TexasTodd
Valuable Member
Are those pics under only blues? If so, some pics under full lighting? Nems and some corals look a lot more pale under just blues. Full tank shot? I'd still try reducing lights by 20% and feeding more.
Please Help - Everything is Bleaching
- Thread starter johnbr
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Given the information you've shared, I'm hard pressed to think lighting intensity is your issue. However, since your corals are showing signs of stress, I would advocate lowering the intensity in the short term. I would do a Triton test and see if something is out of whack that you may not realize. For thoroughness, you could run some carbon and poly filter pad (poly filter will indicate if you have copper, iron, aluminum, among other things).
A few others have mentioned temperature. This would be worth double checking. A stuck or miscalibrated heater might be running up temps without you realizing it.
Other off the wall things to check would be stray voltage. Inspect all pumps for any sign of corrosion. Check all magnets (such as your vortechs, ATO, frag racks that use magnets, etc..) to be sure no casings are busted.
I'm stumped, so best of luck.
A few others have mentioned temperature. This would be worth double checking. A stuck or miscalibrated heater might be running up temps without you realizing it.
Other off the wall things to check would be stray voltage. Inspect all pumps for any sign of corrosion. Check all magnets (such as your vortechs, ATO, frag racks that use magnets, etc..) to be sure no casings are busted.
I'm stumped, so best of luck.
thanks guys.
tomorrow morning first im gonna do is take a full tank pictures under white spectrum.
@Daniel Waters
How can I send a water sample to do this triton method? Regarding the temperature my tank was running at 79 and I've just lowered to 77 and I always run 2 thermometers in 2 different sections of the tank. Is that ok? For the corrosion part that would unlikely be the issue since everything is brand new. The vectra M1 is 2 months old like all the rest of my hardware.
For the heater part I use TWO Finnex 500W Digital Touch Control Aquarium Titanium Heater Guard. I like to play safe.
thanks
You purchase a Triton test kit (BRS sells them). $49 for one. You will get a box with two sealable water vials and bar codes that stick on each vial. You mail the box and water samples back to the address inside the kit (may be an address label already filled out) You have to pay postage, so expect another $2 to $3. They will receive the sample and forward to the lab for the testing. Your results will be uploaded and linked to your bar code. There's a website where you register and enter your tank information. You enter your barcode information on the website. Thus, if you do multiple tests periodically, you just enter the new test bar code and the water sample results will link them up. It's not a hard process and is explained in the kit. Takes about 2 weeks or so to get results back. I think it would be worth exploring given the lengths you are going to just to rule out some things.
As far as temperature, it sounds like you're covered there.
As far as your pumps being new, you're probably right and it's probably not an issue, but it's a good idea to always visually inspect equipment periodically (when you clean them for example).
There's so many things that I've read about happening to people and their tanks. I've heard of people who accidentally dropped a screw down in their sand bed (unknowingly) and it cause issues in their tanks. I've heard of kids throwing a penny in the sump. I've heard of a cleaning lady spraying cleaning stuff near the tank and the mist getting in the water. Need I go on?
I think better pictures under whiter lights will give everyone a better idea. It's possible your corals were already a little stressed in your nano tank (by your own admission). Moving them to the new tank probably stressed them, and given the tank is fairly new, it's just probably not as stable as we all like to think it is. Like I said, I think there are a lot of biological processes going on in our tanks that we probably don't fully understand...I think a lot of these get worked out or reach equilibrium states only after several months of a tank being established. Even in my new 6' tank I started about 2 years ago, I noticed an establishment period that took many months, despite me using existing live rock and other bio media from my existing (and running) 75 gallon tank at the time. I didn't have to cycle the new tank, and my water parameters all measured good every time I measured, but I can tell you that the tank just wasn't as stable as it was many more months later. I can't tell you exactly what changed, and this is purely anectodotal, but that was my experience. I just mention this because it seems like you are doing all the right things.
Thanks for putting time and effort in this thread @Daniel Waters,
I will do that then. Just purchased the Triton test. regarding the temps I was running the tank at 80 and now went down to 77. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures and change the lights again also, I can post a screenshot showing my schedule.
What you said about water parameters I think is totally true. It doesn't matter what the tests are showing the tank is not mature enough PERIOD. The reason i'm so frustrated is that I'm so careful, so diligent with the tank and this happens again. I was having the same issue in the nano 30 Gallon.
Last buy no least. I have a PAR meter and took all the measurements prior to put all corals. So lights are most likely not the issue here.
My chaeto is still dying getting all brown =(. Sometimes I just want to breakdown the hole thing and quit but I love my tank so much and helped me a lot with my anxiety issue.
Thanks to all of you who tried to help me.
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Dana Riddle
2500 Club Member
What are your PAR numbers? My Torch coral (Euphyllia sp.) is doing very well at a PPFD value of 60 micromol/m2/sec. Re: Temperature - 79F is a tad high but shouldn't have caused widespread issues. My thought is that there were possibly light and/or temperature excursions. Is it possible that the temp was higher (even for a short period of time) and perhaps unnoticed? Light intensity (due to controller issues, either intentional or not) could cause bleaching. It only takes once for either of these parameters to get out of line and can cause problems that take a long time (if ever) for recovery to occur.
Thabkd dana
Par levels at the bottom are around 115. Temp was 79-80 not is set to 76.
Parameters still the same. Also I feed my corals with reef roids but nothing changed so far. I just dont wanna loose them.
Thanks again
@johnbr your tank is beautiful. Your corals don't look like they are in that bad of shape (other than the bleaching). I certainly think they can and will recover with time.
