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?
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?
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