Spring coral losses

[Jason McK]

It appears every spring I am faced with SPS loses. This year appears to be worst than normal. Of course it could be just the time of year I decide to do stupid things but I don't think so.

I've read other threads where people are loosing pieces. Who here is loosing coral?


My current readings are
CA 410
ALK 7.7
Mag 1250
PH 8.21 - 8.53
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate <0.003
Temp 78.6 - 79.5

I suspect my high PH might be the cause. I have recently switch from a CA Reactor to a 2 part dosing system and the use of soda ash has cause a higher than normal PH

[Keri]

I've lost a couple of pieces recently but I'm positive it's a water quality issue for me, I've been really busy lately and the tank hasn't been a priority :(

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I just pulled out half my sps in the past two weeks. Most of it went yesterday.

I had low ALK for a bit but everything seemed to get through that. Then a few weeks after getting the ALK back up, I have lost a bunch. Maybe was the ALK but I don't know...doesn't seem like it.

All kind of an STN thing. They would one day start to loose polyp extension and then the next get pale and then over the next week or so start to go.

Levels in the tank are testing fine. My PH is always up above 8. Anywhere from 8.2-8.5

Alk has been steady right at 8.

Can't find any pests. Pretty sure thats not it.

Frags I have gotten from friends or other reefers are all fine. Old stuff I have had for a year or more is fine. Only stuff I have bought in the past 6 months or so has died. Might just be coincidence though.

LPS is fine of course. Although I lost a candy cane colony.

Who knows! But it really has me turned off of sps for now!

[Tom R]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

It must be that expensive salt your using.

Tom R

[Jason McK]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

It must be that expensive salt your using.

Tom R


HAHA. I actually tried the H2O stuff and that triggered the problem. I'm now back to RBS

[Phanman]

ive lost a few SPS frags myself this past week....

[fencer]

Are you guys all using RO/DI water?

[untamed]

I hacked 1/3 off a large pocci last night...expect the remain 2/3 to be gone within the next 48 hours. I'm also on D&D salt at the moment. Lost my rainbow monti in 48 hours last week. Really...I've been losing coral since Xmas.

No measurable parameter can I explain what has been happening to me. (I don't measure potassium). It behaves viral or bacterial and I'm experimenting with some unique dips to see if I can stop the progression on sample pieces. So far, iodine based dips don't really seem to be helping.

Meanwhile, I have 4 or 5 other acros (mostly millis) that are thriving, growing rapidly and look fabulous! I'm baffled.

You know...the best results I seem to have were with Ocean Pure Pro....go figure.

If D&D salt is truly manufactured by evaporative process...is it possible that this can introduce some naturally occuring bacteria/virus that can overwhelm a weak SPS? Just a theory...

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I am using D-D salt too.

My millies are still thriving and looking really great. Tough buggers!

[my2rotties]

I lost four colonies and a few frags myself. Nothing has changed with water quality. One of the colonies went in less then 45 minutes. My losses have been in the last four days. I did a 90g water change and will be changing the carbon in the reactor tonight.

At least I don't feel so bad about this now.

[christyf5]

This is the first spring that I HAVEN'T lost anything.

And now that I've said that.....well you know the inevitable :razz:

[fencer]

This is not happening in Edmonton

[KPG007]

I've been having a strange case of losing Zoas. Sps - all fine, LPS - All fine (not true, I had two new chalice frags wither and die, but they were new, so it may just be a coincidence), only Zoas. I have two tanks, and all the death has started on one half of one tank (the other half, all the Zoas are fine)! Strange thing is two Zoa frags have grown like crazy in that area. Moving failing pieces to the other tank has helped with some, but not others. I'm thinking a flow or algae issue.

[wickedfrags]

I lost my first acro in about 2 years this month, RTN'd over 2 days. One of the bottlebrush species......ironically the piece the the most hardy of the bunch of this species I have. Everything else looks great...

[marie]

This is the first spring that I HAVEN'T lost anything.

...

Me too.

Every year in dec I get an outbreak of cyano, every year I do massive water changes in an attempt to get rid of it and then more massive water changes because my corals are dying. This year I figured because the cyano appeared to arrive in cycles I wouldn't do anything about it and see if it would go away on its own (which it did, in the same time frame as when I was doing water changes yet :rolleyes: )
So far no coral losses and tank looks great and I have only done 1 10% water change since christmas

[Chin_Lee]

I've resorted to the "don't fix if its not broken" mentality. I don't try anything new anymore, don't buy any new meds/salt/additives. I've had my share of sps dying and now i'm just lps guy.

[Skimmerking]

I could never understand why people switch salts only to get crappy things that happen to thier tanks, this D&D, RBS, KENTs, RC, I have been using IO for 7 years and still all it good.
I truely feel the ALK is the biggest pest in the reef trade, your ALk goes down fast for some reason and then back up due to some Weird mishap with out you knowing it. May be its inbetween testing or a Water change. but sorts it self out again... when you test lord knows. I get upset when I loose a snail for gods sake

[fdiddy]

I'm losing my green acro as we type :(

[michika]

A week, or two ago, I lost a new colony, a mille, and half of a much older colony, a deep water pieces that I've had for almost a year.

I was using IO, which I loath with a passion, at the time of the RTN (mille) and STN (deep water). I ended up unplugging both my reactors, Ca and Kalk., and it stopped. I've tracked my parameters for years with an excel spreadsheet and every year around this time I have RTN/STN. The only consistent factor year after year is the water. Always run through RO/DI, however its always occured just after a warm spot.

