Woke up to tissue loss at the base of some sps... ideas?

anthonymckay · Oct 23, 2022

Woke up this morning to a couple SPS frags losing tissue at the base. A couple others look like they're starting lose color at the base as well. A few things I suspect might be related, but unsure which.

I had been procrastinating the scheduled hose replacement/recalibration of my Alkatronic (It had been reminding me to do this for the past month). Finally got around to doing this, and my test results went from 8.45 dKH right before the maintenance, to 7.89 right after. Turns out the Alkatronic had been off and was reading high. I had sent off an ICP test a week or so prior, and got them back around the same time. They confirmed this and reported ~7.5, and my Hanna checker reported 7.8. I increased my alkalinity back to ~8.5 where I had been targeting. I'm suspecting that if it was measuring 7.8 shortly after lights on when it's at it's highest, then it was probably measuring in the low 7's towards the end of the day. No idea how long this calibration was off, but this is what I'm leaning towards as the likely culprit.
My kessil app started failing to detect my lights, so I had to go through setup all over again and lost my previous light settings/schedule. I set them up to what I thought was the prior settings, but not 100% sure. I don't think this issue is as likely of a culprit, but still something of note that happened a two days prior to the SPS issues. Measured the PAR up top this afternoon, between 300-500 during peak hours.
I had missed a water change 2 weeks in a row due a particularly busy schedule the past few weeks. I did a water change last night, but my Nitrates were reporting ~20ppm on my Mastertronic before the water change. Confirmed with my Hanna nitrate test which reported 20.7ppm. Usually I'm in the 8-10ppm range. 20 isn't insane and I don't think would cause issues, but again, another thing that I noticed outside the norm for my tank shortly before the SPS issue.

(Pardon the poor cell phone quality photos)

Monday 10/17:

New encrusting growth on this Jelly Shot (left) and Mille (right) is white/bright green at the edges. Jelly shot had been beginning to encrust onto the plug since it was fragged. Mille has been slowly and steadily encrusting over it's disc for many months.

10/23 - 6 days later

Mille (right) encrusted edges have faded and started bleaching at the top. Jello Shot (middle) is missing a patch of tissue in the middle of the base. My Red Planet (left) that wasn't visible in the first photo is also fading at the base. It was previously bright green all over the base along the new encrusting growth.

Parameters as of today (pH is always lower in the mornings, peaks around 8.28 or so before lights out). Nothing seems insane to me? Not really sure if there's much I can do other than just monitor and try and keep everything stable and hope it can recover...

blaxsun · Oct 23, 2022

I find that it's almost always water parameters, lighting and flow. I have high nitrates in my tank (35ppm) and my chip's acropora has probably doubled in size (twice) over the past 6-8 months - so it's probably not that. I'm inclined to think it could be the change in alkalinity. Corals can tolerate various levels of alkalinity - it's the abrupt swings that sometimes give them grief.

vetteguy53081 · Oct 23, 2022

anthonymckay said:
Woke up this morning to a couple SPS frags losing tissue at the base. A couple others look like they're starting lose color at the base as well. A few things I suspect might be related, but unsure which.

I had been procrastinating the scheduled hose replacement/recalibration of my Alkatronic (It had been reminding me to do this for the past month). Finally got around to doing this, and my test results went from 8.45 dKH right before the maintenance, to 7.89 right after. Turns out the Alkatronic had been off and was reading high. I had sent off an ICP test a week or so prior, and got them back around the same time. They confirmed this and reported ~7.5, and my Hanna checker reported 7.8. I increased my alkalinity back to ~8.5 where I had been targeting. I'm suspecting that if it was measuring 7.8 shortly after lights on when it's at it's highest, then it was probably measuring in the low 7's towards the end of the day. No idea how long this calibration was off, but this is what I'm leaning towards as the likely culprit.

My kessil app started failing to detect my lights, so I had to go through setup all over again and lost my previous light settings/schedule. I set them up to what I thought was the prior settings, but not 100% sure. I don't think this issue is as likely of a culprit, but still something of note that happened a two days prior to the SPS issues. Measured the PAR up top this afternoon, between 300-500 during peak hours.

I had missed a water change 2 weeks in a row due a particularly busy schedule the past few weeks. I did a water change last night, but my Nitrates were reporting ~20ppm on my Mastertronic before the water change. Confirmed with my Hanna nitrate test which reported 20.7ppm. Usually I'm in the 8-10ppm range. 20 isn't insane and I don't think would cause issues, but again, another thing that I noticed outside the norm for my tank shortly before the SPS issue.

(Pardon the poor cell phone quality photos)

Monday 10/17:
New encrusting growth on this Jelly Shot (left) and Mille (right) is white/bright green at the edges. Jelly shot had been beginning to encrust onto the plug since it was fragged. Mille has been slowly and steadily encrusting over it's disc for many months.

