SPS declining, not sure why.

[g5flier]

My 1 year old tank was doing better then my expectations so about 8 months in I added about a dozen SPS frags, a few acros, montis etc. Placed them throughout the tank based on their requirements (light/flow) , all were encrusting and doing fine for several months. The healthy photos were taken in late APL, the others were taken today, just 8-9 weeks apart. I believe my system is pretty stable, the test results are shown below from 3 weeks before the 1st set of photos and today. You can see they are deteriorating quickly, losing color and tissue, turning brown.

Back in late MAY the temperature in the tank moved from 78 to about 82 for 7-10 days but never went higher then 82, throughout this time is was stable 81-82. Nothing else that I can think of has changed over the time from late APL thru today.

Also in MAY Phosphate was quite low, measured ZERO on the Hanna Phosphate tester for about a week, fed more and it started coming back up to the target range of 0.05 to 0.1.

On May 2nd I sent water samples to ATI and it came back nearly perfect, I'm not aware of any changes since then. The only issues were strontium was slightly elevated and iodine was slightly low.

Throughout this time I ran my Radion Gen 4 Pro's using the AB+ setting at 68%, peak light lasts 6 hours with 5 hours of only blue at low par. The corals in the photos sit 17" below the light, the light is 7" above the water surface. I've since turned them down to 55% thinking maybe they were getting too much light. I have a Par meter on order and will take measurements this week.

I use RedSea Blue Bucket salt, do twice monthly 10% water changes, salinity is 1.026 constantly. Tests are done with Hanna for ALK and PHOS, others are red sea.

I'm really struggling with this, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[madweazl]

Provided you haven't changed your dosing regimen for alkalinity, it looks to be trending downward which is a good indication that corals are getting healthier and consuming more. If you have reduced the dose, what I posted is useless.

 

[g5flier]

Provided you haven't changed your dosing regimen for alkalinity, it looks to be trending downward which is a good indication that corals are getting healthier and consuming more. If you have reduced the dose, what I posted is useless.

Good point I missed that and yes I did reduce the dose slightly when it was getting above 8.0 dkh (my target)

 

[BoomCorals]

How is coralline growth? Are you dosing 2 part? How is alk consumption?

 

[BoomCorals]

Your alk seems to be jumping around a bit the last couple weeks?

 

[g5flier]

How is coralline growth? Are you dosing 2 part? How is alk consumption?

The coral was showing signs of decline since about late May.

I'm dosing but only a bit, 6ml of each daily. Its a 70 gallon system, only sticks and small frags. Moderate Coraline growth. Dosing with B-Ionic Alk and Calcium

 

[madweazl]

On dosing pumps or by hand?

 

[g5flier]

On dosing pumps or by hand?

Dosing pump. Apex DOS.

 

[g5flier]

Your alk seems to be jumping around a bit the last couple weeks?

Thanks for the help on this, I guess a good question would be how much of an alk swing is considered a lot? Mine moved 1.0 over a week or so, those with more experience is that enough to do this to SPS?

 

[x2uranium]

depends on which types of corals.. I have melted maricultures with swings of 1dkh over a 3 day span. Usually aquacultured have no problem what so ever, unless they were struggling all along.
besides the top two pics. other than the monti, the acro looks like its starting to come back from the previous death. Maybe your on the rebound. Your other corals looks like they are encrusting well.

And your bonsai is actually purple. That's usually a good sign as well lol. As least in my tank deep purple = happy

Also the top two pics. When did they start to have issues?? The second pic looks like its been rtn'd like that for a little bit.

 

[BigJim]

I have been dealing with the exact same thing since last December. I have not figured it out yet and have lost most of my SPS. I have over 30 acros and many of them were colonies. The only thing my tank has in common with yours is the B-Ionic 2 part. I doubt that is the issue though as they are widely used and I have not heard of any issues. My ATI ICP test from when this started showed only high silica which I addressed with my RO/DI system. I am awaiting the results of a second ICP test to see if anything has changed.

Here is a list of what I tried with no success.

Increasing nutrients
Shortening the peak photoperiod
Lowering light intensity
Testing for ammonia, nitrite and Chloramine (none were present)
Dipping in Bayer numerous times but no pests were found
Dipping weekly in iodine to try to cure infection
Dipping weekly in Revive to try to cure infection

Maybe one of those things will work for you. My LPS corals have been thriving in the higher nutrient tank with slightly less intense lighting.

I do get an occasional brown film on the dying tissue and sometimes my rock and sand. It looks like you have that too. One of my theories is that there is some type of diatoms or dinoflagellates slowly killing the coral. Another theory is some other type of bacteria or fungus as it seems to slowly spread through the coral tissue. It has been very discouraging to say the least. I am thankful we have this community to keep me sane. I posted a link to my thread about this issue below, but I didn't get much feedback, but maybe you will see something that helps. I definitely understand the frustration. Definitely post here if you are able to figure this out.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-issues-looking-for-advice-ideas.348201/#post-4337440

 

[g5flier]

I have been dealing with the exact same thing since last December. I have not figured it out yet and have lost most of my SPS. I have over 30 acros and many of them were colonies. The only thing my tank has in common with yours is the B-Ionic 2 part. I doubt that is the issue though as they are widely used and I have not heard of any issues. My ATI ICP test from when this started showed only high silica which I addressed with my RO/DI system. I am awaiting the results of a second ICP test to see if anything has changed.

Here is a list of what I tried with no success.

Increasing nutrients
Shortening the peak photoperiod
Lowering light intensity
Testing for ammonia, nitrite and Chloramine (none were present)
Dipping in Bayer numerous times but no pests were found
Dipping weekly in iodine to try to cure infection
Dipping weekly in Revive to try to cure infection

Maybe one of those things will work for you. My LPS corals have been thriving in the higher nutrient tank with slightly less intense lighting.

I do get an occasional brown film on the dying tissue and sometimes my rock and sand. It looks like you have that too. One of my theories is that there is some type of diatoms or dinoflagellates slowly killing the coral. Another theory is some other type of bacteria or fungus as it seems to slowly spread through the coral tissue. It has been very discouraging to say the least. I am thankful we have this community to keep me sane. I posted a link to my thread about this issue below, but I didn't get much feedback, but maybe you will see something that helps. I definitely understand the frustration. Definitely post here if you are able to figure this out.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-issues-looking-for-advice-ideas.348201/#post-4337440

Jim thank you for sharing, I'm feeling your pain! I just read your post, very similar indeed!

I actually have another larger system that is 2 years old, I had a similar issue with SPS in that tank and gradually gave up and went soft/LPS, its doing wonderful. Unfortunately the common denominator is me, there must be something that I'm doing or the environment my tanks are in and how it affects them.

 

[JonJ]

I had a similar issue when trying to raise phosphates from undetectable to my target of .03. You state your target is .05 to .1. which is too much for more sensitive sps, IMO. Mine started to recover when I stopped chasing phosphate levels. If you have algae, you have phosphates. Even though I I tested 0 on a Hannah ulr checker, I still had algae. That green piece also looks like something is picking at it. What fish do you have?

 

[jda]

New tanks can be hard, especially for acropora. The bonsai looks OK and so does the green "tort." If your Radions do not have the whites up too high, and the alk has not been jumping all around, then I would just wait it out... it can take 12-24 months for a tank to get really stable and SPS start to thrive. It can take longer if you started with dry/dead rock.

If you did start with dry/dead rock, see if there are any parallels in this article to your situation:
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/

 

[ihavecrabs]

New tank woes.. I'm going through the identical scenario. Things improve once my PO4 stabilizes but when I notice the diatom/dino/cyano start creeping on the sand, I know I'm in for a world of hurt over the next few weeks and that my PO4 or NO3 has dropped too low.

 

[ihavecrabs]

New tanks can be hard, especially for acropora. The bonsai looks OK and so does the green "tort." If your Radions do not have the whites up too high, and the alk has not been jumping all around, then I would just wait it out... it can take 12-24 months for a tank to get really stable and SPS start to thrive. It can take longer if you started with dry/dead rock.

If you did start with dry/dead rock, see if there are any parallels in this article to your situation:
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/

@jda thanks for the article.

I am really starting to consider this as a major potential contributor. I'm planning on ordering in some live rock, quarantining it for three months, and then plopping it in my display tank to see if this resolves the issues I'm having which @g5flier seems to be having as well.

I think it just comes down to general stability and live rock may be the solution.

Unfortunately, I have to wait the 76 days for QT of the live rock to see if it helps! All my fish and coral up to this point have been fully QT'd. Maybe someone who doesn't QT can test this out

 

[g5flier]

New tanks can be hard, especially for acropora. The bonsai looks OK and so does the green "tort." If your Radions do not have the whites up too high, and the alk has not been jumping all around, then I would just wait it out... it can take 12-24 months for a tank to get really stable and SPS start to thrive. It can take longer if you started with dry/dead rock.

If you did start with dry/dead rock, see if there are any parallels in this article to your situation:
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/

Thanks, that article is what got me to start this tank with live rock! My other one was dry rock and 2 years into it is just coming around.

 

[g5flier]

I had a similar issue when trying to raise phosphates from undetectable to my target of .03. You state your target is .05 to .1. which is too much for more sensitive sps, IMO. Mine started to recover when I stopped chasing phosphate levels. If you have algae, you have phosphates. Even though I I tested 0 on a Hannah ulr checker, I still had algae. That green piece also looks like something is picking at it. What fish do you have?

2 tangs, 2 clowns, 1 Flame Angel, that being said I've never seen the FA even get close to nipping at anything.

 

[JonJ]

2 tangs, 2 clowns, 1 Flame Angel, that being said I've never seen the FA even get close to nipping at anything.

I have small regal angel and I didn’t see him do it either. Then I sat in front of the tank in the am before the lights come on. He is a model citizen when the tank is lit up. He makes pieces look just like your green one above. The fact that the undamaged areas on that piece look really healthy makes me think that is what it is. Might be worth keeping an eye on.

 

[g5flier]

I have small regal angel and I didn’t see him do it either. Then I sat in front of the tank in the am before the lights come on. He is a model citizen when the tank is lit up. He makes pieces look just like your green one above. The fact that the undamaged areas on that piece look really healthy makes me think that is what it is. Might be worth keeping an eye on.

I'm definitely going to have to do that! Thanks.