Persistent SPS dying off - no known cause.

[jelazar]

One thought. I have been using a UV wand to sterilise and kill the sand bed when I’ve had dinos growing.

Could that be effecting the water chemistry?

Firstly, I'm very sorry you're going through this and I hope it stops soon. It's heartbreaking to watch coral after coral perish and not be able to do anything about it.

Your dinos could be contributing to the problem. Some dinos like ostreopsis release toxins, which presumably affect coral health.

I suspect that the combination of multiple things like dinos, salinity a little too high, your recent alkalinity spike, and other variations have weakened your corals to the point where a vulnerable coral was infected by protozoans and bacteria that live in our tanks. That could have enabled those populations to rapidly rise and infect the others.

I'm skeptical that corroded parts or other contaminants are the cause, because you've ruled that out with your ICP test.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

More corals continuing to die off. Salinity has been stable all week.

No idea what’s happening. Think I just need to ride it out.

 

[Jarob]

One other potential option is witchhazel treatment.

Witchhazel Reeftank Treatment

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I had random RTN/STN episodes and couldn't figure it out so I tried this and it's been over two months without another loss. I even dipped one of my RTN acro colonies and it stopped it in its track and recovering nicely. I thought it was a bunch of BS but figured I'd try it out and what do you know.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

I’ll give it a go.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

Hey. Still getting SPS dying off.

Parameters have been pretty stable for a few weeks. Still no idea what’s going on.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

Quick update. Trying some Fauna Marin RTN treatment.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

I just had a big millie RTN. I saved the top, but it started at the base and quickly spread within a day. I think it was a bacterial infection as I had trimmed a bit from the base to prevent it from brushing up against another acro.

Happens to everybody!

 

[Naturalreef]

TLDR: I’m sorry this is happening to you. We have all been there and it’s heartbreaking.

What has helped in the past is water changes, brightwell coral recover, fragging high up to save a piece.

Grab a chunk of dragons breath macroalgae and throw it into a refugium or your display tank. This species of macroalgae releases compounds into the water column that suppress bacterial mats. It’s called quorum quenching, and it prevents communication between vibrio and other pathogens from preventing bacterial mats that form and kill coral.

 

[CHSUB]

More corals continuing to die off. Salinity has been stable all week.

No idea what’s happening. Think I just need to ride it out.

These corals imo don’t look like they have been growing for years in a healthy well maintained aquarium. The impression I get is slow growing, barely surviving corals that have finally succumbed to high pollution. 25 to 50 no3 itself may not weaken corals, but the underlying organic load that results in high nitrates is not healthy. Corals do best in clean water, a few aquariums that look nice with high no3 doesn’t change my opinion from decades of experience and thousands of examples.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

These corals imo don’t look like they have been growing for years in a healthy well maintained aquarium. The impression I get is slow growing, barely surviving corals that have finally succumbed to high pollution. 25 to 50 no3 itself may not weaken corals, but the underlying organic load that results in high nitrates is not healthy. Corals do best in clean water, a few aquariums that look nice with high no3 doesn’t change my opinion from decades of experience and thousands of examples.

Dissolved organics (SAC254 test that is used in drinking/municipal water treatment as well as in ICP-MS tests in reefs) is the number to look at as your 'pollution level'. That will show your carbon loading which correlates directly to organic molecules in excess or in deficiency. High nitrates doesn't necessarily mean there is high organics. I run CAC carbon 24/7 and that keeps my SAC number at ~3.5 month over month with ~15-20 ppm of NO3.

 

[CHSUB]

Dissolved organics (SAC254 test that is used in drinking/municipal water treatment as well as in ICP-MS tests in reefs) is the number to look at as your 'pollution level'. That will show your carbon loading which correlates directly to organic molecules in excess or in deficiency. High nitrates doesn't necessarily mean there is high organics. I run CAC carbon 24/7 and that keeps my SAC number at ~3.5 month over month with ~15-20 ppm of NO3.

That is my point no3 can be an indicator of other levels not regularly tested but affecting corals.

Lower no3 generally indicates lower organic levels, according to the F. MARIN information provided to me…my testing seems to confirm this. Not surprisingly my corals don’t suffer from mysterious rtn, stn, or BJD issues. I don’t believe deviating 50,000% from corals natural environment is a recipe for success. Correlation between SAK, NPOC and no3 are not exact, however it may be an indicator? Your SAK is significant higher than mine with increased no3, OP’s could be significantly higher than yours?

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Dissolved organics (SAC254 test that is used in drinking/municipal water treatment as well as in ICP-MS tests in reefs) is the number to look at as your 'pollution level'. That will show your carbon loading which correlates directly to organic molecules in excess or in deficiency. High nitrates doesn't necessarily mean there is high organics. I run CAC carbon 24/7 and that keeps my SAC number at ~3.5 month over month with ~15-20 ppm of NO3.

That is my point no3 can be an indicator of other levels not regularly tested but affecting corals.

Lower no3 generally indicates lower organic levels, according to the F. MARIN information provided to me…my testing seems to confirm this. Not surprisingly my corals don’t suffer from mysterious rtn, stn, or BJD issues. I don’t believe deviating 50,000% from corals natural environment is a recipe for success. Correlation between SAK, NPOC and no3 are not exact, however it may be an indicator? Your SAK is significant higher than mine with increased no3, OP’s could be significantly higher than yours?

Depends. I’m on RMS so anything between 3-5 is good. I also heavily carbon dose so that may also play a role.

Lots of factors with acro health and growth including DOC as well as trace availability.

I’m running into what I think is some type of bacteria that will wipe out acros if they get injured or weakened. I just replaced my UV bulb hoping that helps. It’s extremely fast when it happens and leaves almost a dissolved look to the leftover skeleton. It’s now happened twice since the tank started 1.5 years ago.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would not assume there is much correlation between nitrate/phosphate levels and organics across reef tanks since they have very different uptake and export processes impacting them.

Some processes (e.g.growing macroalgae or turf algae) may raise one and actually lower the other. Some lower just one (e.g., GAC) and some may lower both (e.g., water changes).

 

[Dorsetsteve]

Did we verify that salinity was correct at 35ppt?

 

[X-37B]

I have had a few do the same over the years for no reason and my systems are acro dominant. However I have not had a full tank issue like yours.
If your system is healthy I dont think changing salts makes much of a difference. Something was off before the switch and the switch may have activated it.
My guess is some form of bacterial issue but no way to verify.
In regards to SG. I use TM and run my systems at 77. I own 3, easy to break, lol. All 3 read the same and I can verify with my 2 conductivity meters.
I have used the TM for so long I know they are accurate. Yes one can be manufactored incorrectly thats why I have 3. Its always better to have more than one way to test.
Like many have said I would triple check SG to be sure if it was my system but thays just me.

 

[X-37B]

I just remembered something. A lfs had a system that coral started to stn and then rtn over the period of a month or so.
It was a titainium heater that was leaking whatever they put inside them. He came in one day and the heater had split and everything was dead.
Dont recall the brand but check yours if you run one.