SPS DEAD? RTN?

OceansinAZ

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I am still relatively new to reef keeping. Yesterday I bought some new corals to add to my 30 gal tank. I bought two sps and a mushroom. I dipped them (no more than 2-3 min each) and spent an hour acclimating them. I placed them in the tank and all looked well for about 4 hours when i went to bed. Woke up this morning and one of the sps looks mostly bleached. There is still bright red in the little divots on its skeleton. The other spa and mushroom are doing well. The only thing I can think of is the mushroom got angry when I placed it and put off TONS of slime. The power heads blew some of this over the coral and it got stuck to it. I do water checks weekly and did one before I went to the fish store. They are as follows temp 77.7, salt 1.022, ph 8.15, nitrates 2.5, posphate .03, alk 9.1, mag 1215, and calc 410.

Is it the slim or possibly just bad reaction to the aacclimation? Any chance it will come back or anything I might be able to do to save it?

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Camaro Show Corals

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Your salt is way too low, no corals will live in that low of salinity. You need mature stable water with stable Alk by a dosing pump or ca rx. You need to have your salinity up to 1.026
 
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OceansinAZ

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Tank has been up for just over 6 months. I started with some gsp and zoas. They were doing good, so I added a small frog spawn a month and a half ago. It was doing good and I was told Stylo was a good sps for beginners. I pay lots of attention to my tank and all the levels have been steady for 3-4 months now. I was told don't add any sps until the tank was 6 months old, so I have been waiting. Only other tank mates are three chromis, snails, few crabs, and a sand sifting sea star.
 

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Tank has been up for just over 6 months. I started with some gsp and zoas. They were doing good, so I added a small frog spawn a month and a half ago. It was doing good and I was told Stylo was a good sps for beginners. I pay lots of attention to my tank and all the levels have been steady for 3-4 months now. I was told don't add any sps until the tank was 6 months old, so I have been waiting. Only other tank mates are three chromis, snails, few crabs, and a sand sifting sea star.
What you may think is stable probably isn’t, stable alk is considered imo no more then a 0.4 swing in 24hr period
 
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OceansinAZ

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Sounds like I need to bump my salt level a bit. Would that cause it to die off so quickly though? Would the slime from the mushroom possibly have contributed as well?
 

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Sounds like I need to bump my salt level a bit. Would that cause it to die off so quickly though? Would the slime from the mushroom possibly have contributed as well?
I highly doubt it’s anything else but salinity sps won’t live in salinity that low lps and softies will but won’t flourish
 
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OceansinAZ

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Question on raising the salinity ... the other one is doing ok (for now). Should I get the salinity up ASAP, as in today, with a water change? Or should I do it slowly over the next few days ... maybe by just shutting off my ATO for example. The other one seems to be doing ok and I don't want to shock or kill it too.
 

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IMO

Tank too new
Salinity way too low
Temp a bit low
Alk too high
Mag too low

Some additional troubleshooting info would be helpful. Are you adding anything to the tank (reef roids, acropower, etc.)? What do you use for filtration? What lighting are you using? Did you start the tank with dry rock or live rock?
 

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Sounds like I need to bump my salt level a bit. Would that cause it to die off so quickly though? Would the slime from the mushroom possibly have contributed as well?
100% Sps do not tolerate any unperfect prams they will die and rtn very fast. Slime has nothing to do with it in this case. Do you have ATO? Are you calibrating your refractometer before every use with calibrating solution?
 
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OceansinAZ

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IMO

Tank too new
Salinity way too low
Temp a bit low
Alk too high
Mag too low

Some additional troubleshooting info would be helpful. Are you adding anything to the tank (reef roids, acropower, etc.)? What do you use for filtration? What lighting are you using? Did you start the tank with dry rock or live rock?
Only chemical added is some carbon in a bag in the back. Tank is an all in one. Second chamber is full for bio filtration. First chamber has a protien skimmer and then sends water through a mechanical filter. 3 rd chamber has the return pump, heater, and ATO. 2" of live sand and the rock was dry rock when I started. Lights are radion g3.
 
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OceansinAZ

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100% Sps do not tolerate any unperfect prams they will die and rtn very fast. Slime has nothing to do with it in this case. Do you have ATO? Are you calibrating your refractometer before every use with calibrating solution?
Yes. I live in AZ, so ATO is a must. I calibrate the refractometer at the start of each month.
 
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OceansinAZ

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That's a big no no and prob your issue, Every single time you use it you need calibrate
What about raising the salt level. Should I do it all at once today, or more slowly over the next few days. Say by turning the ATO off and then manually stopping it off with the right levels as it evaporates?
 
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