[Ryan]

If all this happens in the spring could it be the extra chemicals or maybe they are uping the dosage of chemicals the water company puts in the water? Usually they do this in the spring because of the excess run off in the mountains coming down in the streams and rivers.

Just a thought here.

[Jeff_]

I am using tap water treated with prime, the only loss I've experienced is a complete meltdown of my xenia. Everything else seems to be happy and growing.

[Jason McK]

If all this happens in the spring could it be the extra chemicals or maybe they are uping the dosage of chemicals the water company puts in the water? Usually they do this in the spring because of the excess run off in the mountains coming down in the streams and rivers.

Just a thought here.


I have thought that as well. Wondering what can make it through the RO/DI

J

[Aquattro]

No losses for me, alk is in the toilet, haven't changed water in a month. Using RO with RBS salt. Top that off, I had to add 15g to the sump last night when I heard the pump sucking air.

[marie]

I wonder if we pay too much attention to our tanks in the months right after christmas, kind of a "kill them with kindness" sort of thing.

Maybe some neglect, like what happens in the summer months, is actually better for our tanks once they are established

[Ryan]

I know when I was even showering I could smell chlorine BAD when I showered. It was so bad that if you were in the shower for more than 15 minutes your eyes felt like you had been in a pool for 2 hours swimming with your eyes open. This was when i was living in Grande Prairie.

[christyf5]

I wonder if we pay too much attention to our tanks in the months right after christmas, kind of a "kill them with kindness" sort of thing.

Maybe some neglect, like what happens in the summer months, is actually better for our tanks once they are established

I sort of wonder about that, after all the hubbub of christmas we have some time on our hands and well, more time to tinker with the tank. This year I was taking a course and have had no time for tank stuff other than regular waterchanges. Sometimes even those got skipped. I'm finished with the course but now that I'm reading this, I have no plans to mess with the tank :wink:

[Myka]

I wonder if we pay too much attention to our tanks in the months right after christmas, kind of a "kill them with kindness" sort of thing.

Maybe some neglect, like what happens in the summer months, is actually better for our tanks once they are established

That's what I be thinkin, but the water at this time of year could definitely play a role. I also wonder what makes it by the RO/DI when the TDS meter reads 0.

I've never had an established coral up and die on me. If they make the first two weeks, they seem to be bullet proof. Even with SPS at the different times I have kept them. I've had corals brown out or bleach, but never die, and I've never linked it to any particular time of year.

[Drock169]

my pink chalice has started sluffing off some of its flesh but its been fine for a really long time, maybe the elegance below it is stinging it?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I transferred all the SPS I am keeping into my 34G Solana this afternoon and within an hour (and in some cases 10 minutes), almost all corals had great color and polyp extension again. These were not the ones that had started to STN (trashed those), only ones that were super pale with little polyp extension.

It's really kind of weird. I used about 60% tank water and 40% new water in the Solana, so obviously they liked the 'big' water change. Must be something in the 200's water that is irritating the corals and even killing them.

Although it's kind of too early to tell, I was really impressed with how quickly they looked better after the change in tanks. All I can think of is the water change which was 40%.

Stuff like my Carpet anemone were never effected by whatever is going wrong with my tank and looked great in the 200 and still looks nice and happy in the 34G. This kind of makes me think it's some water parameter that only SPS are sensitive too and only some SPS at that.

Many of the SPS that have made it through the deaths so far are frags from other people. In fact the colonies that seem 'bulletproof' and completely uneffected are the ones I have bought from Denis here on CanReef. The Tri color especially has looked better and better the past few weeks. Crayola as well. I have some millies from another member and some frags from Brad (Untamed) that also are looking great through all this. In both cases, these frags have been 'captive' for many years and I know for sure in Denis' case, he has had some of the colonies for 5 years+

Leads me to believe that they really are that much tougher and can handle whatever is causing the problems. Maybe they have experienced it in the past and survived?

Anything that I have bought in the past few months that was from a shop (usually recently shipped as I try to go shipment days) has long passed. They went first and obviously were much more sensitive to whatever is going on in my tank. Would make sense as they have not ever experienced much parameter swings.

This is all I can think of in my case. Especially because it's not just one species dying off. I have dipped and checked for AEFW again tonight on some colonies that were almost dead and with a magnifying glass, cannot find a single one. Some of the so called 'sensitive' corals I have are from members tanks and doing fine while some corals that are known to be tough which I bought from shops are dead. This isn't 100% the case for all SPS I had (still have some store bought colonies) but it's a majority trend for sure.

Luckily the nicest stuff I have in my tank is all stuff I get off here and doing well still!

[Madreefer]

This may sound that I'm way out to lunch. If this happens every spring it could have something to do with the air. Over the winter usually all of the windows and doors are shut. So of course they start to open up more come warmer weather. This should effect the Ph but is there something else that it can effect? I know I have more evaporation in the winter.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

This may sound that I'm way out to lunch. If this happens every spring it could have something to do with the air. Over the winter usually all of the windows and doors are shut. So of course they start to open up more come warmer weather. This should effect the Ph but is there something else that it can effect? I know I have more evaporation in the winter.

I thought of this too actually but for me I have my balcony door open all year round. In fact I don't remember ever closing it! Even when snowing. LOL.

My place has free gas, so in the winter the fireplace is always on.

[Delphinus]

Might as well chime in, a good half of my pieces are showing bleaching or tip burn. Parameters as far as I can tell are unchanged, this is a new development in the last 2 weeks or so. No idea what's changed. RO/DI water. Very frustrating.

[Borderjumper]

Mine are all ok.. but I havent done a water change in any of my tanks for weeks. Now you guys have me scared.. no water changes for a while longer/:wink: