SPS problem, spots

[WWIII]

@WWIII this is very helpful thank you. So you had random spotting also? I picked up microbacter7 yesterday. I’m hesitant to use because I don’t want nutrients to drop further. The consensus seems to be nutrient imbalance/bacterial. I pulled half my fuge and will continue with PO4 dosing. I might start some bacteria at lower dose

Yes sir! Random spotting and polyp extension on some was much less than "normal". I couldn't figure it out at all. I thought maybe it was related to the dinos, although the dinos weren't really on the corals in large numbers (doesn't mean they weren't there). What's weird is I only really noticed the pale spots after the dinos disappeared? Damage?... Maybe? Bacterial/nutrient related?... probably?

Eventually things just went back to normal? Took a couple/few months though. The only things I did different were dosed microbacter7 often, and stopped using gfo. Now the corals look great and the spots are gone. Even some that had tissue recession have grown back over those areas.

I never noticed any lowering of nutrients from microbacter7, all though I wasn't looking for it. In general I feel it's a pretty safe thing to dose and very hard to overdose (without purposely trying to). I was putting like 60ml a day in my 250 gallon system for the first month, then just once or twice a week that amount for the next couple months. Now I don't dose it at all.

 

[litenyaup]

I agree bacteria/ and off balance of nutrients.

 

[Patrick.S]

I do have a bicolor blenny......

Take a look at Innapropriate reefer on YouTube from about a year ago.

 

[MARK M. DAVIS]

1. Higher nitrates will cause tissue thinning and loss and loss of color: Get algae scrubber functioning; 2. Make sure you know your water: ICP/Triton test 3. Feed your coral but, not too much: I do Oyster feast squirt once a week, Roids/Benepets/Chili mix squirt once week and reef plankton once a week. 4. Pests: use a blue light or black flashlight to see if there's any sign of pests - you're losses don't look like the typical bug bite. 5. Lighting and shading around bases: Don't worry about this too much, it's normal 6. Does salt creep fall onto your coral during routine cleaning and water changes?: Some looks like salt burn.

 

[clicfacil]

Hi, I Had and Have the same problem...
I did not know what happened because the sps died the same way you describe them ... I also noticed that the polyps did not open as before ...
I did several things:
1) changes of 50% (OR MORE) of my water, it improved but once a month everything started to get worse again.
2) I thought it was something in my sand decomposing some screw that someone with bad intentions could have put in my aquarium, remove the sand completely and I did not get anything.
3) Check all my pumps and none had any problem.
until that 2 months ago, I saw that when I cleaned my glass with the magnetic magnifying glass, it easily fell out of the aquarium and I saw that it was making any amount of oxide to my aquarium.

I lost all my SPS, the soft ones could survive.

immediately place carbon. But as I Live in Venezuela is very hard and Dificult buy all for this hobie.

 

[Fishfinder]

It’s been 2 1/2 weeks so I wanted to update this thread. First I want to say thank you to every that offered suggestions.

My tank is definitely on the recovery. Since the suggestions I did 1 more 100 gal water change.... for a total of 300gal changed. I also started seachem phosphorus. I started at 1 tbsp/day then increased it to 2 tbsp/day. I am now measuring PO4 at about 0.06 and my NO3 is back under 5.

I have not noticed any new white spots and most of them have healed up. I have about a dozen pieces that are still struggling (lacking color). But most acros have recovered well.

 

[litenyaup]

That’s awesome bro can’t wait to come by and see them healed up!

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Glad to hear man. Sucks when you can’t pin point something like this to actually what’s the problem. I maybe doing the same thing with dosing the phosphorus.