Recently fragged sps losses

[polo1126]

Hello all! I have been having issues with sps frags following intentional or accidental fragging. My tank is a 10 gallon nano that has been running for about 6 years. In the last year and half I have been more successful in keeping sps corals following more consistent (nearly daily) testing and dosing. I have had a few different frags of montipora digitata, seriatopora, stylophora, pocilopora, as well as acropora. I've noted that following scrapping hair algae near a few frags (that previously had good PE and had been encrusting well for months) and resulting in accidental trauma to the frag, I've seen steady and progressive tissue loss of acros, seriatopora, and stylophoras. Most recently I lost a frag of strawberry shortcake acropora nasuta after probably injuring the coral while scraping algae off of the plug too close to the coral encrusting base. Similarly a frag of milka stylo had progressively receded from the base with decreasing polyp extension and slow tissue loss from the base up following scraping algae near the coral edge. In an attempt to save a mini colony of the milka stylo, I fragged the coral and placed frags on magnetic frag racks on the glass as well as a small frag back on the rock. The frag on the rock has progressively lost tissue from the base up while the frags mounted in frag racks on the glass have excellent overall PE without any tissue loss and appear to be doing very well.

Parameters:
Salinity: 35 ppm
Alk: 10 - 11 dkh
pH: 8.2 - 8.4
Ca: 500 ppm
Mg: 1480 ppm
Phosphate: < 0.1
Nitrate: 0.5 ppm

Lighting: AI prime HD x2
Flow: Nero 3 x2
Dosing: All-for-reef, kalkwasser in ATO (have been using this method for years, adjust amount added seasonally and according to alk and pH levels)

Has anyone seen anything like this? My thought is some type of bacterial infection associated with the rock as I seem to run into this issue only following trauma to the coral frags or following intentional fragging.

 

[watdachuck]

Can you share some photos of the corals? Are they all growing/appearing healthy before the incidental fragging?

 

[polo1126]

This is the SSC frag after a few months of growth and then jistbefore scraping algae close to the edge of the encrusted base.

This the the frag some time later. The edge of the base appeared pale and this eventually spread up the coral resulting in complete loss

This Stylo began to lose PE and the tissue eventually began to bleach and die up progressively from the area on the bottom left at the base of the frag plug where I cleared algae from. This continued to spread upwards to involve even non-shadowed areas

These frags are about three weeks after fragging and have been doing well on the frag racks. I did place one of these plugs back in place of the original coral about a week after fragging and the same slow progression of loss of PE, bleaching, and tissue loss result. I removed that frag yesterday after near complete loss.

This was a new milli frag that was healthy on arrival. I popped the frag off it’s original plug and fixed to the ball of Tunze coral gum. This frag also slowly receded from the base and resulted in complete loss.

 

[shandoee]

I doubt it’s from trauma. They will be able to recover fairly quickly within a few days. Perhaps there is something more than what you can test. Have you tried sending in an ICP test?

edit: when first I noticed my SPS start to stn from the base, I started to do 15% water changes instead of my usual 10%. The stn didn’t stop, so I sent an ICP and found out there were elevated levels of heavy metals. Most likely from a bad batch of TMP salt. After switching salt and a few 15% water changes later, stn stopped.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I have had similar experiences in the past when I ran low nutrients. I believe your alk is too high when your nitrate is only .5
The corals are starving in my opinion.

I would slowly bring the alk down to the 8.5 range and get your nitrates up to 10 minimum!

 

[Naturalreef]

I would bet low nutrients as well. Very low phosphate will cause STN from bottom up. Very low nitrates usually causes pale color before stn.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

Its your alk spiking to 11 is not good , lower alk and raise your nitrates to .10-.15 ppm

 

[Naturalreef]

To add to yoyo’s reply, acros can take a couple of weeks to show damage from alk swings.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Its your alk spiking to 11 is not good , lower alk and raise your nitrates to .10-.15 ppm

.10-.15??
Anything under 5ppm nitrate is borderline starving an Acropora. There’s simply no reason at all to keep your nitrate under 5ppm.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

YOur symptoms are exactly what happens when alk gets too high. High Nitrate its not sustainable in a display tank, but your not gonna hurt to raise N a little bit is the only way to get the alk down safely.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

.10-.15??
Anything under 5ppm nitrate is borderline starving an Acropora. There’s simply no reason at all to keep your nitrate under 5ppm.

10-15 computer adding decimals keyboard in money mode

 

[polo1126]

Thank you for all the responses! My alk did spike to 12 around early November so maybe that contributed… for going on for over a year I keep alk closer to 11 so I don’t know that that’s the issue….

I’m happy with phosphates but have struggled with nitrate. I have started dosing neo nitro over the last month and a half or so but still working on being it up to a more reasonable level slowly/safely

 

[damsels are not mean]

High Nitrate its not sustainable in a display tank

???