10/23 - 6 days later
Mille (right) encrusted edges have faded and started bleaching at the top. Jello Shot (middle) is missing a patch of tissue in the middle of the base. My Red Planet (left) that wasn't visible in the first photo is also fading at the base. It was previously bright green all over the base along the new encrusting growth.

Parameters as of today (pH is always lower in the mornings, peaks around 8.28 or so before lights out). Nothing seems insane to me? Not really sure if there's much I can do other than just monitor and try and keep everything stable and hope it can recover...

Tissue loss is one that if a slight change, it starts to go to work. What are the changes are described as it can be any of them. Temperature change often warmer alone is a drastic impact. Others are :
-Pathogenic bacteria
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- - Changes in water flow
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides
- Airborne Contaminants or sprays

Dburr1014 · Oct 24, 2022

anthonymckay said:
Woke up this morning to a couple SPS frags losing tissue at the base. A couple others look like they're starting lose color at the base as well. A few things I suspect might be related, but unsure which.

I had been procrastinating the scheduled hose replacement/recalibration of my Alkatronic (It had been reminding me to do this for the past month). Finally got around to doing this, and my test results went from 8.45 dKH right before the maintenance, to 7.89 right after. Turns out the Alkatronic had been off and was reading high. I had sent off an ICP test a week or so prior, and got them back around the same time. They confirmed this and reported ~7.5, and my Hanna checker reported 7.8. I increased my alkalinity back to ~8.5 where I had been targeting. I'm suspecting that if it was measuring 7.8 shortly after lights on when it's at it's highest, then it was probably measuring in the low 7's towards the end of the day. No idea how long this calibration was off, but this is what I'm leaning towards as the likely culprit.

My kessil app started failing to detect my lights, so I had to go through setup all over again and lost my previous light settings/schedule. I set them up to what I thought was the prior settings, but not 100% sure. I don't think this issue is as likely of a culprit, but still something of note that happened a two days prior to the SPS issues. Measured the PAR up top this afternoon, between 300-500 during peak hours.

I had missed a water change 2 weeks in a row due a particularly busy schedule the past few weeks. I did a water change last night, but my Nitrates were reporting ~20ppm on my Mastertronic before the water change. Confirmed with my Hanna nitrate test which reported 20.7ppm. Usually I'm in the 8-10ppm range. 20 isn't insane and I don't think would cause issues, but again, another thing that I noticed outside the norm for my tank shortly before the SPS issue.

(Pardon the poor cell phone quality photos)

Monday 10/17:
New encrusting growth on this Jelly Shot (left) and Mille (right) is white/bright green at the edges. Jelly shot had been beginning to encrust onto the plug since it was fragged. Mille has been slowly and steadily encrusting over it's disc for many months.

10/23 - 6 days later
Mille (right) encrusted edges have faded and started bleaching at the top. Jello Shot (middle) is missing a patch of tissue in the middle of the base. My Red Planet (left) that wasn't visible in the first photo is also fading at the base. It was previously bright green all over the base along the new encrusting growth.

Parameters as of today (pH is always lower in the mornings, peaks around 8.28 or so before lights out). Nothing seems insane to me? Not really sure if there's much I can do other than just monitor and try and keep everything stable and hope it can recover...

Alk of 7 is still okay. My question is how fast did you correct it? Could be the speed of correction not the fact it was off.
Lights, maybe. Depending on how far off the setting is from original, but you don't know. No notes from where they were?
Nitrates, high but not crazy. How are they after the change? Probably not the culprit.

I'm thinking a mix of 1 and 2. Don't do anything drastic to correct. Wait a day or 2 and see hot they respond at this point. And maybe see if you can remember you light setting.

anthonymckay · Nov 7, 2022

Update: I think I found the culprit... The previous sps only lost tissue for 1 night and were regrowing nicely after that. This morning I woke up and glanced in the tank and saw my big Halloween Hermit crab at the base another sps going to town on it happily eating away. Another acro near it also had a big chuck of flesh removed from the base. Both of those acros were 100% fine the night before with great polp extension and healthy thick flesh at the base. Looks like he'll be getting a new home shortly!

mdb_talon · Nov 7, 2022

I never trust a hermit crab, but when you see them messing around with coral it's always a chicken and egg question. Are they there causing the issues....or are they there cleaning up the dying flesh

anthonymckay · Nov 7, 2022

mdb_talon said:
I never trust a hermit crab, but when you see them messing around with coral it's always a chicken and egg question. Are they there causing the issues....or are they there cleaning up the dying flesh

These photos are 1 day apart. I'm 100% sure he was causing the issue.

anthonymckay · Nov 7, 2022

The only alternative I could think of (and I only am now questioning this because I am noticing that some the coraline along the bottom edge of the frag plug is also stripped away in the second photo) is my tuxedo urchin? But I've never heard of them eating coral before. That said, I dont' see trails of stripped Coraline anywhere else on the rock around those corals.

