SPS Experts: Can you figure it out?

[Tautog]

I feel your pain!

Situations like this show how little we still know about this hobby. I am dealing with a similar situation and I really hope one day we can collectively figure this out. Started with my Walt (which has been crazy hardy until recently), then moved to my bonsai, now my orange passion is taking the hit.

Other things like multiple mille's, red planet, pc rainbow look better than ever... go figure!? UGH

Yep, it sucks. My other tank is natural seawater. No corals but lots of fish and inverts. No fancy equipment whatsoever. I just remove 20 gal, add 20 gal. No heat, powerheads, skimmer, ATO, and I don’t add anything but food. For a 60 gal tank, there’s over 30 fish, 12 conchs, and can’t count the crabs, hermits and Asians. By far, the cheapest, easiest tank I ever ran, even cheaper than fresh water.

 

[Z3speed4me]

If I was right on the ocean to pull water at my leisure I’d probably have a massive fish only tank for sure!

 

[Ike]

In my experience STN and RTN are caused by lack of trace elements, swings, and/or in this case biopellets/carbon dosing. Even with triton method, I experienced STN when keeping my ALK stable. This was because my iodine, nickel, and other elements were too low from 0 water changes. Now I choose to do 1-2% water changes every day and that seems to really help.

The first question I would ask someone with RTN is how often do you do water changes, and has your temperature/alkalinity/calcium been stable. In this case it seems like all of those elements are in check.

Most of this is speculative with little, if any, scientific evidence to support. I have seen little evidence of trace elements levels making much difference.

 

[SeaDweller]

Just goes to prove, never listen to anybody that says their product is everyone’s answer to growing corals. In fact, this guy was the regional supervisor or manager for the NE, and I’ll never forget what he said, “wait to you see how incredible your reef tank will be!” Yep, there’s a big difference! I wish I had gone to this years show with only one purpose........find this guy, take him for a ride.........one way. 5 + yrs wasted. I’ll never buy Topic Marin products ever!

What an idiot, if he wanted you to use their best product, then he would have recommended their best: Tropic Marin PRO. It could have been very coincidental, but I agree with you 100%- if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!

 

[Tautog]

Sorry if I’m asking too much, but I start thinking I’m totally wrong trying to fix my crash. It can’t be the TM bioactiv, it’s just another salt, and if my chemistry background didn’t keep me always over-thinking it, I have only one more question! My Florida Ricoredias grow like weeds. Could they release toxins if disturbed, extremely disturbed, as in scraping them from the rock???

 

[lindabuach]

I'm about at my wits end with this issue. It has been a persistent struggle for the past 430+ days and I'm at the brink of shutting down the tank completely and starting over fresh. Here is the essential breakdown:

2016- mid 2018 the tank was humming along perfectly. Mind breaking SPS growth, amazing coloration, couldn't be happier!

2017 coral growth and color A++

2017 FTS:

Early 2018 everything is still going quite well. Happy, healthy, fast growing corals

April 2018, I added some new goni frags to my tank. My peach/yellow goni then suffered and died shortly after. I just assumed the frags had brought in something with them that could have killed it off. Not sure really, everything else was fine, so I just shook it off as an unfortunate loss.

Then, spring/summer of 2018, I went out of town for vacation for a few weeks. I had a trusted, very talented reefer, watch my tank while I was gone. As far as my timeline goes, this is when things started going downhill. He sent me a picture while I was gone in June, 2018 that my Vivids Confetti had mysteriously died:

Ever since June of 2018, there has been this slow, random decline of Acros and Montis in my tank. What is the most mysterious is it seems to come in waves. Everything will look good, decent PE, good colors, and then randomly one coral will just die... Everything else looks fine, then a few weeks later, some other coral will just die. Parameters are in check, no major swings, no additions or changes, just random unexplainable death. It's almost like an evil spirit is haunting my tank and hopping from coral to coral.

August 2018, I lost my largest table that I grew from a frag and had always been a strong and fast grower. Basically a wave of death swept over the colony. It now sits on my bookshelf as a skeleton.

Here is the last FTS I had in August 2018 where everything still looked pretty good, but the tables were starting to decline at this point.

I took this picture this morning of the coral that is in the upper center of the tank. Random branches STNing, and they have been for months. The colony will lose a few branches, recover, lose a few branches, recover, etc etc.

I would think if there was a systemic issue with the tank (i.e water chemistry, pests, lighting, contaminants, toxins) that the WHOLE colony or everything in the tank would show signs of stress and death. That has not been the case for me. It seems very random, and like I mentioned earlier, seems to effect different corals at different times.

I have battled AEFW and sea spiders before and I know the signs. There are no AEFW in my system as far as I can tell. I have inspected my corals closely for pests, and have yet to see anything with the naked eye. I've also lost sections of encrusting montis as well, so I don't think it would be an Acro specific parasite.

Other signs I've seen is twice since these issues began, I have lost nearly all my sponge growth in my tank within a matter of days. I have a TON of encrusting sponges under rocks, and suddenly all of it dying back? That's weird. Nothing in my logbook to explain what could have triggered it from my actions the days before. I feel like this could be related to the coral health.

I did have the wherewithal to send of a Triton test in August of 2018 when I was losing my large tabling colonies:

An additional note is I did remove my old lighting, which was 2 T5 bulbs, an Ocean Revive, and an Orphek Atlantik, and replaced with 2 more T5's and three LED strips from Build My LED. I checked the PAR when I changed lights and adjusted the BMLs to roughly match the PAR I had before. This was in August of 2018, but according to my logbook, corals were already starting to die off at this point. It COULD be the lighting change, but considering the issues had started prior to the light change, and the fact that plenty of people have great success with T5s and a couple of LED strips, I'm inclined to think it's not lighting. Also, lighting is static, the ebb and flow of coral health is not.... Old lighting set up:

So here we are. It's been over a year of frustration with SPS. I used to grow corals so fast I didn't have room on my frag racks, now I don't even bother fragging any more. I'm about to tear the system down and start from scratch. I'm hoping someone out there will point to something I have not yet thought of so I don't have to go through with that mess. So, who out there has any ideas?

I am so sorry for your loss and shared your frustration. We lost all corals and fishes in our 360 gallons tank. Your corals were beautiful just like ours. One day they are gone

 

[gig 'em]

Sorry if I’m asking too much, but I start thinking I’m totally wrong trying to fix my crash. It can’t be the TM bioactiv, it’s just another salt, and if my chemistry background didn’t keep me always over-thinking it, I have only one more question! My Florida Ricoredias grow like weeds. Could they release toxins if disturbed, extremely disturbed, as in scraping them from the rock???

Are you actively trying to scrape them from rocks? When it comes to mushrooms, it could just be that the environment of the aquarium could just be suitable for their growth and replication. From my observations in the wild, fields of mushrooms are the last thing I see when snorkeling between the hot turbid shore water and the reef. They seem to tolerate much harsher conditions than the open reef dwellers. Could just be the individual hardiness of that species compared to the rest of your tank inhabitants.