some SPS struggling in my tank.

My refractory smart checker also failed at this time and the POV spiked to around 0.2.

My alkalinity is also quite high around 10.0 at the moment and I think it’s because a lot of the corals have died then absorbing the agency as much.

Alk 9.9
Ca 420
Mg 1350
Salt 1.025
PO4 0.12
NO3 50 ppm

On a recent ICP, all the other elements were in the green or amber with slight corrections needed. Nothing major.

I’m checking the corals for flat worms, nothing.

My tank is 5 years old now and I’ve lost so much, it’s killing me.

I’ve checked all the electrical equipment for signs of corrosion. Can’t see anything - wouldn’t this show up in the ICP if something is rusting etc.

My RODI supply seems fine. No changes and the TDS is 0.0 when I put fresh resin in.

I think it’s a combo of the Alk being high, and the PO4 being a bit up and down. Maybe a change of salt too.

Anyone got any insight?

 

[MikeyG]

Over the years have lost quite a bit of acros to rapid TC loss. I spend hundreds of dollars on various products trying to find a solution to no avail. After seriously tracking the things that were changing in my tank, I narrowed it down to inconsistency with my salt level. And most times this would happen when the salt level spikes. Since then have made a concerted effort to keep my salt in a very tight range. But I've noticed since then is zero lost and are flourishing. What I'm upset about is that a lot of that fluctuation in salt level was my own doing and some of it came down to laziness. If you're working with one salt, stick with it and when you mix and do water changes, make sure the parameters are as close to match as possible. I'm sure there might be plenty other reasons why you're using losing tissue, but that was my experience

 

[BubbleAlgaeFarmer]

I’ve heard of ppl having bad experiences from switching salts.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I recommend switching back.

UPDATE: Turning It Around. Well This Sucks, Could Be the End of My SPS Tank.

Looks like this tank is headed for a crash. Some unknown cause. I’m not asking for help or anything, as I’ve done all I can for now. First all the montis started dying off, now some of the acros are starting to lose a little flesh. Maybe the icp will find something. But, just sharing. Even...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What type of ICP did you elect?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I had a bad experience when I tried to switch salts in my mature tank, the corals reacted very poorly. I switched back after 2 months and then it still took a couple of months for the tank to settle back down.

 

[CHSUB]

I would expect no3 at 50 ppm to be a major problem. If that is your approach, I would get 50 SPS and about 5 will survive. Those 5 will probably grow a little.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would expect no3 at 50 ppm to be a major problem. If that is your approach, I would get 50 SPS and about 5 will survive. Those 5 will probably grow a little.

I think that is not correct. :)

 

[billyocean]

How close have you inspected for pests? The newer variant of aefw runs through an acro quite quickly and doesnt leave the same evidence as the older flatworms. They are hard to spot with the nake eye too. In any case...it could be salt as mentioned. Maybe try a closer inspection with a magnifying glass at minimum, an led microscope is better. Either way...just go back to what was working before, including salt.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

To be fair, I did notice another die off after I recently started dosing salt in my top off tank to raise the salinity again.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

This was my last ICP in mid Jan, things were dying then. Still are. Nothing jumps out at me.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

How close have you inspected for pests? The newer variant of aefw runs through an acro quite quickly and doesnt leave the same evidence as the older flatworms. They are hard to spot with the nake eye too. In any case...it could be salt as mentioned. Maybe try a closer inspection with a magnifying glass at minimum, a led microscope is better. Either way...just go back to what was working before, including salt.

Had a really close look and couldn’t see any pests but I’ll look again.

 

[PeterC99]

Try this. My Acros came back and thrived after dosing this daily.

 

[Tahoe61]

Could the issue be stray voltage?

 

[Fisherman Joe]

Could the issue be stray voltage?

Could be. Something in the sump is shorting.

 

[ReneReef]

Based on your ICP, first thing I would look into is your salinity measurement.
Your ICP result suggest your salinity may be quite high, and your measurement is very likely wrong.

A sodium concentration of 12542 mg/L fits a salinity of about 40.7 ppt.
Ocean average around coral reefs is 35 ppt, or an S.G. of 1.0264 at 25 Celsius.

A lot of other major elements are on the high side of normal as well. Also fitting a high salinity.

 

[hatfielj]

First order of business...get your parameters completely stable and keep them there. No more changing alk or salinity, etc.
Once there, inspect closely for pests...the big one I'd be looking for is white bugs. They are incredibly prevalent in the hobby right now and hard to detect. If you see any copepods crawling on your corals at night under a bright flash light, treat the tank with high dose interceptor.
If that doesn't stop the die-off, I'd consider treating the tank with cipro or oxylinic acid next. My suspicion is that this a pathologic bacteria issue.
I've done a whole tank Cipro treatment before and it was very well tolerated and it stopped the random RTN/STN issues I was seeing at the time.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

I’ll keep and eye out for pests and get some stability.

I worry swapping salts is the main cause. Maybe they are incompatible?

 

[RobM76]

New salt, Alk shifting around, salinity high - that’s about 40ppt. SPS don’t like any of that. The most likely answer is the obvious, glaring one.

As the post above says, get parameters stable, especially Alk. Get something to measure salinity properly. No fast changes. Stabilise the tank, then slowly work the parameters towards where they need to be.

I once had a box of KZ salt wipe out an entire tank of SPS. One 10% water change and everything died. I still don’t know if it was crazy high levels of minerals in it, or some form of contamination (no ICP tests back then). KZ sent me a big box full of awesome SPS as compensation, and every one of those died quickly too. I had to close the tank down and bin everything in it.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

Honestly. I’ve had this tank 5 years and never had any issues like this. Switching salts was the start of all this. Confidence or not.

Right now I’ve lost so much. I could cry. But I’m using it as a lesson.

I’m switching salts back and focusing on stability.