Dburr1014 · Nov 7, 2022

anthonymckay said:
The only alternative I could think of (and I only am now questioning this because I am noticing that some the coraline along the bottom edge of the frag plug is also stripped away in the second photo) is my tuxedo urchin? But I've never heard of them eating coral before. That said, I dont' see trails of stripped Coraline anywhere else on the rock around those corals.

Well, to the sump with it and see if it happens again.

anthonymckay · Nov 8, 2022

Confirmed. After I discovered the halloween hermit eating the acros, I had only pulled him off and dropped him down on the sandbed where he hung out all day. Last night, about and hour or two after lights out I went downstairs and flipped the light on in the room. There he was back up at the top of the rock work just getting started on the base of my Bill Murry acro. Luckily I intercepted him before he did too much damage. Dropped him in the sump till I can sell him to someone local or trade him back into my LFS.

Reefbuds · Nov 14, 2022

Wait wait wait, a Halloween Hermit was eating sps flesh?!? Never thought that would be on the menu. Like healthy perfect condition flesh? Wild

anthonymckay · Nov 14, 2022

Mean Reef said:
Wait wait wait, a Halloween Hermit was eating sps flesh?!? Never thought that would be on the menu. Like healthy perfect condition flesh? Wild

Yep, healthy perfect condition flesh as you can see in the before/after photo I posted above. Surprised me too as I feed pretty heavy in my tank. Caught him twice and traded him into my LFS. Since then the chunks he ate began growing back.

ocncheffy · Nov 15, 2022

Saw this thread after I saw my Halloween hermit DO THE SAME THING! Thankfully my strawberry shortcake has already healed the missing flesh. I banished him to the sump.

Lionfish hunter · Dec 31, 2022

I wouldn’t think it was the alk, only changed like 1 dkh over time? Do you trend temperature, a temp change did this to me one time. A change in nitrate or phosphate will do this. What have you changed in the past 2 months. It is often something that was changed in the past. Although if multiple corals are showing problems on the same day, good chance it is something that just happened. The lighting change depending on how much of a change is suspect. If the lighting went higher than it was before, lower lighting for 2 days will not do this. If your par went from like 400 to 500 in 1 day, I would think that could really tick them off. I have seen this type of thing happen a few times and thought there was nothing different. Then eventually figured out exactly what it was. Some people say this sort of thing happens randomly, but this is not true in my opinion. Think hard, something changed to cause this.

anthonymckay said:
Woke up this morning to a couple SPS frags losing tissue at the base. A couple others look like they're starting lose color at the base as well. A few things I suspect might be related, but unsure which.

I had been procrastinating the scheduled hose replacement/recalibration of my Alkatronic (It had been reminding me to do this for the past month). Finally got around to doing this, and my test results went from 8.45 dKH right before the maintenance, to 7.89 right after. Turns out the Alkatronic had been off and was reading high. I had sent off an ICP test a week or so prior, and got them back around the same time. They confirmed this and reported ~7.5, and my Hanna checker reported 7.8. I increased my alkalinity back to ~8.5 where I had been targeting. I'm suspecting that if it was measuring 7.8 shortly after lights on when it's at it's highest, then it was probably measuring in the low 7's towards the end of the day. No idea how long this calibration was off, but this is what I'm leaning towards as the likely culprit.

My kessil app started failing to detect my lights, so I had to go through setup all over again and lost my previous light settings/schedule. I set them up to what I thought was the prior settings, but not 100% sure. I don't think this issue is as likely of a culprit, but still something of note that happened a two days prior to the SPS issues. Measured the PAR up top this afternoon, between 300-500 during peak hours.

I had missed a water change 2 weeks in a row due a particularly busy schedule the past few weeks. I did a water change last night, but my Nitrates were reporting ~20ppm on my Mastertronic before the water change. Confirmed with my Hanna nitrate test which reported 20.7ppm. Usually I'm in the 8-10ppm range. 20 isn't insane and I don't think would cause issues, but again, another thing that I noticed outside the norm for my tank shortly before the SPS issue.

(Pardon the poor cell phone quality photos)

Monday 10/17:
New encrusting growth on this Jelly Shot (left) and Mille (right) is white/bright green at the edges. Jelly shot had been beginning to encrust onto the plug since it was fragged. Mille has been slowly and steadily encrusting over it's disc for many months.

10/23 - 6 days later
Mille (right) encrusted edges have faded and started bleaching at the top. Jello Shot (middle) is missing a patch of tissue in the middle of the base. My Red Planet (left) that wasn't visible in the first photo is also fading at the base. It was previously bright green all over the base along the new encrusting growth.

Parameters as of today (pH is always lower in the mornings, peaks around 8.28 or so before lights out). Nothing seems insane to me? Not really sure if there's much I can do other than just monitor and try and keep everything stable and hope it can recover...