If you had 115 par at the bottom, I'm thinking you had a little too much light given your corals were slightly stressed already, the tank move, and it being a fairly new tank. FWIW, when I kept LPS, my frogspawns, hammers, and torches always seemed to do best in light with par values of 75 or less. They can certainly handle more, but I think they need to be acclimated to higher par values over time. I'm surprised you got that high of par given your low level of intensity you were running with your radions, but you wouldn't be the first person to have issues dialing their radions in to where they need to be.
As far as your chaeto turning brown, is your chaeto actually turning brown or is there simply red slime or diatoms growing / collecting on it? Do you have your chaeto tumbling? What kind of light do you have on it? Honestly, I think the chaeto is a separate issue and unrelated to your coral issues. It just may be a matter of dialing in your refugium lighting schedule and flow I'm thinking.
If you had 115 par at the bottom, I'm thinking you had a little too much light given your corals were slightly stressed already, the tank move, and it being a fairly new tank. FWIW, when I kept LPS, my frogspawns, hammers, and torches always seemed to do best in light with par values of 75 or less. They can certainly handle more, but I think they need to be acclimated to higher par values over time. I'm surprised you got that high of par given your low level of intensity you were running with your radions, but you wouldn't be the first person to have issues dialing their radions in to where they need to be.
As far as your chaeto turning brown, is your chaeto actually turning brown or is there simply red slime or diatoms growing / collecting on it? Do you have your chaeto tumbling? What kind of light do you have on it? Honestly, I think the chaeto is a separate issue and unrelated to your coral issues. It just may be a matter of dialing in your refugium lighting schedule and flow I'm thinking.
Guys after tweaking the lights, 25% water change and checking all the parameters.
The corals all of them are still doing really bad. Please is that anything that is missing on my water? How all the corals go from good to horrible in 36 hours?
This is my second tank and honestly I never could make any of them look good.
Maybe this hobby isn't for me.
So frustrated right now, so much money invested, time spent.
The corals all of them are still doing really bad. Please is that anything that is missing on my water? How all the corals go from good to horrible in 36 hours?
This is my second tank and honestly I never could make any of them look good.
Maybe this hobby isn't for me.
So frustrated right now, so much money invested, time spent.
Once again, I don't think your corals look that bad. They aren't peeling tissue off (that would be what I call "bad"). They may be pale from expelling some zooxanthellae, which is all I'm seeing from your pictures. They will take time to recover, which could be on the order of weeks, not days. For some acros I have bought, it took them months to color up correctly, and that was with no problems!
And remember this is a hobby. It may be frustrating at times, but you don't have to let it control you. You're doing the best you can given the information you have. Don't beat yourself up. Do you have any idea how much stuff I've killed in the past and anguished over? Lots! You'll get it figured out. Give it some time.
Dana Riddle
2500 Club Member
Years ago, I made a presentation in a city (unnamed to protect the guilty) and was taken on a tour to see club members' tank. All of them were horrible and I was bombarded with questions. As it turned out, the only commonality among them that I could determine was the brand of artificial sea salt used. Perhaps just a bad batch, or was it normal for that brand? I'll never know for sure.
Hi Daniel,
I know that by the pictures they might look not that bad but believe they are. I just want to understand how a tank where all the waters parameters are within the recommended I'm still facing this issue. I'm telling you I had been using those lights (schedule) since day one and they were extremely happy. Suddenly from day to night this happened. I just don't get it and now I'm running extremely low light and nothing changed. I know I have to be patient but tell me how something goes from good to horrible in matter of hours? That's why I think light is not the problem if was the corals should've be stressed since the begging.
Thanks for helping Dana,
The salt that I use is the instant ocean and I don't mind trying another salt.
I would like to know if there's ANYTHING else that I could test that could be causing this ti happen with my tank.
Dana Riddle
2500 Club Member
The brand of ASW used in the tanks I saw was not IO. We used pallets of IO at the coral farm back in the 90's and never had any issues related to its use. As far as bleaching, the Big 3 are: Excessive light, high (or low) temperature, improper water chemistry. It sounds like your PAR and temp number are reasonable. As has been suggested, perhaps a thorough analysis of water chemistry is in order (Triton, Tropic Marin, etc.) One though - is your magnetic glass cleaner left in the tank all the time?
TexasTodd
Valuable Member
It takes a long time for corals to recover, and, often they don't. You might add 1-2 lower cost new corals (similar types) to see how they do. Triton test sounds smart at this point. You're also really light on fish for a 120. Maybe two thermometers to double check temp?
Why? Ever driven a car that was running perfectly and then it suddenly break down with no warning? If a machine can break down suddenly, just imagine how much more complex a small ecosystem like a saltwater reef tank is. The number of things in a saltwater tank that we can't measure or know about is probably huge. Just imagine all the different types of bacteria growing and competing. Tanks need time to establish. Your corals probably were fine and then they weren't. It happens in mother nature on reefs around the world, so don't think you're going to be immune in a small box of water no matter how good you take care of your tank. Just keep trying to eliminate certain things it might be. You may never find an answer. I remember feeling the same way with acros. I'd wake up and see that one frag had RTN overnight, and I'd think, but it was fine yesterday! And why is that coral shedding its tissue and every other coral is doing great! I feel your pain I guess is what I'm saying.
Dana Riddle
2500 Club Member
IO = Instant Ocean and ASW = Artificial sea water. I'm wondering if the magnetic algae cleaner is leaking and leaching metals to the tank?
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